"Giving Gen Y Employees Corrective Feedback: What Can Video Games Teach You?"One of the biggest complaints I hear from managers about their Gen Y employees is how defensive they get when given corrective feedback.You can dramatically increase how receptive your Gen Y employees are to feedback if you borrow from the world of video games.In video games, feedback is an essential part of the game. It’s how you know you’re doing...

Gen Y Employees, Felons, and Constructive FeedbackDo you want your team members to welcome your constructive feedback—rather than defend against it or resent it?Do you want to help create an environment that inspires excellence and frowns on mediocrity?If so, you can benefit from two very diverse sources of excellence: 1) a non-profit organization that rehabs hardened criminals with a 90% success rate2) a college libraryIn...

The Tale of a Smart LeaderJust recently, while doing a program on recognizing and working with different personality styles for a management team, I heard a great example of self-awareness from the leader of the team. We'll call him Jack.Jack, a senior level manager, scored very high on the D, or Driver dimension for the DISC profile, which means he tends to communicate in a very direct, bottom line-oriented way. High D's a...

More specifically, if you want higher employee morale and greater employee engagement, think of Maslow's "other hierarchy."Awhile back, I heard Gary Hirschberg, CEO of Stonyfield Farm, refer to Maslow’s Hierarchy of…Grumbles. I laughed, thinking he had put an amusing spin on Dr. Maslow’s famous hierarchy. To my surprise, when I returned home and scanned The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, I discovered he actually wrote abo...

How good are you at giving “constructive feedback”? Is the feedback you give truly constructive?Whether giving someone feedback or expressing your opinion, do you do it in a way that communicates:A) “You’re a fool” or B) “Here’s my perspective.”I was just reminded of this while reading responses to a question posed in a speakers e-newsletter I received. One of the members asked fellow members for their perspective on an eth...

In these rather challenging times, you need ALL of your employees thinking and acting like winners, not throwing up their hands in defeat or metaphorically curling up in the fetal position.How you communicate with them plays a huge role in which kind of workforce you get.Just recently, I heard two examples that illustrated opposite approaches to communication by senior management. One approach virtually guaranteeing what ps...

First off...sorry for the BusinessSpeak cliche "empowerment", but it's the quickest way to get the point across... In searching through my notes for an upcoming seminar on how to boost morale and lower stress, I came across an article from Inside 1to1 - the marketing folks - that had a great reminder of what happens when you enable your employees to: Feel the thrill of victory, rather than the agony of defeat Here'...

Most of us could seriously improve our listening skills.Have you ever...1. talked with someone who kept vigorously nodding their head as you spoke, yet when they responded, it was clear they hadn’t been listening?2. had someone assure you they got what you were saying, yet when you asked them what they heard, what they fed back to you was not even remotely close to what you said?3. shared an idea or point of view in a meeti...

Becoming a “People Whisperer”:How to Communicate So People Care About—and Act On—What You SayWhether you are a CEO or an individual contributor, your success is largely determined by your ability to “move people”: to get them to both care about what you say, and then to act.In fact, research discussed in How Extraordinary Leaders Double Profits showed that the #1 competency separating leaders producing great profits and tho...

How do you keep your workers inspired, determined, and confident in the face of change, challenge and uncertainty?One of the things you do—especially if you’re a business owner or senior level leader—is to tell stories.Not just any story.You need to tell the kind of stories that leaders at great companies like Ritz Carlton, Southwest Airlines, Nordstrom, and FedEx tell. They tell stories about the great things their employe...