There’s a fine line between giving feedback for improvements and leaving an employee feeling criticized and deflated. Few of us respond well to someone telling us what to do or how to fix ourselves. Yet when feedback is provided in the right way, individuals are motivated to learn and improve. To create excellent organizations providing others with feedback is necessary. Reshape your feedback conversations to focus on achieving a positive outcome.

Making intentional connections with employees is especially important when the employee is within the first 30 and 90 days. Research shows that up to 22% of turnover takes place within an employee’s first 45 days of employment. 30-day conversations reinforce that leaders are committed to retaining the new employee and provide leaders with a fresh perception of the organization. This week Dr. Pilcher dives into what a 30-day conversation is and then provides a real-life example with Studer [...]

Why is a commitment to excellence important as a leader and as an organization? Dr. Janet Pilcher interviews Harry S. Hertz Leadership Award recipient, Dr. JoAnn Sternke, to get her perspective on what it takes to pursue performance excellence. As a superintendent of Pewaukee School District, JoAnn led the organization to receive a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. In this episode, she reveals the key to seeing results and getting the entire group of leaders moving forward.

It’s difficult to become a great organization, and even more difficult to sustain that success. This week, Dr. Pilcher explores the 5 stages of defeat as identified in Jim Collin’s book ‘How the Mighty Fall’ and what you can do as a leader to get up before you fall too far.

How can organizations set themselves apart and provide their stakeholders with unmistakable value? It all starts with effective leadership and a culture focused on purpose. Dr. KK Owen joins Dr. Janet Pilcher to discuss how she helps organizations mold a culture around unmistakable value in real life.

Are you really listening to your employees? Many employees don’t think so, in fact, more than half of employees say their company fails to act on good ideas, and a third of employees feel their ideas are ignored. Why? Because leaders demand action without input, receive feedback and avoid making changes, and lack a clear process for managing ideas. It’s crucial for leaders to let employees speak and pay ridiculous attention to what they are saying so teams are motivated to collaborate [...]

One of a leader’s greatest responsibilities is to ensure teams are engaged and productive. People are motivated to increase productivity when leaders take time to get to know them personally, make them feel comfortable, and help remove barriers in the workplace. When we connect with employees in ways that are meaningful to them, they become more engaged, productivity and profits increase, meanwhile, turnover, absenteeism, and shrinkage decrease.

Thriving workplaces depend on trust to continue to grow and excel. However, most of us can recognize; trust isn’t given, its earned. Building positive relationships in the workplace lays the groundwork for trusting teams that can perform and adapt at high levels. When leaders start prioritizing trust in the workplace, their teams will follow.

Receiving feedback is an emotional experience, it’s often difficult to take in. Whether the feedback is positive or negative, we humans are quick to respond emotionally, sometimes overreacting, even to the point of denying the data is accurate. Feedback is also a powerful gift, it helps organizations understand what they are doing well, and areas in which they’re falling short. In this episode, Dr. Pilcher coaches us to work through useful feedback to honor the information that is helpful, [...]

Organizations perform at different levels, some are poor, others good, and very few are excellent. What makes an organization excellent? It’s their relentless commitment to continuous improvement. Great organizations are willing to get their hands dirty and face the brutal facts to improve, even when things are going well.

Is it really enough to provide good, or even, very good customer service? When your organization treats service recovery as just another refund, it misses a valuable growth opportunity. Excellent service recovery turns people with a poor experience into your biggest brand advocates. Listen now to hear the 4 steps to customer recovery.

Despite best efforts, sometimes we fail at providing the outstanding service our customers deserve. During these times, a service recovery process can turn a negative customer experience into an opportunity to satisfy the individual and for the organization to improve. Using a real-life example, Dr. Pilcher identifies six actions to sincere service recovery your customers will thank you for.

Why do leaders need to address toxic behavior immediately? Because negative behavior drags the entire organization down. 66% of employees who deal with a toxic team member said their performance declined in a recent HBR Study. In this episode, we reveal an approach you can use to support low-solid performers, the 8 types of toxic employees, and 4 steps to dealing with toxic employees.

It’s the leader’s responsibility to provide a structure within the organization to help people know when they’re not performing at their best. When the right system is in place, leaders can support their employees in owning their own performance. Sometimes that support may appear in the form of transitioning someone to a different role or out of the organization. In this episode, we address actions leaders can take to provide every opportunity for employees to be successful.

How do the varying human performance levels affect the overall organizational results? What happens when leaders avoid managing employee performance levels? We achieve higher performance with less variation when we tighten the performance curve. In this episode, Dr. Pilcher addresses how leaders have an important role in managing performance to keep results moving in a positive direction.

60 – 70% of individuals in our organizations are solid performers, making them the backbone of every organization. When we give them our best, they will give their best to us and our organizations. This week, Dr. Pilcher discusses how to connect with your solid performers. When you give solid performers feedback the right way, a relationship is built that will retain, motivate, and inspire your direct reports.

Are you a high performer? Do you want to retain your high performing team members? This week, Dr. Pilcher offers an approach for connecting with your high performers and Erica Callaway joins her as a guest to model what this connection should sound like. Meeting with high performers the right way, so they know they are valued, moves the organization to achieve results.

