Blog Rewards 10:32 pm 4-May-2010 by Geoff I get a lot of questions about rewards, commissions, incentives and bonus schemes. Always it is which works best. I guess the answer lots of do, but expecting rewards and bonuses to motivate people is an exercise in frustration. It is not so much the rewards but what should precede these. Intrinsic motivation comes from the emotion that people feel from getting great results and being recognised for their efforts. Intrinsic motivation is essential to creating highly engaged teams. With intrinsi... Read Full Article and 0 Comments or Add Comment Crucial Conversations 10:55 pm 2-May-2010 by Geoff What I have noticed from running a series of Crucial Conversations programs is the ease with which important conversations come 'off the rails'. What starts out as a conversation with good intent often ends up heated, distracted and about protection and 'being right'. One of the most important lessons I have found from the program is to 'step out of content'. That is the simple skill of knowing that a crucial conversation is becoming heated, stopping, observing that good intent is about to ... Read Full Article and 0 Comments or Add Comment Influence 10:46 pm 2-December-2009 by Geoff In life we can always choose to be 'one of the gang'. The expression is 'go along so you can get along'. I think what that means is that if you go with the status quo, and don't rock the boat then all will be OK. So what happens in business when you choose to just go along. Just be average and go with the flow. Your employees may choose to enlist in the CARE scheme [cover a--e retain employment!] and just maintain their jobs. The alternative is to be extraordinary! Do som... Read Full Article and -2 Comments or Add Comment Customer Service 11:17 pm 9-October-2009 by Geoff They say that in life you get what you expect. As I do a lot of travel, personally I really enjoy flying Qantas. My experience with other airlines is that I feel a bit like cattle being herded into a truck!  So I expect a good experience with Qantas and find that I almost always get it. Recently I was disembarking at Tullamarine airport late at night after a really long day. I reached the end of the 'tunnel' from the plane into the terminal and was tapped on the shoulder by ... Read Full Article and -2 Comments or Add Comment Travel Discussion 11:49 pm 27-August-2009 by Geoff It is always interesting at airport club lounges observing what could be referred to as the lonely mass of people. Every one is either intent on a mobile phone or on a Notebook PC. The only communication that occurs is when two or more people are travelling together in which case the single most important point of discussion seems to be problems with staff! Given that club lounges have been around longer than both cellular phones and portable PC's what did people do prior to the existence of th... Read Full Article and -1 Comments or Add Comment Living Years 11:41 pm 27-August-2009 by Geoff We recently experienced a sad in event in our lives when Lex, our pet Miniature Schnauzer passed away. After 12 months of being diagnosed with Cushing's Disease he succumbed and slipped away. Fortunately he spent his last night and morning in his favourite place being the lounge in the sun. I was also fortunate to be able to be with him on his last day and nursed him at the end. It was [and still is] a very emotional event and it is easy to be caught up with the loss. What I now see is more... Read Full Article and -3 Comments or Add Comment Customer Service 11:33 pm 27-August-2009 by Geoff After recently spending a lot of time in airports with plenty of interstate travel, to me it is becoming more obvious that customer service in Australia is not a real priority. A recent example was at a small interstate airport I approached two airline staff to check on a possible flight delay. One just shrugged and the other said we "we don't know anything"! What was apparent was that they did not seem to care. Conversely I was at a city car park this week and proceeded to the early bird level ... Read Full Article and -4 Comments or Add Comment A sense of entitlement 10:01 pm 4-June-2009 by Geoff A frustrating thing for many owners and managers these days is the fact that their Generation Y employees have a habit of wanting far greater levels of involvement, combined with unabashedly asking for more money! Baby boomers could easily dismiss this as a lack of respect. When I was a young it was normal practice to address my parents' friends as Mr. and Mrs. If you were really lucky you could call them uncle and aunt! This was consistent with having respect for your elders and those with m... Read Full Article and -1 Comments or Add Comment Trust in a new age 4:24 pm 20-May-2009 by Geoff Steven Covey [junior] wrote a very interesting and engaging book called "The Speed of Trust" - the one thing that changes everything! I recall the days when as employee you were expected to just do the right thing and relationships between you and your manager were OK but of little importance. These days leadership and friendship not only go hand-in-glove, but are vital to success in building teams, particularly with generation Y's. So building trust is the foundation upon which success ... Read Full Article and 3 Comments or Add Comment Inspiring Generation Y 10:44 pm 19-May-2009 by Geoff It just gets better and better! What you might notice about working and dealing with Generation Y people is that their idea of balance in life is unique and different! The baby boomer aspires for balance in managing a successful career or running a business with family and recreation. Even generation X's love the idea but tend to get immersed in career. At times family and what we love to do tends to take a back seat. But Generation y's simply force the issue! They make demands upon employer... Read Full Article and -4 Comments or Add Comment «Previous Page · 1 2 3 · Next Page»