Whether you like it or not, the Christmas season really starts the second Halloween is over. I walked into Target a few minutes after it opened on November 1st (like at 8:01 a.m. because we were out of dog food and the dog was hungry) and it had been transformed into a Christmas shopping wonderland. Where has Thanksgiving gone? With Christmas marketing screaming at all of us to buy a lot of stuff most of which we don’t need, I’m beginning to think about how to make Christmas meaningful for my almost six and two and a half year old
“The competition to hire the best will increase in the years ahead. Companies that give extra flexibility (freedom) to their employees will have the edge in this area.” Bill Gates I can’t neglect (since I missed the window over the 4th) to make sure to make a point about freedom during our nation’s birthday month. And as by coincidence or actually, by what really makes a whole lot of sense, you can’t talk about what drives innovation without talking about freedom. America is a country that was built around the concept of freedom. Despite a presidential campaign grounded on “Making
My take on performance management is quite different than it was 10 years ago. I once worked for a company that basically rewarded all employees for their continued employment, and performance was not really taken into consideration when we all received a 5% raise. Regardless of how fabulous of a job I was doing or how not-so-fabulous my co-worker in the cubicle over was doing, we both received the same reward. This was not motivating me to be a better employee nor was it motivating for my mediocre colleague. Fast forward well over a decade. Not only has the world
How Simulated Work Environments Can Drive Performance in the Classroom, and Ultimately the Workplace
Continuing with our theme this month, we wanted to reflect on performance management in another arena – the classroom. After all, students are future employees and shouldn’t performance management in the classroom prepare them for performance management in their future careers? First, I want to share a thought from a local employer when asked about industry needs concerning current and potential programs that are developing the future workforce. The quote reads: “While there appears to be attention given to communication and employability (skills), these areas remain our greatest problem. We are looking for hard working individuals with a strong work
One of the best ways to improve and sustain great performance at work is to ask for feedback and to give it, freely, continuously and in the spirit of driving better performance. Here are some posts to help you out with this quest: 6 Steps for Maximizing Feedback Through Feedforward Drop Lots of FYIs to Communicate Effectively Goal Setting – Feedback 3 Steps for Driving Employee Engagement through Personalization