Jeff McManus's Blog, page 9

Building a Culture of Respect

According to the Harvard Business Review employees who feel respected are more grateful for—and loyal to—their organizations. This idea is common sense, but a lot of work environments don’t seem to understand it well enough to nurture and grow a culture of respect within their teams.

How important is respect? Recently I sat down for a Leader to Leader (L2L) session with our landscape staff. L2L is when we come into the breakroom for 30-50 minutes to talk about personal growth, leadership, tea...

Growing Your Leaders Through Decision-Making Development

As a leader how you make decisions is important. Regardless of the size of an organization, decisions at every level can often alter the company’s direction and have lasting impacts on the employees and customers. How well each employee makes decisions affects their ability to lead – themselves and others. Leaders who prioritize developing decision-making skills not only inspire confidence but also foster a culture of trust and respect within their teams or organizations. For that reason, develo...

Decision-Making: Making or Breaking Your Leadership Credibility

Decision-making is essential for building and maintaining leadership credibility. In the scheme of things, not just any decision will do. As with most things, decision making is a process. A leader who prioritizes the decision-making process not only inspires confidence, but also fosters a culture of trust and respect within their organization. As a leader how you make decisions is important to your influence on the team.

First, as a leader, do you see and recognize problems? This requires sp...

Making Your Values Visible

In the realm of leadership, words are undoubtedly important at any level of the organization. They inspire, motivate, and guide teams towards their objectives. However, it’s not just what leaders say that matters—it’s what they do. Actions speak volumes, especially when they reflect the values they profess to uphold. Living your values will translate into your leadership style.

When leaders consistently align their actions with their stated values, they foster an environment of trust and auth...

Why Some Leaders Resist Growing Other Leaders

“The best leaders are also the best followers. They follow a purpose, cause, or belief bigger than themselves.” ~Simon Sinek

A few years ago, I was sitting with a group of employees focused on hiring a new grounds employee when one of the supervisors said, “I don’t need to hire any leaders, I need followers.”  Why did this leader say that? Can we get them to see the value in hiring and developing people who have great leadership potential?

No one graduates from Leadership Development becau...

Working Leadership

Do I need to be teaching leadership skills at work?

I was fortunate to learn a great deal about leadership, growing up playing sports, being involved in Scouts, and participating in school leadership roles. As I moved into my career many of those skills learned earlier in life became applicable and valuable as I grew in my leadership responsibilities. But there is always so much more to learn as a leader, leadership learning should never stop. Leadership is a work in progress.

In the dyna...

Putting the “Extra” in Leap Year

What will you do with this extra day, February 29, 2024? We get an extra February day every four years, infrequent enough for us to forget the possibilities that come with anything “extra.”  School and work calendars seem the same – we go in, and we come home. But a leap year is a perfect opportunity for us to reconnect with important aspects of our personal and professional life. Such as our ever-important customer.

“The higher you are in your organization, the harder it is to stay connected...

The Art of Fine Tuning

“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” ~John Maxwell

John Maxwell’s wisdom echoes loud and clear. In the symphony of life, our daily routines compose the recurring notes that shape our melody of existence. Sometimes, schedules and emergencies force us to stay with daily routines for too long and our melody might become boring, ineffective, or even unharmonious. At that point, we must remember, we are ...

Refill, please!

“Fill up your own cup because you can’t pour from an empty cup.”

As a leader my energy and attitude effects my organization. My team looks to me in many ways to set an example for how we do our work, take care of ourselves, and one another. When days are long and weeks are difficult, it’s harder to lead in a way that inspires and motivates. As a leader, just like with my physical body, my cup, my emotional, mental, and spiritual being works best when it is full and not running on empty.

If...

Passion

Passion: a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing
something.

Passion is the driving force behind remarkable achievements and fulfillment in the workplace.
As Steve Jobs wisely said, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” This
sentiment echoes the belief that passion is not merely a desirable trait; it is the secret sauce
that transforms routine tasks into extraordinary accomplishments. As Aristotle said, “Pleasure
in the job puts perfection in the ...