2 Keys to Being a Successful Leader Instead of a Doer

A production line worker is promoted to line supervisor, yet he is still running the line like the rest of his team. A department Vice President is still solving day-to-day issues and is drowning in a to-do list that has nothing to do with leading the people in her department. At every level of the leadership hierarchy, I see it often.  Leaders not leading.  Yes, they are busy doing, but they devote little to no time leading people.   And if they just led more, it would actually shorten their to-do list! They were stars at their functional roles, so what

Does Your Team Talk in Metaphors?

One of my favorite things to do for companies is to help them understand what distinguishes high performers from average and/or low performers in their organization. The purpose of this could be for a variety of reasons, but oftentimes, it is to help companies create a profile and tools to select the right talent. We ask the clients to provide us with the opportunity to talk to high, mid and low performers.  We ask them a series of job analysis questions and watch them work for a bit.  While we watch them work, we ask them questions about what they

Tua’s Performance Shows You What You Need to Consider When Assessing Leadership Skill

It was the debate across college football leading up to opening weekend.  Or least in my house it was. Who would start at quarterback for the Alabama Crimson Tide?  Tua or Jalen? Jalen led the Tide to one national championship and touts a 26-2 record as a starter.  Tua came in and saved the day to help the tide defeat Clemson in the national championship last year when it seemed as though Jalen just couldn’t get it done. They are obviously both exceptional players and leaders, but what would make the difference in Saban’s decision making on who would start

4 Advantages to Hiring Workers Over 50

In writing about how to increase your candidate pool,  multiple LinkedIn comments cropped up related to hiring workers over 50.   For example, one comment read: “Don’t practice age discrimination or you could miss out on some rock steady workers. Those who give thumbs down to the over 50 crowd really do miss out on some great employees.” Through these comments, it was obvious I should have added a 5th way to increase your candidate pool in the article:  Include Older Workers. Also through these comments, there were reasons included as to why hiring workers over 50 is a good idea.

Forget the 401K Plan, Does Benefit Package Address Getting Rid of Debt?

“According to Make Lemonade, there are more than 44 million borrowers who collectively owe $1.5 trillion in student loan debt in the U.S. alone. The average student in the Class of 2016 has $37,172 in student loan debt,” sites a June 2018 Forbes article. Furthermore, check out the consumer debt picture (this is separate from student loan debt) in America from Business Insider: The debt issue is a problem on so many levels, but for employers, it is impacting thoughts and decisions about what a desirable benefits package looks like in order to recruit and retain employees. Is the savings piece of your benefits