Climbing the Ladder…

While some great team members have no interest whatsoever in climbing the company ladder, far more will jump at the chance whether it’s the right move for them or not! In some cases, their technical expertise and tenure give them an edge over every other candidate being considered....

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Who Says It’s a Promotion?

One of the first people I remember meeting on an assembly line, when I finally made it to the shop floor after nine full days of orientation, was a fellow named Phil. He was the day shift lead on that line and had been for long enough to have earned a reputation that even a hard headed and strong...

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The Costs of a Poor Promotion

An article from Forbes.com called Promoting Wrong People Hurts Employee Retention and Productivity opens by stating “Managers are key to employee retention and productivity. But many companies don’t promote into management the people who would do the best job as managers.” ...

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Leaders Face This Every Day

Leaders face problems every day.  Some are mere challenges to overcome and be better for it.  Many times they are problems to be appreciated and solved.  As leaders, we know solving problems is a skill we need to continually hone and develop because there will always be a...

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Set the Expectation, Maintain Accountability, & Provide Support!

I’ll say it one last time as we close this look at capturing the profitability that’s killed when no one is held accountable: accountability isn’t all about cracking the ole whip! In fact, the most effective leaders I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with or even...

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We Don’t Have to Pick a Fight…

Strangely enough, my emphasis on addressing specific behaviors that are in direct conflict with expected performance standards often seem to be interpreted as insistence on throwing the proverbial baby out with that bathwater… Many supervisors, managers, or even casual readers of some of...

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The Art of Leadership Learning

The best leaders I (Cindy) know have learned the Art of Leadership as much or more than the Science of Leadership. 

The Art of Leadership Learning is the intuitive piece of gaining the right skills to lead effectively.  It’s not the Science of Leadership, although that is...

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How to Improve Accountability & Capture Lost Profit

Whether we can tie it directly to a profit & loss statement or not, the costs any organization incurs when no one is held accountable are significant. Quite honestly, those costs can be so high and can spread across so many areas of a business that it’s almost impossible to imagine...

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Baby Bear’s Bed Was Just RIght!

Do you remember the story about Goldilocks and the Three Bears? I can’t exactly recall how she got into their house, or even why she was in the area to begin with, but I do remember that she was tired and needed a nap. In trying each bed in the place, she found that Papa Bear’s was...

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A Very Slippery Slope…

Not so long ago in our Leading At The Next Level program, I put together a lesson called Don’t Confuse Quiet Quitting with a Lack of Leadership. Not only did I emphasize that the idea of “quiet quitting” was far from being something new, I did my best to step on as many toes as...

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Recognizing the Need for More Accountability

If we really want to avoid the costs that pile up when no one is held accountable and capture the profitability that’s so often killed as a result, the first step is realizing there’s even a problem… Before you tune me out here, I’m not inviting you to an AA meeting! When...

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We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know…

In seeing how much profitability we can miss out on when we lose credibility and our team becomes less loyal, and those certainly aren’t the only issues we’ll see if we aren’t holding our team members accountable, one may ask why a leader would even consider allowing this to go...

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