Management Archives

How to Motivate Your Team to Do Their Best

Do you feel like your team is disconnected from the goals of your organization? How can you bridge that disconnect and get your team excited about your vision? Many companies suffer a disconnect between the grand vision of the organization and the motivations of its individual team members. As a result, employees lack the motivation to consistently meet and exceed expectations. To bridge this disconnect, create and celebrate meaningful milestones that matter to your team members on a personal level. Here is how to motivate your team to do their best.

Responsiveness: The Key to Strong Client Relationships

Why are client relationships important for a business’s success? What’s the key to building strong, trusting client relationships? Good client relationships are crucial for every service business’ success. Giving your clients canned responses creates an unsatisfying and impersonal experience. If you want to deepen relationships with your clients, treat them with responsiveness. Here is why responsiveness is the key to building strong client relationships.

Giving Recognition: An Underrated Practice

Why is giving recognition for excellent work important? What’s the best way to show someone their effort has been noticed and appreciated? There’s a common misconception that people who work hard are likely to feel proud of their work. But it’s not so simple: Pride doesn’t come from hard work alone—it comes from the results of your hard work being noticed. In their book The Power of Moments, Chip and Dan Heath suggest two ways of giving recognition: 1) give frequent, personal recognition, and 2) make progress visible. We’ll explore both of these methods below.

The 3 Most Important Skills for Life to Acquire

What are the three most important skills to acquire if you aim to start your own business? How does Hollis’s advice match up to the advice from other experts in the field? In her book Girl, Stop Apologizing, Rachel Hollis says that some of the most important skills you should practice are persistence, positivity, and leadership. Those three skills will help you develop your goals, stick with them even when times get tough, and lead your team when it starts to grow. Continue reading to learn more about the three skills.

John Kotter: A Sense of Urgency Drives Change

What is step 1 in John Kotter’s 8-step model? Why is it important do develop a sense of urgency when initiating change in a company? In his book Leading Change, John Kotter says a sense of urgency is a crucial first step to change because nothing will change if your employees don’t feel it is necessary. Complacency is the first hurdle you must get over if you want to initiate change. Here is John Kotter’s step 1 in his 8-step model for change.

Leading Change Step 2: Form a Guiding Coalition

What does John Kotter mean by “guiding coalition”? Why should you avoid forming a change committee to lead organizational change? Step 2 in John Kotter’s 8-step change model says to create a guiding coalition. This means that you must create a group of impactful change leaders rather than relying on a single person to lead the change. This will convince the rest of your employees to follow the changes. Continue below for more on step 2 of Kotter’s change model.

How to Create an Inspiring Leadership Vision Statement

What is a leadership vision statement? Why is making a vision statement an important step in leading change in your company? In John Kotter’s book Leading Change, he stresses the importance of creating a vision statement when leading change. This is important because it allows you to articulate the ultimate vision of the change and connects all your employees towards a singular purpose. Continue below to learn how to create a vision statement.

John Kotter’s Step 5: Remove Obstacles to Change

What are the most common obstacles to change in an organization? How can you overcome those obstacles? Whenever you try to make big changes, especially in an organization, roadblocks are inevitable. The biggest roadblock is usually the resistance to change among the junior and middle managers. Learn how to overcome these obstacles below.

John Kotter: Drive Progress With Short-Term Wins

5 Steps to Practicing Empathy in the Workplace

Why is it important to celebrate short-term wins when leading change in an organization? How does reaching short-term benchmarks help employee morale? In his book Leading Change, John Kotter says that short-term wins are important because they allow employees to feel accomplished and give them something to celebrate—even if the project is far from being over. If you only set long-term goals, employees may become discouraged. Here is John Kotter’s advice for generating short-term wins.

John Kotter: Sustain Acceleration to Cement Change

What does Kotter mean by “sustain acceleration”? Why don’t changes tend to sustain themselves? Step 7 of John Kotter’s 8-step change model is to sustain acceleration. Kotter says that you must continue to build upon your changes, otherwise, employees will fall into their old ways of doing things. In his book Leading Change, Kotter provides some actionables and tips on how to do this. Continue below for an explanation of step 7 of the change model.