I recently read a book called The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly. The book is based on a fictional tale of the leadership of a janitorial services company reviving the organization. The secret to their success was engaging their employees by investing in the employee's personal dreams. The Dream Manager concept suggests that employees should [...]
I had the privilege of participating in the City of Cleveland's Appreciative Inquiry Summit held August 12-14. The Summit was titled Sustainable Cleveland 2019: Building an Economic Engine to Empower a Green City on a Blue Lake. This title might feel like a stretch, if you noticed that Cleveland was on Forbes Magazine's 2008 list [...]
Social networking tools like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook etc. are re-humanizing business. That was my biggest take-away from from the Ohio Growth Summit 2009 which had an entire track devoted to social media for business. I must admit I was surprised. Although I have been pretty active on LinkedIn for some time: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tomrausch I am only [...]
A new study by Leadership IQ reveals the glaring truth about the reduction-in-force aftermath. If you have recently experienced a reduction-in-force in your organization, three-fourths of your employees are likely experiencing a decline in productivity. Fewer people are doing the work and less work is being done by those who "survived" the reduction. The study [...]
A friend had been anticipating a pink slip for weeks. The employees of her company had been told it was coming, but of course no one knew who would be impacted. Over these weeks she experienced all of the common feelings - fear, sadness and anger. She began her contingency planning in-between her sessions of [...]
If you've recently experienced a reduction-in-force your organization you've probably noticed that no one is currently showing up for work. Sure the survivors are in their chairs, but everyone is doing more with less and they have less energy for their work than ever before. Employees are preoccupied with their own security and mourning the [...]
There is no doubt that the current economic environment may require unprecedented solutions for poor business performance. The national unemployment rate climbed to 8.1% in February, indicating that layoffs might be the "go to" solution for many companies experiencing declining business results, but this solution is far from unprecedented. Any seasoned business professional has likely [...]
In previous blogs we have reviewed Stephen M.R. Covey's first two "waves of trust" - self-trust and relationship trust - derived from his ripple effect metaphor of trust. The model which is introduced in Covey's book, The Speed of Trust, suggests that trust is interdependent and flows from the inside out. Covey's third wave of [...]
In my last blog I wrote about Stephen M.R. Covey's book The Speed of Trust, where he refers to five waves of trust. I wrote about the first wave, self-trust and I'd now like reveal the second wave - relationship trust. Covey introduces the concept of "trust accounts" - how we establish and maintain them. [...]
Stephen M.R. Covey's book, The Speed of Trust, is a must read for leaders. Let's face it, trust is at the heart of all solid relationships and the workplace is a series of relationships. The book breaks trust down to its essence. We often think of of trust stemming from one's character only, but Covey [...]
