Jeff McManus's Blog, page 8

Communication is a Process

“The trouble with talking too fast is you may say something you haven’t thought of yet.”

~ Ann Landers

Communication…it’s vital for all organizations. And like most things, communication is a process. It starts with the sender who chooses to send a message. Words are chosen and we speak it, write it, or model it. The receiver then has to process the words to understand. Then, if we are lucky, the receiver responds/feeds back to the sender that they received the message and they understand ...

A Desire to Lead

“A weak leader likes to tell us how many people work for them. A great leader is humbled to tell us how many people they work for.” ~ Simon Sinek

What is the heart of leadership? Ask ten leaders and you will likely get ten different answers because every leader is different; no two teams will need the same level of leadership.

We find the heart of leadership in our core belief about how we lead others. For me, I try to put my focus on serving others. It puts me in a position to focus more ...

Changing a Negative Work Culture

“Either you will manage your culture, or it will manage you.”

~Roger Conner and Tom Smith, authors of Change the Culture Change the Game.

Toxic work culture seems to be running rampant in many work environments. This week I spoke at an association where several members told me about the challenges in their own work atmosphere: “It’s like walking on eggshells around here.”

If the work culture is toxic, it sounds like this:

“I only have 30 more years and I can retire.”

“I don’t get ...

Good Values Attract Good People

Coach John Wooden won 10 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championships in his coaching career at UCLA. He is credited with the Wooden Pyramid of Success, his philosophy for developing a dynasty while developing young talent. His first lesson in leadership is Good Values Attract Good People and through my personal experience, I know this to be very true. For me, these words are not just a chapter title from a good book – they are words to live by.

Leadership really does matter. The presence and...

Grinding for Greatness

“Before we too can move mountains, we must learn to walk the daily grind, one quiet step at a time. We must learn to serve before we can lead.”  Sebastien Richard

Matt worked hard to be a leader on his team. He listened to his boss, excelled in his work, and achieved great success by producing high-end results. Matt showed up to work on time, displayed a good team attitude by doing the work as needed to accomplish the boss’ objectives. Matt walked the daily grind well and excelled at achievin...

Going Through the Fire

Leadership is not for the faint of heart. It takes courage to lead. The challenges are real and during them we may falter in our ability to stay calm and carry on. When the heat is on where do you turn to be restored?

As a leader, when we are misunderstood, questioned or just running full speed it can leave us wounded and burned out. We feel the fire burning hot, especially when those around us may be questioning our ability to meet the heavy demands of the customers’ expectations. The doubts...

The Difference Can Make All the Difference

“I’m a success today because I had a friend who believed in me, and I didn’t have the heart to let him down.”

~ Abraham Lincoln

I had a professor, Dr. Ponder, who challenged me daily. Yes, he had exacting standards in the classroom, and he expected us all to know and execute what he taught. Dr. Ponder knew so much about his subject matter. He had worked in the industry as well as taught for many years. He was an industry-recognized authority. While Dr. Ponder was on faculty, every year, in...

Mentoring to Grow

Pat told me he may never become a supervisor on the team, rather he sees his biggest contribution to the team is as a mentor for the new hires. He said, “I see myself training my new boss one day.” Mentoring, or training/advising someone else, especially younger colleagues has a long tradition throughout human history. Pat may be right, for it is common for the mentee to eventually be the boss/leader of the colleagues who train them. Most people can tell you the name of one or more of their ment...

Growing Beyond You

“Always believe in yourself and always stretch yourself beyond your limits. Your life is worth a lot more than you think because you are capable of accomplishing more than you know. You have more potential than you think, but you will never know your full potential unless you keep challenging yourself and pushing beyond your own self-imposed limits.

~Roy T. Bennett.

My natural tendency is to get into a comfortable pattern and work it – comfortable being the key word here. We all like to kn...

Training for Success

It is sometimes difficult to invest in training an employee only to see them leave. In the last 5 years I have seen over 20 of our staff members leave our organization for better job opportunities. They were not let go; they chose to leave because they were offered a growth opportunity. Some were actively recruited by other supervisors in other departments inside our organization. One former employee said he would have never been able to get his new job if he had not gone through our training pr...