I’m reading the book The Power of Respect by Deborah Norville. She cites a very interesting study from the journal Motivation and Emotion. In this study, a group of researchers from Reed College in Oregon studied whether one form of praise was more effective than another. The researchers used two different types of praise: “mastery”,…
Supervisory Skills
When Performance Review Meets the Customer Experience
I just returned from the grocery store, one that I frequent nearly every week. This is what I overhead as my groceries were being rung up and bagged today: Supervisor (to cashier): “When you’re done ringing her up, meet me upstairs for your evaluation.” Cashier: “OK.” Supervisor walks away. Cashier (to bagger): “Oh, man. ….
The Anatomy of a Comment
Yesterday I posted my reaction to the various “comments” that a local art competition is receiving in our community. These comments are appearing in several places: the art competition’s website, the online version of the local newspaper and various other local blogs. Reading these comments caused me to reflect on the nature of discourse on…
The TMI of Leadership
The other day, I was having a discussion with a training manager named Sally. Her staff designs training for her company’s field sales force. Sally works for a large organization that has a reputation for promoting from within. Here’s what we were discussing: Leaders higher up in her organization have noticed that when the sales people…
The Sweet Spot for Mentoring
Note: this blog post is a collaborative effort between Jennifer V. Miller and Lisa Rosendahl. We’ve each taken a different perspective on the topic of mentoring. Lisa’s post explores what attributes Human Resource/Talent Managers look for in potential mentors. This blog post explores mentor readiness from a personal perspective, asking: “How do you know you’re ready…