Articles
Interview With Greg Crabtree: Author, Consultant & Small Business Expert
Posted on December 1, 2015 by Mike Goldman
Greg Crabtree is a speaker, author, entrepreneur and financial expert. Crabtree has used his entrepreneurial skills to develop Crabtree, Rowe & Berger, PC, a CPA firm focused solely on the needs of entrepreneurs, helping them build the economic engine of their businesses. I invite you to read my interview with Greg as he shares his beliefs on small business ownership and entrepreneurial management.
Interview With Bob Burg: Speaker & Author
Posted on November 17, 2015 by Mike Goldman
Bob Burg is an author, speaker and expert on how to succeed in today’s business world. By sharing his knowledge with Fortune 500 Companies, franchises and direct sales organizations, Bob has become a prominent resource for many business leaders. I invite you to read my interview with Bob as he shares his beliefs on leadership and the ever changing world of business.
Interview With John Spence: Business Thought Leader & Leadership Development Expert
Posted on November 12, 2015 by Mike Goldman
John Spence is recognized as one of the Top 100 Business Thought Leaders in America, one of the Top 100 Small Business Influencers in America, and one of the Top 500 Leadership Development Experts in the World. In my interview with John, we explore his thoughts on company culture.
Interview with Geoff Smart: CEO, Bestselling Author and Social Entrepreneur
Posted on November 2, 2015 by Mike Goldman
Geoff Smart is the Chairman & Founder of ghSMART and one of the most recognized experts on hiring and performance. He’s also the bestselling author of Leadocracy: Hiring More Great Leaders (Like You) Into Government and Who: The A Method for Hiring. In my interview with Geoff, we explore his thoughts on hiring and talent.
Christine Comaford: Neuroscience-Based Leadership Coach
Posted on October 27, 2015 by Mike Goldman
For over 30 years, Christine Comaford (@Comaford)has been helping organizations build more engaged and profitable teams. Christine is the author of the bestselling book, Smart Tribes, and the leader of the Smart Tribes Institute. In my interview with Christine, we discuss her neuroscience-based approach to performance and her thoughts on leadership.
What’s Your Organization’s Attitude?
Posted on August 5, 2015 by Mike Goldman
By Mike Goldman on StrategyDriven:
What’s your organization’s attitude? How is it impacting your culture? How is it impacting how you’re viewed externally? How is it impacting your results?
What are your employee’s attitudes about your company? What are their attitudes about your customers? How do they feel about the work they do?
Book Review: Performance Breakthrough is a Small Business Must-Read
Posted on july 29, 2015 by Mike Goldman
Most small business owners appreciate the value of continuous learning when it comes to improving their ability to run their companies. But let’s face it; given the many demands that come with building and growing a small business, it can be hard to find the time needed to learn new things.
Forbes: New Business Fable Reveals 4 Secrets Of Passionate Organizations
Posted on July 27, 2015 by Mike Goldman
By Kevin Kruse:
What’s wrong with the golden rule at work? Why shouldn’t we try to fix our weaknesses? According to consultant Mike Goldman, there is definitely better way to create highly engaged teams.
In his new business fable, Performance Breakthrough: The Four Secrets of Passionate Organizations, Goldman details four strategies that dramatically increase passion, productivity and profit. These are based on Goldman’s two and half decades of experience at Accenture, Deloitte and as an independent consultant. …Read More on Forbes.
What Team Centered Goal Setting Really Looks Like
Posted on july 21, 2015 by Mike Goldman
As a leader, how much time are you spending setting the vision and tone for your company versus wading into the details or putting out fires? Your focus should be to create a great team and give them the tools to produce the results you want. However, the biggest challenges leaders face are trusting their teams enough to set the right goals and holding teams accountable once the goals are set. Many leaders think their employees should be given direction to get the job done and find it difficult to trust even their A players with defining goals and making key decisions.
By micromanaging and being involved with every goal or decision, you are creating a bottleneck and demotivating your best people. Therefore, you need to come to terms with any trust issues. Leaders need be learn to be more collaborative in goal setting by giving their team’s ownership for setting goals rather than setting goals for them. Continue reading →
The Platinum Rule – Acceptance
Posted on June 30, 2015 by Mike Goldman
News flash: The Golden Rule doesn’t work! We’re all different. So why do we think everyone wants to be treated the way we would want to be treated? The fact is that we can’t treat people the way we want to be treated because everyone has different motivations, learning styles, goals and cultural backgrounds. Therefore, it’s time to follow the Platinum Rule: Treat others the way they want to be treated.
Start Your Own Performance Breakthrough!
Posted on JUne 30, 2015 by Mike Goldman
Gain access to my exclusive webinar: Performance Breakthrough: Applying the Four Secrets of Passionate Organizations, in which I’ll explain in depth how you can apply the Four Secrets of Passionate Organizations to your own work, company, or organization.
