If you’re interested in dramatically improving employee motivation and performance, then you’ll be interested in Daniel Pink’s latest book, “Drive – The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.”
Author Archives: James Brava
The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Posted in Employee Motivation Tagged Daniel Pink, Employee Motivation, Frontline Leadership Leave a comment
Can You Escape the Cult of Work?
In the modern western world the cult of work has become highly valued. Its most recent incarnation is the ‘always on’ culture. Being available via mobile and email, if not 24/7, then at least more hours each day than was acceptable a decade ago.
Of course it feels good to be busy, to submit to the siren call of activity. Yet there is no special virtue in hard work.
How to Motivate People
The great military and political leader of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, was quoted as saying, “A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of coloured ribbon.”
In more recent times, the Corporate Leadership Council identified that fair and accurate informal positive feedback from a knowledgeable source (such as a person’s immediate manager) is the single most effective performance management lever available.
Five Reasons to Feedforward
In last week’s post, “What’s the Difference between Feedback and Feedforward”, I noted that discussions that are mostly past focussed feel more like an interrogation that creates defensiveness. On the other hand, discussions that are mostly future focussed feel like a supportive coaching discussion that emphasises problem solving and creates opportunities. Consequently, in many situations you face day-to-day, feedforward makes much more sense than feedback.
Posted in Giving Feedback Tagged Feedback, Feedforward, Frontline Leadership, Frontline Management 1 Comment
What’s the Difference between Feedback and Feedforward?
We know what feedback is, even if we frequently don’t like receiving it. And we don’t like receiving it for good reason. Imagine a time in the past when you held a job in another organisation. The ‘phone rings and when you pick it up your boss is on the line. He says something like, “I want to see you in my office. Got some feedback for you.” What would you be expecting to hear about?
Back to the Future
The ability for senior leaders to promote a compelling vision, and for frontline leaders to consistently remind people how their work contributes to the mission, vision and values of the organisation, is critical. But it is only part of leadership.
Leading by Example
In last week’s post I discussed the importance of frontline managers in driving organisational performance. This week, let’s examine leading even when you have no management or leadership role.
Everyone’s a Leader
A recent article in the NZ Herald highlighted the work of Robin Sharma, author of the bestselling book The Monk who sold his Ferrari.
It turns out that Sharma is something of a leadership guru, in a personal development kind of way. For example, the marketing for his latest book, The Leader who had no Title, recommends that you ‘get ready for an amazing new life’ once you’ve read it.
Posted in Leadership Skills, Uncategorized Tagged Frontline Management, Leadership, Robin Sharma Leave a comment
How’s Your Vision?
Every organisation has a purpose. A story about who they are and what they seek to achieve. How this story is framed and communicated is a critical part of creating an engaged, motivated and productive workplace.
I Am The Way
Easter gave me the opportunity to think about the leadership of Jesus Christ. Christ consistently set an example for others to follow. In doing so he earned the right and respect to lead millions of people through the centuries since his death on the cross. I personally believe that when Christ said, “I am the Way” he meant that he was an example of what we all could do for ourselves.