Trick, Treat, or Train: 6 Resources for Scary Good Employee Engagement

Ding, dong, the witch is…hovering over your shoulder micromanaging your work!? This Halloween, instead of Trick or Treat, let’s Train. We’re highlighting two applications of training as an employee engagement solution, plus 6 links to related resources on The Point Blog.  Last week, Lorrie and I spoke about our Illuminate program at the University of Alabama’s HR Management Conference. Before the session, an attendee came up to chat with us about the HR horrors she’d been dealing with at her new company. Her scariest issue: employees’ fear of big, bad HR. She said she felt like the HR monster, scaring

Grown men in tank tops usually aren’t my jam, but… can they teach us something about leading?

Grown men in tank tops usually aren’t my jam. So when Pat McAfee made his appearance on Gameday this year to replace a former Georgia football player that looked really good in a suit (more my jam), I was like what the heck?  I watched him for a minute, determined he was there to sensationalize, pull in a different type of audience, and create some new dynamic I wasn’t into. I thought I’d lost a little bit of respect for the Saturday morning football institution, even if Corso is still there picking his favorite team, glorified mascot head and all. 

3 Lessons in Effective Training from Inmates

My family and I had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica this summer to serve with Voz de Liberta (Voice of Liberty).  They are “a non-profit NGO that is dedicated to sharing the message of hope to prisoners, former prisoners, their families and victims throughout the country by providing comprehensive assistance.”  It was amazing to see the work they are doing, in particular in the APAC (faith-based) prison they run.   Through my time there, I found that the prisoners taught me a thing or two about how to do training well:  The experience in Costa Rica flipped the way

SPECIAL FEATURE: July Leadership Development Carnival

We are thrilled to be hosting the July Leadership Development Carnival. We participate monthly and find it is always filled with great insight for leaders to read and share. Communication Psychological Safety: Pro Tips for Leaders As a leader, how intentional are you about creating psychological safety for your team? Check out these tips from the experts to help you build rapport and increase communication with your team. — Jennifer Miller (@JenniferVMiller) The Power of & Conflict itself is born from a perspective that we must make either-or decisions; that we can’t have more than one option; that two different

How to conduct an effective one-on-one meeting

I’ve been experimenting with the Ink and Volt One On One Pad to help me organize my thoughts.  I organize around these 4 four pillars:  I use our Insightly software to refresh my memory on what everyone has going on with the first two (the software calls these “Projects” and “Opportunities”) before the meeting. I record these things on the Ink and Volt pad.  I also take a look at each person’s task list in Insightly before the meeting.  Doing this always makes me keenly aware of how on top of it everyone on our team is.  They are always