Posts by Mark Weaver

There is a WHOLE lot more to employee satisfaction and retention than money.  Bosses who think they can solve employee satisfaction, motivation, or engagement by throwing money at it are wrong, in a costly way.  And yet, many people can be motivated by it.  When asked in surveys, about 95% of employees say they like…

Unless you’re just a one-person operation, ya gotta have employees.  That can be scary.  After all, you’re trusting your vision, your resources, your reputation, your customers, and your future to people who may or may not do as you would.  The right hire can make your vision come true; the wrong one can turn it…

It can be tough being a boss.  Most people don’t really like confrontation, particularly when it’s with someone they may have to work with day in and day out.  Many make the mistake of thinking that if they just keep overlooking a performance deficiency or a behavior that is incongruent with company values, that the…

How did your team do?  Being that it’s February 2, 2015, that may sound like a post-Super Bowl question.  Watching athletic teams is a great way to see how an effective team works.  Or how an ineffective one doesn’t.  But I’m really after how your team – your work team – has done. It takes some…

We’ve all seen the signs.  We know when an employee isn’t performing, or is behaving in a way that is toxic to the work environment.  When you see the potential of it going down the path to termination, there are some steps you can take to make it less hazardous to all involved:   There are…

Most employers know that they should address employee performance and behavior problems.  Few do.  Many save up discussions about problems until some annual review and then dump it on employees who thought everything was fine.  Many save up frustrations with performance until they just can’t tolerate it anymore, and then find some convenient way of…

Did you know that about $1 billion is spent on employee engagement initiatives annually in the U.S?  Did you know that there isn’t a lot of proof that it’s helping the bottom line?  Did you know that there isn’t a lot of proof that it’s helping employee engagement? Half a century ago, Psychologist Frederick Herzberg came…

If you’re one to regularly work out in a health club or gym, this is the time of year you hate to go work out the most.  That’s because all kinds of people who aren’t normally there are trying to figure out how to use equipment they don’t routinely use, slowing down your workout.  And…

New Year’s Resolutions for Leaders This is also a great time of year to look ahead.  The human thing to do around the turn of the year is to come up with those New Year’s Resolutions.  Here are some resolutions related to leadership, that you could consider making yours: 1.  Part ways with that bad…

Working for Quality Guru and best-selling author Philip Crosby early in my career, I learned that there was a difference between Quality Control and Quality Management.  Quality Control is often after-the-fact measurement to determine if a product was within “Acceptable Quality Levels.”  That was what Phil called “Conventional Wisdom.” There’s nothing wrong with Quality Control…