Monday Leadership Minute.
A little practical leadership thinking to start your week.
Drawing on decades of experience working with nonprofit leaders, Paula shares ideas, insights and useful reminders on the people, challenges and decisions that come with leading well.
Short reads. Real-world perspective. Practical ideas you can take into your week.
Before You Have That Difficult Conversation: Get Ready First
You know you need to talk with an employee about something. Maybe they’re missing deadlines. Maybe something happened with a…
Paula MacLean
Why We Avoid Difficult Conversations (And Why We Really Shouldn’t)
Let’s be honest. Most of us don’t wake up in the morning hoping we’ll have a difficult conversation today. Whether…
Paula MacLean
Say What Needs to Be Said: How to Have a Courageous Conversation
You’ve checked your facts. You’ve decided that a conversation really is needed. You’ve figured out when and where you’re going…
Paula MacLean
Accidental Leader? Welcome to the Club.
“I don’t think I’m ready for this.” If you’ve ever had that thought after stepping into a leadership role, you’re…
Paula MacLean
Your Team Can’t Be Brave If They Don’t Feel Safe
Organizations spend a lot of money teaching people how to communicate better. We teach employees how to give feedback, resolve…
Paula MacLean
Bullies at Work – Who Should Fix the Problem?
I just finished reading a letter to the editor of our local newspaper complaining about workplace bullies. The writer was…
Paula MacLean
Progressive Discipline – Part 3 Correct Employee Performance Issues with a Written Warning
If an employee’s performance does not improve following a verbal warning, the supervisor or manager may decide to issue a…
Paula MacLean
Progressive Discipline Part 2 Correct Employee Performance Issues Using a Verbal Warning
The following points should be used as a guide only. You must also consult your agencies policies and procedures or…
Paula MacLean
Progressive Discipline Part 1 – Getting Positive Results When Using Formal Discipline
Progressive Discipline refers to the use of increasingly more serious forms of intervention with an employee who is not performing…
Paula MacLean
Managing Generational Diversity – 7 New Rules That Can Help!
I am a Baby Boomer – born between 1945 and 1964. When I was growing up, there were lots and…
Paula MacLean
Two Types of Performance Issues
There are two types of performance issues and also two reasons that an employee may not perform according to an…
Paula MacLean
The Ten Things that Makes a Supervisor GREAT
After more than thirty years as a line supervisor, manager and senior executive, I learned a few things about working…
Paula MacLean
Types of Non-Profit Boards – Options for Governance Models
Although the literature in this area is extensive, in essence there are three different types of boards or models of…
Paula MacLean
Managing Generational Diversity – 7 New Rules That Can Help!
I am a Baby Boomer – born between 1945 and 1964. When I was growing up, there were lots and…
Paula MacLean
Correct Employee Performance Issues Using a Verbal Warning
Disciplinary action or “progressive discipline” is used to assist employees to improve sub-standard job performance. Performance issues addressed by this…
Paula MacLean
Two Types of Performance Issues
There are two types of performance issues and also two reasons that an employee may not perform according to an…
Paula MacLean
So What’s With This Younger Generation Anyway?
The Internet was alive this week with another round of stories about Generation Y and the struggle many appear to…
Paula MacLean
Try Walking a Mile in Employees’ Shoes – You Might Learn a Few Valuable Lessons!
The hit reality TV show “Undercover Boss” follows managers of large corporations as they give up a soft boardroom chair…
Paula MacLean
Tips for Surveying Staff Satisfaction – Part 2
This is the second of three blog posts covering a total of ten powerful tips for surveying employee engagement or…
Paula MacLean
Tips for Surveying Staff Satisfaction – Part 1
This is the first of three blog posts covering a total of ten powerful tips for surveying employee engagement or…
Paula MacLean
Slow Managers Aren’t the Same as “Slow Food”
Many readers will be familiar with the “Slow Food” movement in North America and Europe. World-class chefs and everyday kitchen…
Paula MacLean
Management Has the Right to Manage
“A co-worker of mine applied for an internal promotion and did not get it. He threatened to quit and because…
Paula MacLean
Executive Succession and Transition – A Risk Management Strategy – 5 Tips!
Tip #1 Identify the four major areas of succession planning to be attended to: emergency succession planning, planned departure succession…
Paula MacLean
10 Tips for Effective 360 Degree Performance Appraisals
In more than 35 years in the nonprofit sector, I have yet to meet a supervisor or manager who loves…
Paula MacLean
Five Common Denominators of Great Supervisors
In my 30+ years working in human services the positions I’ve held are a story about how the work gets…
Paula MacLean
So What’s With This Younger Generation Anyway?
The Internet was alive this week with another round of stories about Generation Y and the struggle many appear to…
Paula MacLean
One Magical Question to Assess “Job Fit” When Interviewing
May readers of this blog are involved in hiring, supervising and sometimes even firing employees. When was the last time…
Paula MacLean
Giving Feedback to Your Boss
Even when asked, giving feedback to your boss can be a bit touchy. The first thing that may run through…
Paula MacLean
Learning to Write SMART Goals
Whether you are considering your own personal or professional goals or are developing goals for an employee you supervisor, for…
Paula MacLean
Leaders At All Levels Must Be on the Same Page
“I just left a meeting during which a manager told us to do something that was exactly the opposite of…
Paula MacLean
A Fast Way to Create New Job Descriptions
For human resource professionals, the business of creating new job (or position) descriptions or revising existing ones is a fine…
Paula MacLean
Hire Slow and Fire Fast – Part 2
Last week’s blog focused on the folly of the “slow hire” concept and debunked the myth that hiring quality talent…
Paula MacLean
Hire Slow and Fire Fast – A New Human Resource Management Strategy – Part 1 of 2
Human resource management books are full of buzz words. The latest phrase to hit the page is “Hire Slow and…
Paula MacLean
Creating Employee-to-Employee Learning
You may have heard about a little company called Google. They are ranked with Apple, Zappos and several other web-based…
Paula MacLean
Part 2 How to Help Teams Benefit from Crisis
When faced with a crisis, managers should make time to ask people (individually or in small groups) what they are…
Paula MacLean
Don’t Overlook the Value of Crisis to Improve Teams – Part 1
Most managers and supervisors spend a portion of every working day solving problems, dealing with upset people and generally trying…
Paula MacLean
Delegation: If You Want it Done Right … Ask the Right Person
When I stand in front of a group of people about to teach “delegation”, I ask the group to complete…
Paula MacLean
Do Your Employees Trust You?
Confidence in a leader’s intentions and abilities is crucial to accomplishing anything at work. Another words for this is “trust”.…
Paula MacLean
Managers can be targets of harassment by employees!
One aspect of bullying that receives little attention is when managers are bullied by employees. This has been called “upward…
Paula MacLean
Before you Multi-Task – Consider What Brain Science Has to Offer
As an author of several human resource books, I’m often asked about strategies for effective time-management. Some people have more…
Paula MacLean
7 Things that Characterize Women Leaders
In a recent article for Fast Company, Ekaterina Walter outlined the seven “traits that unite women in power”. What struck…
Paula MacLean
10 Tips for Working With Generation Y Employees
Unless you happen to be a Gen Y reader of this newsletter, you may be one of the many managers…
Paula MacLean
10 Tips for Creating Emergency Succession Plans for Your Nonprofit
It may come as a surprise that more than 75 percent of nonprofits in Canada do not have either emergency…
Paula MacLean
One-on-One Coaching with Paula.
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Whether you're navigating a challenging employee situation, a board issue, a leadership transition or simply need a trusted sounding board, Paula brings decades of nonprofit experience to the conversation.
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