How Trusting Employees Saves Time and Money
Posted on june 17, 2015 by Mike Goldman
Do you have confidence in your hiring process? If you have hired the right people—the ones with the smarts that impressed you enough to choose them—and have provided them with the tools necessary to do the job, then you need to give them the freedom to get the job done. This means trusting them enough to allow them to reach their true potential. If you believe in your hiring process, then trust your people. As Steve Jobs stated, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” Continue reading →
Quiz: Do You Have a Passionate Organization?
Posted on June 9, 2015 by Mike Goldman
Posted on June 9, 2015 by Mike Goldman
Take the Performance Breakthrough quiz to find out if your organization is passionate. You’ll learn not only how engaged your workforce is, but what you can do to solve passion problems and maintain a high level of engagement.
Performance Breakthrough
Posted on June 8, 2015 by Mike Goldman
I’ve made a career out of unleashing the untapped potential of workforces at organizations of all sizes. An unengaged workforce costs organizations more than just money: it costs opportunity and can halt growth. If you’re a manager at an organization, it’s easy to recognize an unengaged workforce, but it can seem impossible to reengage them! I’ve written down my secrets for keeping a workforce engaged (or reengaging them!) in the newly released 2nd edition to Performance Breakthrough: The Four Secrets of Passionate Organizations. I’m pleased to share an excerpt from the book with you here. Continue reading →
Highpoint Publishes Performance Breakthrough: The Four Secrets of Passionate Organizations, 2nd Edition
Posted on June 8, 2015 by Mike Goldman
The Gallup Organization has found that only 29 percent of employees are truly engaged in the work they do. That’s like an engine running at less than one third of its power. Now imagine a company where eight out of ten people are truly engaged. What would this mean to productivity, morale, retention, and ability to recruit top talent? The proven path to that transformation is revealed in Performance Breakthrough: The Four Secrets of Passionate Organizations, 2nd Edition (Highpoint Executive Publishing; hardcover, $24.99, 978- 0-9861585-2-0; e-book, $9.99, 978-0-9861585-0-6).
Mike on Enterprise Radio
Posted on June 5, 2015 by Mike Goldman
Mike Goldman the author of the book “Performance Breakthrough: The 4 Secrets of Passionate Organizations” joins Enterprise Radio. Mike has over 25 years of experience consulting and coaching companies from the local entrepreneur to the Fortune 500.
Listen to interview with host Eric Dye & guest Mike Goldman here:
http://epodcastnetwork.com/performance-breakthrough-the-4-secrets-of-passionate-organizations/
How to Focus on Your Employees’ Strengths
Posted on June 2, 2015 by Mike Goldman
Would you rather have a well-rounded employee or a world-class employee?
When making hiring decisions, most leaders look for well-rounded individuals and create a list of skills and experiences they would like a job candidate to possess. Unfortunately, very few leaders have knowledge of the talents required for the job. Talents are habits and tendencies wired into our brains from an early age—things like leadership, flexibility, love of learning, or empathy. On the other hand, knowledge and skills are learned and mastered through experience. Continue reading “How to Focus on Your Employees’ Strengths”
Five Ways to Celebrate Victories and Improve Your Bottom Line
Posted on may 19, 2015 by Mike Goldman
In today’s fast-paced, goals driven business world, many business leaders think that celebrating or rewarding their employees requires too much time and money. In other words, they believe they don’t have time to celebrate employee accomplishments or have fun because they have pending work and deadlines that take priority, or they think celebrating always means spending money. Other leaders are of the mindset that their employees should just be thankful to have jobs, and there’s no reason to celebrate what they get paid to do. These leaders are missing out on the many advantages that rewarding employees offers. Read More →
The Four Secrets of Passionate Leaders
Posted on may 13, 2015 by Mike Goldman
One of the biggest challenges today’s business leaders face when striving to take their organization to the next level is finding ways to inject more passion into their teams while maintaining a consistent level of passion themselves. Injecting passion into an organization is difficult and fleeting at the best of times, but in the midst of the frustrations and disappointments that come with striving to grow your business, it is even more challenging. Read More →
What’s Your Meeting Rhythm?
Posted on august 19, 2015 by Mike Goldman
In my work with growth-minded, mid-market companies, I’ve found that most company dysfunctions sprout from a lack of communication and alignment amongst the leadership team. Read More →
A Better Way to Measure Employee Happiness
Posted on january 20, 2014 by Mike Goldman
By Verne Harnish & Mike Goldman
Successful leaders know they need to balance the needs of employees, customers, and shareholders to build a thriving company. Many firms excel at tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) like profits, as well as customer feedback on a weekly or daily basis, but they fall flat when it comes to monitoring employees’ morale—and it shows. New research by Gallup found that 52% of American workers are not engaged in their work, while another 18% are “actively disengaged.” Read More →
The Work Paradox: More Play, Less Pain
Posted on November 25, 2012 by Mike Goldman
“In a culture that sometimes equates work with suffering, it is revolutionary to suggest that the best inward sign of vocation is deep gladness—revolutionary but true.” ~ Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach
People prefer leisure to work—no surprise there. What is surprising is that they report more optimal feelings of being “in the zone” when engaged in work.
