Close The Gap Between Actual Performance And The Vision and Mission Statements

Today’s best managers know that companies frequently have a wide gap between their vision and mission statements and the actual actions of employees. Work with a team to identify areas that are not in alignment with the vision and mission of the company. Set goals and strategies for reducing the gaps between actual performance and ideal results. Get employees involved in the process by encouraging them to identify and share problems with you. Be sure that employees are rewarded, and not punished, for pointing out things that need to be changed to help accomplish the vision and mission of the organization.

Source: Lepsinger, R. 2008, May/June. Starting an execution revolution. Industrial Management, 27-30.

Support Individuals To Lessen Bad Group Behaviors From Influencing Individual Team Members

The behavior of members of a group can influence the behavior of other individuals in that group. For example, when some members of a work group are tardy, this behavior may cause other group members to start being tardy as well. Today’s best managers know that they can lessen these group influences by being supportive of individual group members. Examples of supportive behavior include treating employees fairly, providing supervisor support, giving favorable job rewards, and having favorable job conditions. Providing support to employees can even help prevent further bad group behaviors from rubbing off on other individuals in the work group.

Source: Eder, P., & Eisenberger, R. 2008, February. Perceived organizational support: Reducing the negative influence of coworker withdrawal behavior. Journal of Management, 34, 55-68.

Presentations: Proven Techniques For Creating Presentations That Get Results

This book offers a wealth of information for improving your presentation skills. The book builds upon the foundation of purpose, audience, and topic when developing an effective presentation. The main challenges to overcome when presenting are: keeping your sense of humor, dealing with late arrivers, handling early departures, audience interruptions, inattentive and argumentative audience members, saboteuring attendees, and audience members who steal the show from your presentation. Listen to yourself speak, such as by recording yourself, and you’ll get a wealth of useful feedback to help you improve.

Source: Presentations: Proven Techniques For Creating Presentations That Get Results. By Gary McClain, 2007, Adams Media, Avon, MA, ISBN: 978-1598691535.

Catering Only To Niche Markets Can Lower Potential Sales

Managers used to believe that success only came from selling a huge number of a few products, or having blockbuster sellers. Today’s best managers know that it is also possible to be successful by selling only a few of a huge number of different products. The web enables a tremendous amount of products to be displayed and sold at very low costs. However, companies may still want to cater to the tastes of the biggest customers with their biggest selling products. Completely going after a smaller, niche market may not be the best course of action. A combination of the two approaches can result in the greatest number of overall sales.


Source: Elberse, A. 2008, July-August. Should you invest in the long tail? Harvard Business Review, 88-96.

Specifically State Your Feelings In Electronic Messages To Improve Message Accuracy

Employees are increasingly communicating to each other via email or text messages. Today’s best managers know that email and text messages typically don’t accurately portray the emotions of the person sending the message. Because of the lack of cues (facial expressions, eye contact, etc.) in electronic messages, receivers tend to believe that the message is more negative and/or more neutral in tone than was intended. To help message receivers accurately understand your emotions in electronic messages, specifically state your feelings in writing. For example, write that you are happy that the employee liked your idea.

Source: Byron, K. 2008. Carrying too heavy a load? The communication and miscommunication of email. Academy of Management Review, 33, 309-327.

Help Employees Make Sense Of Uncertainties During Difficult Organizational Changes

Today’s best managers know how to help employees make sense during chaotic organizational changes. First, discuss with employees how they can get started. Next, help employees clearly define the problems that need to be solved. Then, help employees identify places where the organization is stuck, and areas that seem impossible to solve. Next, help employees critique and link existing options that may help the company reach solutions. Then, help employees experiment with ways to solve problems, and challenge and motivate employees to try new solutions. Finally, help employees reach a workable, but not absolute, certainty in which everyone can all work successfully.

Source: Luscher, L. S., & Lewis, M. W. 2008. Organizational change and managerial sensemaking: Working through paradox. Academy of Management Journal, 51, 221-240.

Employees Who Can Manage Their Emotions Can Increase Customer Satisfaction

Today’s best managers know the importance of managing one’s emotions in the workplace. Employees who can manage their emotions will have more positive feelings when interacting with customers. As a result, customers will also have more positive feelings from the encounter with the employee and the company. In response, customers will then have higher levels of customer satisfaction, which could result in more sales for the company. Today’s best managers know that helping employees to manage their emotions and recognize the emotions of customers can be a win-win situation for both employees and customers.

Source: Giardini, A., & Frese, M. 2008. Linking service employees’ emotional competence to customer satisfaction: A multilevel approach. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29, 155-170.

Postponing Decisions Until You Are Prepared May Be The Best Way To Go

Many managers feel that they are under a great deal of pressure to make decisions extremely quickly. In school, students learn that those who raise their hand the fastest with the right answer receive the most praise. However, today’s best managers know that answering too quickly may not be the best response. Instead, take your time and fully prepare before you decide what to do. Deadlines may be important, but in most cases, there will be other people in your organization to help you meet your deadlines. The manager who is the most ready to make a decision will be the one who is the most successful.

Source: Schwarzman, S. A. 2008, June. The best advice I ever got. Harvard Business Review, 31.

Re-Wire Your Problem Employees Into Successful Employees

Many employees have hard-wired beliefs in their brain about their abilities and their performance, which can result in them being poor performers. Today’s best managers don’t give up on such employees. Instead, they try to rewire their employees’ beliefs about themselves: 1) help them to realize and acknowledge their beliefs about their performance, 2) allow the negative beliefs to surface, but then don’t act on them in the same ways as they always do, 3) help employees develop new responses to the negative feelings they have, and 4) coach employees on ways to improve skills and abilities where they feel they are lacking.

