Question for Discussion: Is recognizing small wins the best way to motivate a workplace team?Recognizing small wins is the best way to motivate your team. People like to know where they stand to be fully engaged.In-the-moment positive feedback based on progress helps motivate employees. Regular feedback with at least a 3:1 ratio of positive to negative comments gets people connected emotionally to achieving your company’s m...

Question for Discussion: How important is focusing on small wins in motivating employees?The topic of controlling bosses and perceived negativity comes up quite often in my executive coaching sessions. My clients want to have more input into decision-making and how work is done to stay engaged. It’s human nature that most people seek positive feedback on their progress to perform at their best. I often suggest to my coachi...

Question for Discussion – How important is managing for progress?The topics of performance evaluations and feedback come up quite often in my executive coaching sessions. It’s human nature that people want to know where they stand. I often suggest to my coaching clients that in-the-moment feedback based on progress helps motivate people. It can also help avoid those tense performance evaluation meetings where people can be...

One of my executive coaching clients, the Managing Partner of a Bay Area Law Firm and I were recently engaged in a conversation about assessing his firm’s talent. She talked about how one of the manager’s in the San Francisco location didn’t feel that one of her employees had the capability of developing into a leadership role at the firm.The manager displaying poor emotional intelligence communicated his assessment to th...

An argument can be made that the different generations represented in the workplace view work in four ways that can create conflict that must be managed to ensure full engagement. Learning how to work, live and play together is crucial, and every manager must master ways to bridge generational gaps. Managerial survival calls for a coordinated, collaborative strategy to leverage each generation’s strengths and neutralize i...

My trusty old Toyota Camry overheated the other day. I had the car towed to my mechanic and called Enterprise Car Rental to pick me up. The driver of the pick-up van was pretty friendly so we started to talk. He’s 71 years old and a retired mortician. He works full time for Enterprise. I asked him what it was like working with mostly twenty year olds. He wisely told me that everyone got along pretty well probably due to c...

I was recently meeting with one of the senior leadership team members of one of my San Francisco Bay Area clients. She was struggling to deal with the conflict between supervisors who had been on the job for a number of years and new and younger employees. The younger employees wanted coaching and more formal mentoring from their supervisors. The supervisors were very frustrated with the performance review process with new...

I was recently thinking about getting the new iPhone for my fifteen year old son. I still don't have a smart phone, and thought maybe it was time to get one for myself too and use some of the apps. My son quipped "why dad...you don't even know how to use all of the functions on the tv remote"!I’m the oldest of the Baby Boomers and my son is a Gen M or the Media Generation. He’s already started his own online advertising an...

I was recently working with one of my San Francisco Bay Area executive coaching clients – the CEO of a boutique hotel and restaurant company. We had an enlightening coaching conversation about how he has handled failure and learned from his mistakes. We talked about how he was able to bounce back from failure by viewing business as a learning laboratory.My executive coaching client and I further discussed how resilient lead...

I was recently working with one of my San Francisco Bay Area executive coaching clients – the CEO of a boutique hotel and restaurant company. We had a deep and reflective coaching conversation about how his company bounced back from two recessions. We talked about how he was able to work through his personal distress and low mood.My executive coaching client and I further discussed how a leader’s emotions are contagious. I...