John Manning's Blog, page 5

No Brains About It: Leadership Development Is All in the Head.

Today we want to share with you some thoughts about something big that, as a leadership development firm that’s been coaching clients and organizations since 1960, we’ve found to be true.

Some of the very best leaders—not just the worst—often struggle with something that gets in the way of their ability to get consistent results. It’s really got nothing to do with what’s happening around them, but what’s within them, specifically their ability to develop and sustain a growth mindset.

Yo...

Dreaming of a Productive, Profitable Organization? Here’s What You Need to Do First.

As a business leader, do you dream big for your organization, your people, and yourself? And does that success—however you define it—feel forever out of reach due to inconsistent productivity and profitability?

If so, take a close look at your organization and assess its culture of engagement. Healthy cultures of engagement tend to be productive and profitable. And yet when these two indicators of success slump, many leaders look to external factors for clues around what’s happening and...

Three Keys to Turning Around Your Disengaged Workplace Culture

Employee engagement is always a hot topic for leaders, but even more so now with all the post-pandemic shifts. New challenges have surfaced in hiring and retention, as well as managing more and more remote and hybrid workers. People don’t want to be part of an organization if it doesn’t support a culture of positive employee engagement. And well intentioned, disciplined leaders don’t want to be part of such an organization either.

Why? It’s simple. Cultures that struggle with engagement...

Do You Have These Communication Fundamentals in Place?

We all know communication is vital to a productive, positive work culture. When communication works, people better connect, share information, and trust one another. Environments of trust sustain morale, are highly motivating, and help drive performance.

Do you have communication fundamentals in place? Below we’ve listed some best practices for productive, positive communication cultures—a few Dos and Don’ts for leaders, their teams and the organization at large. If followed, can delive...

Time to Pump Up Productivity? Start by Creating a Culture of Effective, Empowered Communication

We all know that communication is one of the lynchpins to a successful organization. When communication is working well up, down, inside and beyond your organization, everything has the potential to run more smoothly and successfully.

Research shows employees who operate among and use effective communication strategies, tools and systems are more productive. And this matters more than ever! In a world that’s increasingly supporting remote and hybrid work cultures, in which some of the c...

Personal Development on the Back Burner Right Now?

It’s not an overstatement or exaggeration to say organizations are currently overwhelmed. Our most recent, new clients are coming to us with a host of internal and external challenges taxing what’s vital to their productivity and performance.

While triaging the troubles, workplace culture has moved to the back burner… and, specifically, aspects of a healthy, empowered workplace culture aren’t always being mindfully maintained or addressed. Aspects like personal development — which, if g...

Job Market Pressure Is High. Why Personal Development Matters More Than Ever.

We all know there’s a lot of pressure in the job market right now. With that, there’s also a ton of buzz around what organizations are doing to both attract and retain employees.

One of the biggest trends centers on how they’re supporting employees holistically because happy employees tend to be more engaged. And engaged employees don’t just stick around, but outperform their non-engaged or actively disengaged counterparts.

Given that, there’s no question that personal development is vital to su...

Great Leaders Really Do Abound. Here’s the Lynch Pin to Their Success

There are many great leaders in our past. And great leaders exist today; they are in our midst, whether renown worldwide, within your community, or even within your very close circles and interactions, such as in your neighborhood or family.

Thinking about these individuals—and perhaps yourself—what’s at the heart of leadership greatness?

How much money they earn? Probably not.

The number of “friends” who follow them on social or look to them for ideas and guidance? Unlikely.

How many books they...

The Personal-Leadership Accountability Link

You can’t really talk about leadership accountability without talking about another kind of accountability. And that kind of accountability is personal, literally speaking, because what we’re talking about is personal accountability.

What is personal accountability, and how is it different from leadership accountability? On a high level, accountability itself is the proactive experience of taking responsibility for your actions. Leadership accountability includes everything you do to take respon...

Foolproof Your Business Against Failure with This One Skill

No one ever starts a business thinking it will end up stumbling along or struggling. But according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20 percent of organizations close within a year and 70 percent within a decade. These stats—and the underlying scenarios supporting the data—don’t happen by accident.

There are countless reasons organizations struggle. But no doubt about it, their struggles aren’t just some fluke. Almost every organization that has turned to MAP Consulting since 1...