Monthly Archives: March 2014

Star Performers Don’t Succeed On Their Own – Kevin Evers – Harvard Business Review

How much time and effort do we invest in our ‘B’ and ‘C’ employees? What could we accomplish if we spent half that time working with our ‘A’ players? How many of those ‘A’ players would we retain? Best line from the article:

“Star performers need training and coaching, too — and as the global war for talent continues to heat up, organizations need to step up and deliver the goods.”

Star Performers Don’t Succeed On Their Own – Kevin Evers – Harvard Business Review.

Whole Foods Employees Have Open Salaries – Business Insider

Very interesting article. Most organizations are still holding on for dear life to the old command and control model. What they fail to recognize is that the old model is being replaced by openness, transparency and empowerment.

Whole Foods Employees Have Open Salaries – Business Insider.

Lincoln’s strategy for handling setbacks

The Build Network posted an article the other day on the Business Insider’s site detailing their thoughts on Lincoln’s strategy for handling setbacks. It was a great article and highlights that motivation, team building, accountability and talent development are not new issues. They have been around for a long long time.  (Link to the article below)

The main point I took away – the same methods Lincoln used are some of the same we teach today and do in fact work.

  1. How many times have you heard – “Before you send out that email, wait 24 hours and re-read it?” Don’t send something out in haste, there maybe bigger implications than you can consider in the heat of the moment.
  2. How many of us have heard or told a story similar this to teach emotional awareness:

A man is sitting on a train after a long day at work. He’s had a terrible day and just wants to sit and read his paper in peace. Next to the man are a father and his two children. The two children are jumping and playing, causing a small ruckus. The first man tries to ignore the commotion and continues to read his paper, however the kids just continue to get louder and louder. After about 20 minutes, the man can’t take it any more. He turns to the children’s father and says, ‘Sir, can you please control your children and ask them to settle down and lower their voices. Some of us here are trying to unwind from a very long day at work.’ The father turns to the man and immediately apologizes, ‘I’m so sorry sir, we didn’t mean to cause any issues. See, we are on are way home from their mothers funeral. This is the first time I’ve seen them happy in days, so I figured I would let them enjoy this little break from reality.’

We tell this story to make a point. Several can be derived, however I think in this context, it helps illustrate the same point as Lincoln and Carnegie understood.

Overall – great article – I highly suggest the read!

http://www.businessinsider.com/lincolns-strategy-for-handling-setbacks-2014-2