Jeff McManus's Blog, page 13

Pushing and Pulling Employee Growth

Recently I was sitting in on a company leadership meeting when the topic of motivating employees came up. One leader said he struggled with determining how hard to push an employee to perform well. When he said this, I was reminded of all the many people I had heard say they admired a person in their life because they pushed them to be better.

Encouraging employees to grow beyond their personal expectations or even abilities to meet the organizational needs is accomplished by not just pushing...

Proactive Employee Onboarding

“You don’t build business, you build people, then people build business.”

~Zig Ziglar

Hiring new employees is an important and complicated process, but giving careful thought and planning into the onboarding process is like an investment that can produce impressive long-term gains. And finding the right way to engage and integrate a new employee has never been more important for any organization looking to maintain or grow their business. In today’s market smart organizational leaders have...

Visionary Leadership at Every Level

According to Leadership Challenge, there are four characteristics most admired in a leader: honesty, competency, inspiration, and having a forward-thinking (a visionary leader) mindset.

Forward-thinking, visionary leaders have a clear idea of where they are headed. They envision a better future and work toward it, rather than merely living with the current status quo. They are futuristic, innovative, and imaginative, see the big picture, work to make a positive impact, and often want to chang...

How to Identify Your Next Front-Line Employee

Sometimes it helps to take a minute and actually list the employee qualities you are looking for when hiring at your organization. Do you know what your organization is looking for? Do you need leaders, followers, outdoor workers, independent thinkers, problem solvers, strategic thinkers? Years ago, an employee, Louis R., helped show me what we needed at my organization. Louis was a self-taught irrigation specialist. He had “old school” values. He believed in working smarter, not harder and need...

Dealing with Adversity

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.”

 -Booker T. Washington

Adversity is defined as difficulties, misfortune, bad luck, hardship, or distress. Bosses, employees, contractors, suppliers, weather, circumstances, and customers can be a real source of adversity for any of us in leadership. When we are misunderstood, have our character questioned or our reputation slandered by our co-workers, it is painfu...

Lifting the Leadership Lid

Today, while working with our team in a Leader-to-Leader session, one of our seasoned leaders said, “I was creating my own leadership lid. I had intentionally set my ability to lead myself and others too low because I was afraid, I might fail. “

The leadership lid is that imaginary barrier we often put in the way of how we think and how we develop ourselves. The lid might be telling us that we don’t have the right education, the right experience, or know the right people. The imaginary leader...

Losing Control

If you are being asked to do more, take on more, it is because you are a problem solver, you get results and you are seen as someone who can adapt and overcome. In short, you are a leader in the eyes of your organization, and it feels good. But organizations change; it may happen when they are experiencing major growth and expansion, or top-level leadership switches out. When this happens, the pressure is on the leaders with a proven track record like yours. You will receive more responsibilitie...

Buddy to Boss, Stepping Up to Leadership

If you are not already a leader in your organization, you may have your eye on the job and all that goes with it. You want to wear a supervisor’s shirt, have the perks and extra pay that comes with it. You want the business card that says your name and the new leadership title. Maybe, deep down inside you want to be called “boss.”

Let’s talk about the other things that come with the title. You will have the opportunity to deal with making daily decisions, giving directions, answering question...

Lead by Example

“Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others, it is the only means.”

~Albert Einstein

One of the foundations of leadership in any industry is modeling the behaviors you want to see more of in your organization. If you are in the service industry like me, then you know how important this principle is to the people who serve on the front lines. Frontline team members are often critically important to customer service and satisfaction. Sometimes, they are the first impressi...

Double-Minded Leaders

Recently, I was talking with a business owner of a multi-million-dollar business. He has 150-200 employees at any given time. His frustration was with a few of his top inner circle leaders who wanted to be leaders in theory, but not in practice, leaving him wondering where their loyalties might lie. He said, “Some on my leadership team have a hard time drawing the line between having a working relationship with an employee and trying to be their friend. They don’t want to risk having the friend ...