Listen here … subscribe on Spotify, Amazon or Apple … or watch below the text. Once a week for three years straight! Mike and Mark share the episodes that most resonated with them and with our listeners. Mike’s picks: Episode 30: Ship it. Just Ship It! Quit listening to the resistance. The resistance is that voice in the back of …
Want innovation? Cultivate humility.
Do you want employees who buy in to being proactive, constantly improving, adding value? If so, you’ll need to foster a culture of humility. Take it from Japanese factories–and medieval monks. Humility is the secret weapon of innovation. The reasons are both spiritual and practical. Let’s start with the Japanese. Specifically: Toyota. “The workplace is a teacher.” I saw a …
Questions: Not just for coaching (Or: You got to stop saying ”You got to …”)
Do you have a vision or expectation you need your people to embrace? You can tell them … you can push … or you can ask questions that allow them to “trip over the truth.” Questions? Comments? Ideas for future episodes? Email Mike and Mark. Listen here … subscribe on Spotify, Amazon or Apple … or watch below. #coaching #leadership #management …
We can tell at a glance how well you are doing as a leader
Do your employees show commitment? … Or just compliance? Come for the important leadership topic, stay for the juicy automaker stories. Questions? Comments? Ideas for future episodes? Email Mike and Mark. Listen here … subscribe on Spotify, Amazon or Apple … or watch below. #workplace #management #leadership #employeeengagement
The dichotomy of culture vs. innovation: Why not both?
From the mail bag: A listener asks an extremely important question for any organization that plans on a long-term future. Which is more important to an organization, culture or innovation? Mike and Mark find answers in a Toyota factory and a bunch of monkeys. Questions? Comments? Ideas for future episodes? Email Mike and Mark. Listen here … subscribe on Spotify, …
If you keep quiet, they’ll quit quietly
Increased tardiness and sick days. Inability to collaborate or embrace a change. Doing the bare minimum or saying, “That’s not my job.” Meetings that constantly become complaint sessions. Increased turnover and decreased productivity. Surveys continue to show that only a small percentage of the workforce is actually engaged in their work. There is a simple-to-explain, hard-to-master skill that addresses the …
Should leaders apologize?
Perhaps you think this is a rhetorical question. Ask yourself: When was the last time I apologized to a direct report? I heard from an eyewitness of an event where a car dealer summoned every employee to the service lane. He then closed the doors and preceded to bless them out with, shall we say, harsh words. “Any questions?” he …
A litmus test for your employee retention
My outstanding design and marketing firm shared this article about employee-generated content. It is a pretty clear litmus test of how engaged and retained your employees are, isn’t it? They don’t have to create material they can use to promote your business. Researchers call it “discretionary effort.” We see it often with customers: They have to give you money for …
The humility it takes to be a leader
The New York Times has a daily email briefing called The Morning that is pretty darn good. I don’t always agree with the editorializing, but it explains the reasoning behind why certain stories are in the news or on the Times’s radar. Here is one story I suspect we will all agree on: “The power of humility.” Using the N.F.L. …
Podcast 106: So you have to go to a mandatory workshop … (Mike and Mark: live!)
Have you ever been strongly suggested to attend a presentation or workshop? Perhaps even “voluntold?” This episode is to help you make the most of it. And for the first time ever, Mike and Mark facilitated some workshops together. So for the first time ever, they recorded an episode sitting in the same room. Let the dumpster fire ensue. We …