How To WOO Gatekeepers

“You can lead a horse to the water, but you can’t make it drink.” The trick is to make it want to drink. Whether it’s employees, business partners or networking contacts  whose support you need – recognizing other people’s importance to you and your success, and treating them accordingly will pave your way to gaining [...]

How To Retain Talents When You Can’t Give Them A Raise

The only way to keep employees in a company by recognizing their needs and responding to them.

This is “Before-The-Fact-Recognition” and creates sustainable motivation that will last even through a financial crisis – as opposed to “After-The-Fact-Recognition” which consists mainly of rewards (for achievements) and only gives short boosts of motivation (as long as the rewards keep coming).

If you give people a chance to grow, to be involved, if you make them feel valuable by giving them a chance to make a difference (to the company, their colleagues, your clients, etc.), if you ask them for their opinion, so they feel respected and important and if you openly communicate your concerns and that you do recognize their needs – then you’re creating a relationship (a psychological and emotional bond) with your employees that they won’t break just because someone offers them more money.

How Was Your First Day, Honey?

Here’s a great Wall Street Journal article by Mike Michalowicz on involving the significant others of your employees into motivating those same employees… What would it do for your employees if they came home to partners every evening, who tell them, “Wow, you’re so lucky to work for that company!” What would it take for [...]

Use Wacky Appreciation Days To Create Fun At Work

You know that unexpected little surprises make people way happier than expected ones, right? And coming up with something unexpected on a regular basis is not easy, right again? Here’s a source of information that will give you a boost of creativity and ideas in creating more fun for your team at work. It’s a [...]

When Recognition backfires…

At my company, when a colleague does something great – secures a new account, exceeds a goal, etc. – everyone is called into the lobby. The person’s supervisor announces what she did and she has to dance in front of everyone. I’ve heard that public speaking is the most common fear, and public dancing has [...]

This Is the Simple Key To Employee Engagement

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. [Albert Einstein] Employer Engagement and Line Manager Engagement lead to Employee Engagement. It’s a perfect example for a 200% relationship, where each party always gives 100% to support the other party – regardless if the other party is able to reciprocate at the same [...]

If You Get The Company Culture Right, The Rest Will Happen Automatically…

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos on core values, hiring practices, onboarding, customer service, company culture and why every line manager is advised to spend 10-20% with their team outside the office… Always a pleasure to listen to his philosophies, attitude and wisdom.

Do your employees feel like they really are your greatest asset?

In a recent article in the Entrepreneur Magazine, Bill Bartman shares some wise words about investing time in your employees, walking your talk, being congruent and respecting your employees by taking them and their input seriously. Here are some excerpts: “When the highest-paid person spends time with the newest, lowest-level employees, it sends the message [...]

76 Tips on Employee Recognition

Here are a few ideas on unique ways to reward your employees. Whether you agree with them or not, this list might help you to think out of the box and see what possibilities are out there, to come up with ideas that fit your organization or team. These tips are taken from a list [...]

“People don’t quit a company; they quit a bad manager.”

Many people actually say cleaning the house is more enjoyable than sitting in the same room with their boss. These are excerpts from the spot-on article “How to Keep Your Workers Happy” on www.inc.com. Read the full article here.