We learn best when we step out of our comfort zone and into the learning zone.  Here are some tips on how to open yourself up to new learnings.

Unlike in sports where the competitions are scheduled, in business the competition never stops, unless your team calls a TIMEOUT.  When was the last time your team called a timeout.

Do you have a daily ritual?  Something you do every day just for you.  Forget servant leadership for a minute and understand that selfish leadership can be important at times too.

I have worked for three companies in my career that had Ping-Pong (Table Tennis) tables in the offices.  The Motley Fool,Time Warner Cable’s Road Runner operation and Doosan Infracore International.  The existence of a Ping-Pong table in each of those environments was very telling about the type of culture that each company wanted to foster.

Why does the word conflict get a bad rap and how to turn conflict into a tool for better decision making.

As a former leader that I worked with always said using the military term, you want “Fewer soldiers, better fed”.  A headcount freeze is an opportunity to increase hiring not freeze it.  The problem is that too many organizations mix up the intent versus the impact.  It is important to be very clear on the goal.  If the goal is to freeze employee expenses (salaries and benefits) at their current level, then a headcount freeze can achieve the same result as a hiring freeze, but in a much more effective manner. 

One of the biggest issues facing many our Groove Management’s clients is employee retention.  Turnover is up across the board.  Voluntary attrition rates continue to climb because the job market has heated up.  Employees are recognizing that there are a lot more opportunities in the marketplace than have existed during the past eight years.  With the aid of LinkedIn and other socialrecruiting tools, recruiters are doing a better job of identifying passive job seekers.  The end result is that companies are struggling to hold onto their top talent.

Whether you are looking for a new job, driving sales for your organization, building your business or looking for love try leveraging your connections for introductions to their connections.

Similar to starting a new job or a new school, the Panthers entered the 2014 season feeling good about themselves.  They had completed a winning season the year before despite being eliminated in the first playoff game.  This season got off to a decent start with a 2-0 record.  The fans were on board and everyone had high hopes.  Then the Panthers hit a wall.  It was as if someone had cast a spell over them.  They won only one of their next nine games; well they did have a tie in there.  Entering December with a record of 3-8-1, the fans and everyone else had counted them out.  Maybe next year they would get their act together. 

Action learning programs exercise the strategic muscles of an organization, build leadership capability, drive employee engagement and improve business results.  Why not trust your strategy projects to your high potentials?

A few employment branding ideas,  each one serves the purpose of building a stronger employment brand.  The products connect your employees to your brand in a unique and fun way.  Even more importantly they connect your employees family to your company and your brand.

What really makes superman great is that he is a self-aware leader. He knows his strengths and he leverages them in his quest for peace. He is also fully aware that kryptonite is his weakness. Self-awareness is a strength that all great leaders have learned to leverage. Superman epitomizes a leader who knows how to leverage his strengths. Superman’s super power that very few talk about is his awareness of his own strengths and weakness.

Our best learnings occur when we push ourselves or we are pushed outside of our comfort zone.

By providing a daily visual, the leaders could see that they were being measured against their colleagues.  This graphical view of response rates translated into a 97% response rate for one business unit and helped push the enterprise response rate over 90%.  

Learn about the 5 keys to success at work and to personal happiness.

An interview with Brian Formato from Groove Management about the changing requirements for success in the Human Resources field.