Employee Engagement

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For Those Who Are Working on Holidays, Here’s How to Thank Them

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As we head into the height of the holiday season, many of us are excited about taking a few days off work, spending time with our families, and enjoying fun activities and traditions. This is a good thing. We are so fortunate to get to have these meaningful experiences. But let’s take a moment to thank those who must work: physicians, nurses, healthcare staff, first responders, servers in restaurants, airline employees, military personnel, clergy members,…
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Do Your Employees Feel a Sense of Belonging?

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In my most recent work, I have been delving into that important sense of belonging. It is a critical human need. We know what it feels like when we have it and when we don’t. There is sadness when a person feels they do not belong, and magic when they do. The sooner a person feels they belong to a company or group, the more comfortable they become. The more comfortable they are, the more…
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Leaders Need Appreciation, Empathy, and Forgiveness (A Boss’s Day Message)

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We hear a lot about the need to show appreciation and empathy to employees. But with National Boss’s Day coming up on October 16, here is my message: Leaders need appreciation and empathy also. Even some forgiveness helps at times. (We focused on forgiveness as a cultural value last week. It’s important to remember that leaders need forgiveness too!) There was a time when I thought being a manager would be easy. When teaching, I…
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Feedback and Empowerment: How to Get Results

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I recently had the pleasure of spending time with a group of nurses who are in leadership positions at Mercy Health˗Springfield Regional Medical Center in Springfield, Ohio. My style is to ask the person in charge of such an event/meeting to poll the attendees and ask them what they want to leave with. This way it is the attendees’ agenda, not mine. The group provided several items. Two of the takeaways they wanted were “How…
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“This Is the Right Place for Me.” (Helping New Hires Feel This Way Quickly)

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Getting and keeping good people has always been one of the biggest challenges for business owners. Finding the right person to join the team has been especially tricky these past few years. The shortage of candidates and the growing competition for those staffing resources has created a sense of urgency. Business owners need to find the right person for the job, and it needs to happen quickly. The interview process may feel a lot like…
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The Mid-Year Review: A Powerful Retention Tool.

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It is hard to believe 2022 is half over already. Yet here we are in the middle of June. That means at Studer Family of Companies (SFOC), it is time for mid-year reviews. Many times, companies schedule annual performance reviews. They have one-on-one meetings, and they have department meetings. This column is about adding a mid-year conversation. Employees are hard to come by these days. We need to do everything possible to engage and retain…
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It’s Time to Bring Back Accountability. Here’s How.

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When can we start holding people accountable again? This is a question I frequently receive. It does not mean that there is no accountability. What it does mean is that due to staff shortages, leaders are tending to lower the bar on expectations and accountability. It makes sense. If there are not enough staff to provide service, the business may need to reduce hours. This can lead to not having enough revenue to keep the doors…
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When Engaging Employees, Everyone Is an N of 1

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I read lots of research. That means I regularly see formulas like N=500 or N=600 or N=1,000. The N stands for number, and the number afterward stands for how many people are included in the data. In essence, for research purposes, the larger the number the better in most cases. Statistics is very interesting to me. For instance, there is a certain number at which the results are considered reliable. The higher the N, the better the…
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Defiance, Compliance, Reliance: Moving People Through the Phases of Change

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This column is about how to lead change. I am starting with a story on traffic roundabouts. They are a great example of leading change due to people’s initial reaction to them. I live in Pensacola, Florida. I live close to 17th Street. It intersects with Main Street (Bayfront), which is a major thoroughfare for people going to and from Pensacola to Gulf Breeze and Pensacola Beach. When a new bridge was announced, the plans included…
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