Low performers take up the majority of our time as leaders and cause their better performing coworkers stress. Today we address the types of low performing behaviors and what happens if we ignore them.

While we navigate through work and life, we may occasionally find ourselves in over our heads. The harder we try to fight, the deeper we fall. For leaders Dr. Pilcher recommends 4 ways to help your solid performers avoid the quicksand and an additional 3 ways to avoid stepping into the quicksand yourself.

Middle solid performers make up half of our organization and have a lot to offer. It’s important for leaders to give them direction and opportunities to grow. Today we focus on 5 actions you can take to best support middle performers.

When we speak of performance, we think of both an individual’s will and their skill. Do the members of our teams have the desire to do their best work and continue to get better? Today, we focus on the tremendous impact we can have on organizations when we have strong will or fire in our belly.

What are the 5 characteristics of high performers and why they are crucial to keep on your team? High performers do their best and their best makes a difference; they deserve for us to give our best to them. Learn how to identify your high performers, and how to retain them using the 3 techniques provided this week.

Dr. Pilcher explains what an emotional bank account is, and why it’s necessary to maintain a positive balance with your teams and coworkers in this week's episode. Master how you can provide feedback for improvement without damaging your relationships and find out 7 ways to nurture an emotional bank account with your team.

Through kindness we have a greater opportunity to achieve higher results. Individuals who combine their skills with kindness and drive can’t be stopped. Studies even show leaders who project warmth are more effective than leaders that lead with toughness. This week, Dr. Pilcher provides you with 8 quick actions you can do immediately to accelerate kindness. Practicing kindness is one small thing, that has really big results.

Can you recall a time when you’ve been frustrated with another department in your organization, and you were told nothing can be done to solve the problem? Are leaders fighting about who is supposed to be responsible for something and blaming others when things don’t get done? The best solutions come from the people doing the work day in and day out. This episode focuses on breaking down barriers to improve workplaces. Learn how can you utilize your people to improve processes and systems [...]

This week, Dr. Pilcher discusses the common job we all come to work to do each day: Execute Well. Do we take quick decisive, meaningful actions every day? Or do we find ourselves waiting for our next assignment, redoing our work, or missing deadlines? Executing well plays a critical role in moving organizations forward and exceeding results. Dr. Pilcher recommends four actions for executing well in this week’s show.

How can you avoid the trap of negative thinking? Overcoming obstacles is never easy, but when we don’t let shortcomings get (and keep) us down, we become more resilient. This week, Dr. Pilcher exposes how to eliminate this behavior from the workplace.

This week, Dr. Pilcher discusses being an owner versus a renter. Pride in our organizations occurs when we take ownership of our roles, cultivating a positive environment so strong, it is no longer susceptible to negativity.

‘It’s not me, it’s them!’ – We’ve all heard it before, the blame game. But seriously, if they could just get their work done, I wouldn’t have to bring it up right? This default communication has lasting negative effects on team performance and results. Dr. Pilcher advises how to eliminate we/they behavior in the organization, and your life, for good. The results can be dramatic, imagine a positive culture where people take ownership.

56% of American workers claim their boss is mildly or highly toxic. We all deserve to work for high performing leaders, but what can you do if this isn’t your experience at work? Do you grin and bear it? Quit? Confront the boss? To continue the discussion from episode 7 on poor work behavior, this week Dr. Pilcher addresses low performing leaders, from the employee’s perspective.

How do you handle leaders who say they’re on board, but act like they’re not? Leadership team alignment is vital for high performing organizations to be successful. This week, Dr. Pilcher discusses how to address leaders who choose to deviate from strategy. Leaders who exhibit negative behaviors are noticeable by all employees and as a result are actively eroding the company culture.

You’re probably familiar with the saying, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” but how is it that organizations cultivate a positive, inspired culture? And possibly more difficult, how can leaders turn a negative culture around? Dr. Pilcher explains the steps necessary to begin shifting the culture in the right direction. Our people determine our culture, it lives and evolves inside of us every day.

All of us are energized by something. It’s up to us to dig deeper within ourselves to stay connected to our passions as we live through new experiences. Dr. Pilcher returns to her tennis days from episode 4 Losing Our Way to show how she worked through her temporary loss of passion. She addresses the role leaders play to support team member’s passions.

Anyone can fall victim of losing their passion at some point or another. Results from Gallup’s State of the American Workforce reveal disengagement at work happens to over 50% of employees. Yet organizations with higher employee engagement perform at higher levels, so what can leaders do to keep teams engaged. Dr. Pilcher refers to her days as a tennis enthusiast to demonstrate the struggle to maintain passion and how to help each other from losing our way.

This episode is the final part of a three-part series. It introduces and gives a brief overview of Principles 7-9 of the Nine Principles®. These Principles are: 7) Align Behaviors with Goals and Values, 8) Communicate at All Levels, 9) Recognize and Reward Success.

This episode is part two of a three-part series. It introduces and gives a brief overview of Principles 4-6 of the Nine Principles®. Principles 4-6 are: 4) Create and Develop Leaders, 5) Focus on Employee Engagement, 6) Build Individual Accountability.

This episode in one in a three-part series. It introduces and gives a brief overview of the first three of the Nine Principles®. The first three principles are: 1) Commit to Excellence, 2) Measure the Important Things, 3) Build a Culture Around Service.