John Manning's Blog, page 8

Spring Is the Right Time to Tend to Your Workplace Culture

It’s spring. The world is waking up from its winter season. And it’s near impossible to not look around at the environment and really notice what’s going on in our world, including what’s thriving and beautiful, as well as what needs tending.

Right in line with that, it’s also a great time of year to shift your focus toward your workplace culture. It’s an ideal season for noticing what’s working, what’s not, and what activities canmake your organization’s environment a healthier, happier one.

On...

Build a Sticky Company Culture From the Start

As a leader, you likely know the positive impacts of company culture. Things like higher job satisfaction and retention rates, greater employee engagement, a real feeling of professional purpose, and increased performance and productivity levels.

Obviously, the benefits of a strong company culture for anyorganization are vast and need to be taken into serious and continuous consideration, yet many leaders are unsure of how to effectively launch their efforts. A haphazard approach to building com...

Lost Your Leadership Way? Here’s How to Find Your Path Back

There’s not a single leader out there in the world who hasn’t struggled at times. At some point or another, many CEOs and company managers find themselves questioning their path. Doubting their ability to lead others effectively. Or experiencing burn-out, maybe because they’ve lost their drive, feel overwhelmed by the unique struggles entrepreneurs commonly face, or have failed to maintain that vital work-life balance.

You may be one of those leaders. In fact, you may be that leader right now, a...

Three Steps to Finding Your Leadership Focus

At some point or another, all of us leaders have found ourselves struggling with focus around what’s vital in our work. Maybe we get sidetracked or overwhelmed by internal or external factors that directly impact our organization. Or maybe we struggle to set aside, manage or quiet distractions that affect us personally, pulling us away from our leadership job.

Whatever the case, it’s safe to say distractions cost us in terms of productivity and profitability. If you’re not productive, the fallou...

When Accountability Slips, Here’s the First Thing to Do

It can be really easy to point the finger at your direct reports and other team leaders when noticing a lack of accountability in the workplace. But before doing that, it’s important to ask the tough question: Could it have something to do with you?

If you’ve established an accountability system in the past but have let it slip or find you’re not getting results, it may be time to look inward and explore what you could be doing—or not doing—relative to building and sustaining accountability. Her...

Five Must-Do’s for Building—and Sustaining—Leadership Accountability

As a leader, you hear the “accountability” buzzword all the time. Although you probably have a good idea about what it means, accountability sometimes gets misconstrued. Leaders get confused or sidetracked with strategies they think uphold accountability, but those very things can actually have the opposite effect.

For example, “hardworking” bosses may constantly check in and check up on their team members’ productivity and performance…but to a degree that’s actually obsessive, disempowering tea...

Off-Course With Your Goals? Here’s How to Get – And Stay – On Track

Sometimes we find ourselves getting off course with our goals. Maybe it’s because our organization has hit some financial struggles. Or a change in leadership has rocked the boat and prior goals have gotten pushed to the side. Or perhaps the accountability aspect of our goal achievement has gone by the wayside—we thought we could manage and execute against our targets without someone or something to keep us focused, yet now we’re missing the mark.

It happens. But truly disciplined leaders get ba...

Hey Leaders!!! What’s Your Take on ‘If there’s a will, there’s a way?’

Where there’s a will there’s a way. When you hear that familiar saying, what thoughts pop up? In particular, what for you, as a leader, surfaces in terms of setting and succeeding with goals?

For a lot of us, when we recall that bit ‘o wisdom, we have flashbacks of our parents, grandparents, coaches or teachers responding with that saying whenever we told them about our dreams, wishes and wants.

But time and experience have taught us this: Goal achievement requires much more than just shear will...

The Real Truth Behind Why Your Team Might Be Suffering From Low Employee Engagement.

A lot of leaders know it’s vital for their teams to be and remain engaged. In fact, you may be one of them. You may really strive for a culture in which there’s amazingly positive employee engagement—an environment where people feel happy, and morale is both up and highly collaborative. A place where performance and productivity soar. Goals get hit. Great results happen.

Yet in spite of knowing how important employee engagement is, you might also be struggling with this aspect of your leadership...

Employee Disengagement. There’s No Quick Fix. But Fixing It? Totally Doable!

Pretty much every employer out there knows that employee engagement is vital to a successful organization. But studies show that lots of employers struggle with the issue.

Gallup’s most recent research from July 2021 shows that 36% of U.S. employees remain engaged, while disengaged and actively disengaged employees make up 50% and 14%, respectively.

Is it possible that your organization is suffering from employee disengagement right now? Are you struggling with this yourself, as their leader?

So...