Monday Mornings with Madison

Monthly Archives:
March 2019

Want To Make a Business Blossom? Encourage Laughter!

Captains of industry are always looking for ways to help staff relieve stress, combat boredom, boost engagement, increase well-being, collaborate more, be creative, amp up analytical precision, and raise productivity. Sounds challenging. But what if the best way to accomplish all that is actually simple… just encourage employees to laugh, smile and have fun! There is ample evidence that a serious, highly-focused, intense workplace is exactly the wrong atmosphere to generate big ideas and even bigger results. So how does a leader get people to lighten up at work yet still deliver results? Continue reading

Comments Off on Want To Make a Business Blossom? Encourage Laughter!

Controlling your First and Last Hour of the Day to Amp Up Productivity

Time is precious… the only finite resource. And you are now considering spending seven minutes of that precious commodity reading this. You should because every minute of time is not spent equally well. Some investments of time generate a better return than others. Seven minutes now might save you hundreds or thousands of minutes down the road. Unless you already manage your time with the perfectly-calibrated precision of a Swiss clock and the efficiency of a U.S. Marine Drill Sergeant, reading this might be the best time investment you make all year. Continue reading

Comments Off on Controlling your First and Last Hour of the Day to Amp Up Productivity

How to Increase Work Excellence, Part 2

It turns out the best managers – those who consistently extract the work excellence from direct reports — are those who are the best teachers. And, the best teachers are not those who are busy directing, giving feedback and correcting work… nor those pushing people to “get out of their comfort zone” or focus on improving the things they do badly. Nope. The best teachers quietly watch… waiting to spot and praise excellent work and then leverage those instances into teachable moments and improvement opportunities. That is how the best managers get excellence from every employee leaving competitors in the dust! Want to try it? Continue reading

Comments Off on How to Increase Work Excellence, Part 2

How to Increase Work Excellence, Part 1

Employers want employees to do excellent work. And, most employees inherently want to do excellent work (if recognized and rewarded for it). But, in reality, most work is not “excellent” and can be improved. Helping employees improve their work is where things get tricky. Countless entrepreneurs, leaders, managers, professors, HR specialists, psychologists and economists have spent a lot of time and energy trying to figure out how to help people do excellent work. Praise? Criticism? Rewards? Reprimands? Focus on failures? Pushing people out of their comfort zone?
Just what promotes excellence? Here’s what works and what doesn’t! Read more. Continue reading

Comments Off on How to Increase Work Excellence, Part 1