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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Leadership

For the next (5) days, make a deliberate effort to pay more attention to this "under-performing" employee. Go out of your way to find the good in this person. Compliment him/her on his/her work, make helpful suggestions, include this employee in a project that you would normally exclude him/her from participation-you get the idea.

Make sure your actions are sincere, and watch for positive results.....too bad most of you won't take on this assignment. Oh well.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Leadership

Why not test the "Pygmalion Theory" for yourself? Pick a fellow employee that you "assume" does not have much unused potential. In other words, in your opinion, this person is doing about as much as he/she is capable of doing for your organization.

Now, in my next post I am going to give my readers an additional assignment-and most of you either won't even begin the assignment, much less complete it.....

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Leadership

Back to Rosenthal and Jacobson-does the self-fulfilling prophecy exist in the workplace? You know the answer-of course it does! As managers, we have all been guilty of the same thing-assuming a fellow employee does not have some terrific ideas that would help our company because of the following incorrect assumptions on our part- examples: 1) "She is just the receptionist; therefore, she is not very creative." 2) "He is a young guy and is new to the company; therefore, he won't have any bright ideas to make us more money." 3) "He is just a mechanic out in the plant-why ask him for his ideas about how to produce our product more efficiently?"

Give me a break-how "blind" are we?.....

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Haiti

I have been blogging about how leaders (teachers) can influence students behavior and performance in the classroom-this of course also applies in the workplace. And there is another type of leadership-Divine Leadership.

My wife and I are members of The United Methodist Church. Our local District is made up of 92 Churches. We gathered at a local high school yesterday to pack meals for the Haitian people. The goal was to pack 100,000 meals.

In about 5 hours, 3,000 people packed 210,000 meals!!! When Christians are inspired by Jesus Christ, our personal Lord and Savior, our accomplishments are awesome. They glorify Him. Talk about leadership!

Please consider giving money through a reputable charity to help the Haitian people. Thanks.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Leadership

Rosenthal and Jacobson discovered that a self-fulfilling prophesy was at work at this school. The teachers had subtly and unconsciously encouraged the performance that they expected to see from these "special" students. The teachers spent more time with them. In addition, they were more enthusiastic about teaching these students. They also unintentionally exhibited more warmth toward them. As a result , these "special" students felt smarter and more capable than their fellow students.

Does the self-fulfilling prophecy exist in the workplace?.....

Monday, January 11, 2010

Leadership

The students that Rosenthal and Jacobson randomly picked at the beginning of the school year turned out to be the same students that scored the highest on the tests that were actually scored at the end of the school year!

How could that be? What happened?

In your opinion, which of the following is the most effective way to recognize an employee for a significant accomplishment at work?