Leadership

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal highlighted a troubling trend on our nation’s airport tarmacs. Safety incidents among ground crew workers are on the rise. The article starts by describing…

Relying on annual performance reviews to measure and motivate employees generally does not work. This enduring truth and some of the underlying reasons were highlighted in an article from the Spring…

The world around us is constantly changing. The markets we operate in, current economic conditions, world events, access to material goods and competition are all things leadership considers when…

Common Leadership Errors: Failing to Create Sustainability Organizations are constantly evolving to keep up with a changing world. This evolution can include refinements to strategy, systems,…

The role of leadership inside organizations is to help achieve the mission, vision, and business objectives. Leaders define what winning looks like. They then are responsible for creating momentum,…

What happens in your organization when a human error occurs? By human error I mean an undesired behavior that could, or does, lead to some undesired consequences for the performer, people around them…

The concept of providing feedback is nothing new.  Performance feedback has been studied for well over 40 years and shown to be an effective and low-cost method for improving performance.  We’ve used…

There is no doubt that how results are produced is just as, or more important, than the results themselves.  How work is done, the behaviors people do to produce an outcome, is a driver of long-term…

This is the first in a new blog series from Bryan Shelton. Check in on the first Tuesday of every month for new blogs in the series. Our brains are designed to learn and adapt quickly to our…

My colleagues and I have noticed a disturbing trend as we complete surveys and assessments for our clients. A significant number of employees are telling us that skills training has become woefully…

Productivity is a big concern for managers who have people working remotely. Will they actually work as hard as they would in an office? This fear has been called “productivity paranoia.” I recently…

“People learn more from their mistakes” is an old saying that should be put out to pasture. Not only is this statement untrue from a learning standpoint, but relying on people to make mistakes to…

I recently talked to a client who was trying to gain commitment for some safety leadership improvements and was frustrated with the resistance he was facing from some of the management team. The…

Recently during a leadership workshop I was facilitating, a participant approached me at a break and told me he wanted more out of his direct reports. He wanted to know why his current approach was…

The messages and communications that leaders send to employees, particularly those on the frontline, are critical. A well put message can boost morale, inspire engagement, and improve relationships…

Tonight, in MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred's press conference regarding the end of the MLB lockout, he stated that relationships are important in business and that he would do better at that in the…

When it comes to influencing behavior in organizations, there are two truths that need to be considered. These truths relate to two major aspects of the organizational culture: the systems operating…

Many people underestimate the complexity of being a good leader while simultaneously overestimating their own leadership skills. According to Psychology Today, “The Dunning-Kruger effect is a…