Posts Tagged ‘feedback’
Bad Communication = Toxic Workplace Culture
If you’ve got “bad” communication going on in your organization, it’s not just going to blow over. In fact, communication is one of the keys to a consistently healthy culture. When you replace it with trademarks like harshness, one-sidedness, or even intimidation, the result is a toxic workplace culture. In that kind of environment, it’s…
Read MoreEmployee engagement ideas that work
Employee engagement matters. And according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace, only 15 percent of employees are engaged in the workplace. If someone is disinterested, lacking skills, or feeling bad about the work environment, how would you expect their performance to be? Of course, it will suffer. That’s why it’s critical that you find…
Read MoreSpread the love on Valentine’s Day — even to those you aren’t that fond of
Today, of course, is Valentine’s Day. It’s an occasion that encourages us to devote time to those closest to us — and to tell them that we care. Dogs and cats probably don’t have today on their social calendar. Nor do co-workers. We think of it as only a romantic celebration. But why not expand…
Read MoreYou don’t have to wear blaze orange to be noticed, but it helps
This past weekend we went for our normal hike. Mostly normal, anyhow. Grace was dressed in her blaze orange vest, a safety precaution that she wouldn’t be mistaken for a deer during hunting season here in New Hampshire. While Grace isn’t even close to the size of a deer, she does leap through the woods…
Read MorePestered into action
Have you ever been pestered enough that you do something that you wouldn’t ordinarily do? That just happened to me. For the last 30 minutes while trying to work, Grace has been whining and pawing at my chair. It’s almost an hour before her normal dinner time. And sometimes she does get antsy when it…
Read MoreDidn’t I already tell you that?
Does the following statement sound familiar: “I have specifically told him not to do that, but yet he still does it. It drives me crazy.” Or this one: “I know we’ve talked about that. And she said she understood. Yet just this morning, I witnessed her doing the same thing without making the changes…
Read MoreRacing to be the lead dog doesn’t always make you a winner
Grace loves the woods. On many Sunday mornings we go for a walk with a small group of people in search of mushrooms.She’s always in motion out there and I absolutely love to watch her graceful moves as she navigates around, over, and through a variety of natural obstacles in her way. On rare occasions…
Read MoreTalents worthy of recognition
It’s been said that the most effective form of motivation is recognition. It is all too often in our corporate world that employees feel underappreciated. Sometimes I hear from a manager, “Well, that’s their job. Do I have to say thank you for things that are expected out of them?” Grace is the perfect reminder.…
Read MoreNailed!
At a cookout this past weekend, a friend was telling me about an experience at her workplace. Her manager had brought her in to discuss some issues with the details of her work and she said it was hard to listen to it. It wasn’t because she didn’t want to know the information; she just…
Read MoreSometimes you really need to state the obvious—sometimes the obvious just isn’t that obvious Part 2
At last weekend’s “Show and Go” agility event, there were lots of obvious things going on as I described in Part 1. There were also things that weren’t so obvious to me. The whole point of this particular event is to expose the team (handler and dog) to a new environment. We were in a…
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