The Geeky Way of Measuring Employee Happiness

Reading this New York Times Article on Google’s Quest to Build a Better Boss will make you go “…Hello??” in only a few seconds. In a quest to improve people management skills, Google had a team analyze countless performance reviews and feedback surveys, turn them into code and hard numbers over a period of several [...]

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.

The Answer Is Not 42

You know I get Steve Chandler’s daily messages straight in my inbox every day, and sometimes they are just too good to keep to myself. Here’s today’s message – sooo related to what we’re doing here. I co-wrote a book with Duane Black called The Hands-Off Manager.  Duane is an inspiration. He taught me to [...]

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.

Out Of Office Reply to make you laugh and think…

Sorry to have missed you, but I’m at the doctor’s having my brain and heart removed so I can be promoted to our management team. Funny, eh? And tragic… to think how many people will nod at this in agreement…

Cup-a-Soup & Recognition

What a wonderful way of putting the essence of recognition into a 30 second clip: Celebrating employees is great, but it’s not worth much if we don’t show any interest and remember the basics about them.

How To Deal With An Incompetent Manager

A reader of the B2B Social Media Digest recently asked the following question. How to deal with an incompetent manager I manage a decent team, but we can’t make things happen smoothly. My boss — the executive director — assigns irrelevant tasks to our team. We put in a lot of overtime because of his [...]