This strange, yet revealing, paradox may explain why so many U.S. retirees experience depression and ultimately return to work.
While we clearly associate leisure with pleasure, we seem to have an unwarranted prejudice against work: We automatically associate it with pain. This belief is so deeply rooted that it distorts our perceptions of actual experiences. It’s a learned response that severely limits our potential for happiness at work.
To achieve professional satisfaction, you must experience—and consciously record—the positive emotions you feel on the job.
Why Do Leaders Deceive Themselves?
Posted on august 1, 2012 by Mike Goldman
The secret of rulership is to combine a belief in one’s own infallibility with the power to learn from past mistakes. ~ George Orwell
As much as we’d like to believe that we’re rational human beings, we can all too easily mislead ourselves. Self-deception is a process that encourages us to justify our false and invalid beliefs. Read More →
The Art of Bouncing Back
Posted on December 15, 2011 by Mike Goldman
“Some of the most important and insightful learning is far more likely to come from failures than from success.” ~ Former Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley, interviewed in Harvard Business Review (April 2011)
How we respond to failures and bounce back from our mistakes can make or break our careers. The wisdom of learning from failure is undeniable, yet individuals and organizations rarely seize opportunities to embrace these hard-earned lessons.
Harvard business professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter is unequivocal: “One difference between winners and losers is how they handle losing.” Even for the best companies and most accomplished professionals, long track records of success are inevitably marred by slips and fumbles. Read More →
Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em
Posted on December 15, 2011 by Mike Goldman
Retaining talented employees is a key problem for corporations. Even when there is a slower economy, attracting and holding top talent is a serious concern. The trend is exacerbated by a growing propensity for people to change jobs frequently. After 20 years of down-sizing, it is ironic that corporations are now concerned about losing employees.
The problem is one of getting qualified and talented people into the right jobs and keeping them there. HR professionals, managers and CEO’s are all searching for what they can do to keep their good, talented employees. Read More →
Managing For Peak Performance
Posted on December 15, 2011 by Mike Goldman
“Put simply, the best managers bring out the best from their people. This is true of football coaches, orchestra conductors, big-company executives, and small-business owners. They are like alchemists who turn lead into gold. Put more accurately, they find and mine the gold that resides in everyone.” ~ Dr. Edward M. Hallowell, Shine: Using Brain Science to Get the Best from Your People (Harvard Business Press, 2011)
Most managers want their people to achieve excellence at work. We really can’t ask for more. In fact, peak performance can be defined as a combination of:
Excellence
Consistency
Ongoing improvement
To achieve peak performance, each person must find the right job, tasks and conditions that match his or her strengths. Facilitating the right fit therefore becomes one of a manager’s most crucial responsibilities. While every employee has the potential to deliver peak performance, it’s up to the manager to find ways to make it happen. Read More →
Rethinking Motivation
Posted on December 15, 2011 by Mike Goldman
Most business leaders have lost sight of what motivates people at work. In fact, some companies haven’t updated their management practices in years, which means they’re incapable of creating high-performance teams.
Companies continue to ignore the obvious: Offering incentives and rewards is less effective than tapping into truly meaningful intrinsic motivation. Leaders operate on old assumptions about motivation despite a wealth of well-documented scientific evidence. Read More →
Are you aware of the “Leadership Shadow” you cast?
Posted on july 29, 2011 by Mike Goldman
Many of the Executive Coaching clients I’ve worked with seem to be unaware of the “Shadow” they cast as a Leader. It’s a shadow that reflects what a leader pays attention to, how they respond to crisis, deal with a disagreement, treat those around them, and behave in general. It all feeds into the cultural fabric of the organization.
As I’ve observed, if a leader treats every unexpected problem or unanticipated roadblock as a major crisis, so will employees. If a leader takes the view that every problem could have been avoided and therefore when something goes wrong, heads will roll, the resulting behavior will be one of blame and finger-pointing. If a leader views mistakes as a natural part of learning, exploring, and experimenting, the result is an attitude that supports risk taking and innovation.
Read More →
Applying Filters to Your Speaking
Posted on June 14, 2011 by Mike Goldman
Have you ever found yourself with the proverbial “foot in your mouth” because of something you said? We all do that sometimes – and often in situations where we then feel foolish or embarrassed. I once heard a great way to filter your thoughts before they come out of your mouth, and to consider what you are going to say before you say it.
Read More →
Leadership For Sustainability
Posted on June 14, 2011 by Mike Goldman
I was rereading the book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins the other day and it occurred to me that with all the talk about sustainability in business we should revisit some of those basic concepts covered in that book. The chapter on Fifth Level Leaders really hits home with what it takes to create organizations that are excellent and have a prayer to be sustainable. An interesting question came to my mind. “What if our current elected officials adopted the concepts of a Fifth Level Leader?” Read More →