Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Business leaders who wonder whether they should conduct an employee survey should think about these five good reasons for conducting surveys, as recommended by John Kador and Katherine J. Armstrong in their book, Perfect Phrases for Writing Employee Surveys : 1. To discover what employees are thinking and doing – in a nonthreatening survey environment. You will learn what motivates employees and what is important to them. 2. To prioritize the organization’s actions based on objective results – rather than relying on subjective information or your best guesses. 3. To provide a benchmark – or a snapshot of your employees and their attitudes at a certain point of time that you can then compare to future surveys to spot trends. 4. To communicate the importance of key topics to employees – by communicating with employees the survey results that shows your organization is listening to employees. 5. To collect the combined brainpower and ideas of the workforce – that somet...

Here are five important questions you , as a manager and leader, should ask during employee performance reviews: What have I done to help - or hinder - your job performance? What can I do in the next review period to help you achieve/improve? What conditions here enable you - or make it hard - to do your best work? What do you want most from your job? How can I help you reach your career goals? I bet most employees have never heard most of these questions from their supervisors on a consistent basis . Thanks to Sharon Armstrong and Barbara Mitchell for these questions -- just some of their great advice from their book, The Essential HR Handbook .

Your employees have lots of ideas. So, be sure you provide the forums and mechanisms for your employees to share their ideas with you. Hold at least a few brainstorming sessions each year, as well. And, when you are brainstorming with your employees, try these five tips : Encourage ALL ideas. Don't evaluate or criticize ideas when they are first suggested. Ask for wild ideas. Often, the craziest ideas end up being the most useful. Shoot for quantity not quality during brainstorming. Encourage everyone to offer new combinations and improvements of old ideas.

Perhaps you saw the July 4th issue  Fortune magazine article about how digital companies are so big and growing so fast, that they are obliterating old brick-and-mortar businesses.  Fortune reported that: The U.S Postal Service is on track to lose $6 billion this year.  Cellphone text messages sent are up 1,200,243% from 2000. Netflix sales are up 43,101% from 1999 versus Blockbuster' s drop of 29% in sales during the same period. Amazon has almost single-handedly bankrupted Borders . iTunes debuted in 2003 and Tower Records closed in 2004 and Musicland folded in 2006.  FYE is shriveling. And the Wall Street Journal recently reported that sales of greeting cards have fallen 9% since 2005 amid the rise of social media and email. What is the digital company or the new technology that will force you to change your business model?  Or expand, or morph?  Or, worse...that will cause you to close your doors? As the leader in your business, are yo...

The next time you are looking for ideas for how to grow revenue, streamline processes and procedures and/or reduce expenses, dig deep within your organization . Don't ask only your direct reports for their suggestions. Instead, ask everyone at all levels . Some of the best ideas will come from your lower and mid-level employees who are interacting with your vendors, customers and co-workers every day in the very areas that, if improved, could make the most dramatic impact. Be sure to acknowledge receipt of each idea . Keep everyone informed of the types of ideas you've received . Perhaps update them on a monthly basis. When you implement a suggestion, recognize and reward the submitter , including possibly financially. Feel free to accept ideas anonymously. But, if employees know you are sincere about wanting their input, and witness you acting upon suggestions, most of your team members will be proud to tie their names to their ideas. Finally...

Open Leadership author Charlene Li reminds leaders to periodically ask themselves these "open leadership skills assessment" questions: Do I seek out and listen to different points of view? Do I make myself available to people at all levels of the organization? Do I actively manage how I am authentic? Do I encourage people to share information? Do I publicly admit when I am wrong? Do I update people regularly? Do I take the time to explain how decisions are being made? Thanks for these great questions, Charlene!

There are lots of lessons tied to those canary yellow squares, called Post-it Notes -- how ideas and innovations can come from anyone on your team at any time.  How they can be used by leaders to boost morale.  How test marketing is critical.  Enjoy the history of those yellow squares.

Here's a great idea from communications consultant, speaker and author David Grossman : And, yes it's old school. But, it works! Grossman recommends that when you have something you want to get your employees' input on, post a question on a flip chart in your department or office. Provide Post-it notes, and watch the ideas grow as employees post their ideas on the flip chart. This is an informal focus group of sorts, where employees can freely and without feeling pressure, share their ideas, see others' ideas, and then suggest even more ideas. You'll get great collaboration without a meeting!

