The workforce is changing rapidly, with the number of millennial employees expected to surpass baby boomers (individuals in their late 50s and older) by 2019 and they will comprise nearly half of the total working population by 2020. Organizational leaders and HR professionals affirm knowing and understanding your employees is critical in order to have…
You work hard, try your best, and still, things don't work out as you hoped. You plan, prepare, think ahead — and yet, something unforeseen comes out of nowhere and creates another obstacle you have to overcome. Life, both at work and outside of work, is difficult (at times, at least.) What is discouragement, really? …
It's still possible to find fulfillment at work when your supervisor is a moron. Two common mantras in our culture today are: “I hate my job” and “My boss is a jerk.” While both statements may be true, hating your job because your boss is a jerk isn’t going to lead anywhere good. According to…
Change in the workplace is often inevitable. Change can be imposed by outside circumstances, like the marketplace, or be part of a larger institutional plan to create growth and improvement. Yet often the focus is more on how to transition systems and processes, with many organizations ignoring the 'people side' of transitions. Regardless of the…
“I just don’t get how they think. Why do they________? Can you help me understand______?” Or perhaps you’ve stated emphatically, “I’m still struggling to know how to manage Millennials and motivate them to do their best work.” As I work with organizations across the country, the issue of understanding, leading, and working with employees from…
Have you ever felt like you were in a rut or experiencing a particularly low point in your life? It’s times like these when we feel down, hopeless and stuck. This can run the spectrum of significance, such as being bored at work to grieving the death of a family member or friend, but the…
This time of year, many of us begin to focus on a return to school. Teachers, administrators, students of all ages and their parents are gearing up to begin another year - setting lesson plans, filling backpacks with necessary supplies, learning new names and faces. A community of educators may look quite different than many…
Celebration #1 -- 150,000 MBA Inventory Users We're celebrating passing a significant milestone (earlier this month) with over 150,000 employees, supervisors, and managers (and volunteers!) having taken the Motivating By Appreciation Inventory. To show that this hasn't been just steady plodding, consider the following facts: The first 50,000 MBA Inventory users occurred within ~ 5+ years (60 months). The next 50,000 MBAI…
When asked to compare the various Languages of Appreciation in importance to them, employees overwhelmingly don’t choose tangible rewards as the primary way they want to be shown appreciation. In fact, only 6% of employees identify tangible gifts as their primary language of appreciation. To look at the issue from the opposite perspective, employees choose…
John was struggling with how to handle a difficult situation with a key vendor for the company. He went to his supervisor, Stephanie, and asked her advice on what he should do. Rather than telling him what to do, or even giving direct input, Stephanie replied, “John, let me tell you a story . . . ” She went…