Source: Ahern, A. 2008. Fire or re-wire: Dealing with problem people. Leadership Excellence, 25/2, p. 16.

Ask For It: How Women Can Use The Power Of Negotiation To Get What They Want.

Most women do not ask for what they want and pay the price as a result. This book tells women to ask for things that they want and offers information about how to do that. Pushing the boundaries can help women get what they want. When you ask for what you want, then you will change people’s perceptions of you, and then they will treat you differently than before. Everything is negotiable, but you have to know what you want. Set high targets and ask a lot. If you never hear the word “no,” then you are not asking enough.

Source: Ask For It: How Women Can Use The Power Of Negotiation To Get What They Want. By Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever, 2008, Bantam Books, ISBN: 978-0-553-38375-1.

High Employee Job Performance Over Time Can Be Motivated By Internal and External Sources

Managers want employee job performance to be high and to stay high over time. Today’s best managers know that the motivation to perform a job well can come from both inside and outside of an employee. Internal motivation for employees comes from setting goals and seeing that they have the ability to reach those goals. When employees get feedback that they are reaching their goals, then their internal motivation to perform may continue. External motivation for employees can come in the form of other employees wanting to help them, and in receiving money and benefits from the organization.

Source: Zyphur, M. J., Chaturvedi, S., & Arvey, R. D. 2008. Job performance over time is a function of latent trajectories and previous performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 217-224.

Develop Employee Psychological Capital To Improve Employee Attitudes and Performance

Today’s best managers know that employees have psychological capital when they: 1) have confidence that they can succeed at challenging tasks, 2) are optimistic about being successful now and in the future, 3) work hard to reach goals, but change their goals if necessary, and 4) are resilient and can bounce back from adversity. Having psychological capital can lead to higher levels of performance, job satisfaction, and commitment, and lower levels of absenteeism for employees. Managers used to believe that people were just born with a certain level of psychological capital. However, today’s best managers know that employees can develop and improve their psychological capital.

Source: Luthans, F., Avey, J. B., & Patera, J. L. 2008. Experimental analysis of a web-based training intervention to develop positive psychological capital. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 7, 209-221.

Help Employees Open Up About What They Value To Strengthen Employee Work Attitudes

Today’s best managers know that positive employee attitudes can be strengthened. Help employees uncover what values are important and not important to them, such as trust, loyalty, friendliness, reverence, etc. Then, have employees consider their important values and help them tie those values into their work attitudes. For example, if an employee values working for a successful company, then tie that value into completing a difficult work assignment. Employee attitudes that are aligned with employee values will be stronger and more resistant to change.

Source: Blankenship, K. L., & Wegener, D. T. 2008. Opening the mind to close it: Considering a message in light of important values increases message processing and later resistance to change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 196-213.

Treat Employees Of All Ages Well In Today’s Workplace

Managers used to think that older workers were less productive, had less stamina, were difficult to train, were inflexible, were a greater safety risk, and couldn’t work as many hours as younger workers. Unfortunately, these old and erroneous views have led to stereotypes and workplace discrimination of older workers. Today’s best managers know that these beliefs are false, and they value employees of all ages. Today, a significant number of employees stay healthy and illness-free well into their seventies.


Source: Macik-Frey, M., Quick, J. C., & Nelson, D. L. 2008, December. Advances in occupational health: From a stressful beginning to a positive future. Journal of Management, 33, 809-840.

Valuing Your Family Can Improve Your Job Performance

Managers used to believe that an employee being overly concerned about family issues would have a negative effect on job performance. However, today’s best managers know that valuing your family can lead to more time spent at work. Additionally, caring for one’s family concerns can help employees reduce the negative effects of conflict in the workplace. These desirable organizational outcomes might be enhanced if organizations had even more family-friendly policies. Rather than viewing family identity as a liability, organizations might want to view caring for one’s family as a way to help improve employee job performance.

Source: Bagger, J., Li, A., & Gutek, B. A. 2008. How much do you value your family and does it matter? The joint effects of family identity salience, family-interference-with-work, and gender. Human Relations, 61, 187-211.

Find Out How Your Employees View Work And Help Them Stay Motivated

Today’s best managers know that employees can think about work in three different ways. Some employees see work as just a job. These employees are motivated by what they get out of a job, such as pay and benefits. Some employees see work as a career. These employees are motivated by rewards that come from professional advancements. Some employees see work as a calling. These employees are motivated by the personal fulfillment that doing their job gives them. Today’s best managers find out how their employees view their jobs and help provide them with what motivates their view of work.


Source: Wright, T. A., & Goodstein, J. 2008, December. Character is not “dead” in management research: A review of individual character and organization-level virtue. Journal of Management, 33, 928-958.

Employee Thoughts and Feelings Influence Many Job Attitudes and Behaviors

Today’s best managers know that the feelings and moods that employees experience on the job influence many aspects of employee thoughts and behaviors. These feelings and moods are called “affect” and they can be positive or negative. Employee thoughts can shape feelings, and feelings can shape thoughts. Employee affect can influence decision-making, performance appraisal scores, ratings of job applicants, job satisfaction, employee job performance, and the willingness to help other employees. Today’s best managers monitor employee affect since employee thoughts and feelings influence so much of employee performance.

Source: Baron, R. 2008. The role of affect in the entrepreneurial process. Academy of Management Review, 33, 328-340.