I'm a big fan of the books authored by Leigh Branham.  He recently shared his findings from his latest book, " Re-Engage: How America's Best Places To Work Inspire Extra Effort In Extraordinary Times ." What he found after studying 10,000 employers is that the senior leaders at the best performing companies during these tough economic times are doing these three things to maximize engagement with their employees : Developing a clear and credible plan for, and path to, success Making sure the plan is clearly communicated from top to bottom Seeking and welcoming every idea for making the plan a reality and delivering more value (e.g. big and small improvements, new ideas and suggestions for innovation.) Without these actions and in the absence of communication from management, Branham says employees create their own information, which is often worse than the reality. The three things one should do may see like common sense and may appear easy to do, but it's...

Great ideas for your business can come at anytime from anyone on your team. So, as a leader, be sure you dig deep for ideas, and provide an easy way for all employees to make suggestions. Did you know that the idea for the microwave oven came to the inventor, Percy L. Spencer, when a chocolate bar melted in his shirt pocket as he stood in front of a magnetron, the microwave tube used to power radar? Carl Magee invented the parking meter when back in 1932 the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce asked Magee to solve problems caused by all-day parkers in the downtown business district. To jump-start your idea sharing program, encourage employees to: Tell you the obstacles they encounter Share what they are hearing from satisfied and unhappy (or lost) customers Explain what they think your business can do better than the competition

You'll be a more effective leader if you work hard to involve your employees. Here are 10 ways to do that: Have active ways to listen to your employees. Check often with employees to see if the information you are sharing with them is what they need and what they want. Share information about customer satisfaction with employees. Discuss financial performance with your employees and be sure everyone understands the importance of profitability and how they can contribute to profitability. Allow ad hoc teams among employees to form to address organizational problems and work with those teams to tackle the identified issues. Encourage employees to make suggestions for improvement whether those ideas are large or small. Take an idea from one employee and share it with other employees and teams and let everyone make a contribution to build upon that idea. Train! For long-term employees, find ways to keep their jobs interesting through new assignments and challenges. Cond...

Here are some good tips for leading a successful business operation from the handy booklet " 144 Ways To Walk The Talk " by Eric Harvey and Al Lucia: Involve your team in setting standards that are achievable but also require everyone to stretch their knowledge and skills. Remember that regardless of what you say, it is the performance you're willing to accept that becomes your true standard. Work as a team to stay abreast of technology advancements.  Have different employees read different trade and professional magazines and blogs.   Ask others to share key learning from workshops, webinars, seminars and conferences they attend.  Make it easy via meetings and or within an Intranet forum/Blog area to share what everyone is learning and hearing. Ask each member of your group to identify the three most significant obstacles to their performance.  Create a master list and develop strategies to eliminate them.  Then, reward employees for identif...

Research shows that unfortunately, many workplace meetings are not nearly as productive as they could be. To help ensure the meetings you host are productive, lead them by: * Observing nonverbal feedback and encouraging everyone to participate. * Summarizing group consensus after each point. * Reminding the group who is responsible for taking care of each follow-up action. * Encouraging team-building, networking and problem-solving among your meeting participants.

If you are a manager or leader, you likely know more than your employees or team members about many things within your business or organization. And, you often have many of the answers. But, you don't know it all. So, readily admit when you meet with your employees/team that you do not know all the answers. Invite others into conversations. Ask for their input. Value diversity of thought. Encourage inclusion. Welcome input.

The next time you are looking for ideas for how to grow revenue, streamline processes and procedures and/or reduce expenses, dig deep within your organization. Don't ask only your direct reports for their suggestions. Instead, ask everyone at all levels. Some of the best ideas will come from your lower and mid-level employees who are interacting with your vendors, customers and co-workers every day in the very areas that, if improved, could make the most dramatic impact. Be sure to acknowledge receipt of each idea. Keep everyone informed of the types of ideas you've received. Perhaps update them on a monthly basis. When you implement a suggestion, recognize and reward the submitter, including possibly financially. Feel free to accept ideas anonymously. But, if employees know you are sincere about wanting their input, and witness you acting upon suggestions, most of your team members will be proud to tie their names to their ideas. Finally, if there are some of the same suggest...