Author: brigette

Four years ago, CEO Dan Price slashed his own salary of almost $1 million to raise those of his employees, bringing the minimum salary of every employee to $70,000. Now he’s opening an office in a new city and promising another salary increase.

In 2015, he was heralded as one of the most generous employers. Two weeks after he made the initial announcement, the company was flooded with 4,500 resumes and new customer inquiries jumped from 30 a month to 2,000 a month. Price’s belief is that by investing in his employees, the company will grow faster. Sadly, most employers don’t get this. If you want to increase loyalty, engagement and productivity start by paying people what they are worth.

Today, many companies will not hire the candidates who are considered “Overqualified.” However, ignoring the “overqualified” because you think they are too expensive, and you can hire 2 employees for the price of one, will eventually cost you in the long term. You can’t Google experience.

Most people don’t expect ridiculous salaries or raises, they just want to be paid what they are worth. It’s a shame how we have designated employees as “liabilities” while machines and buildings are assets. We invest in assets; we limit liabilities.

At the University of Pennsylvania, researchers discovered that businesses that spent 10% of their revenue on capital improvements saw a 3.9% productivity increase. But get this—when that same 10% was invested in employees, productivity went up 8.5%.

“The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.” – Maureen Dowd

Additionally, I see many job seekers and employees, whether interviewing for a job or negotiating for a raise, undersell themselves. Learn to stand up for yourself. Learn to say no. Don’t be afraid to ask for the salary you deserve. It’s about the skills, experience and value you bring to the table. Know your worth and don’t be afraid to ask for it.

Check out my latest Bestselling Book

 Leading the Workforce of the Future



My new boss told me to never be afraid to give feedback. The next Monday morning in a meeting, I happily shared my viewpoint on a new policy. Thereafter, I noticed my boss’s disposition towards me changed. He stopped talking to me. I was shunned. I even felt the effects of this in my monthly performance appraisal, where he noted, I was not supportive of the organization, and I needed to be a better team player. The picture was quite clear – truthful feedback was not appreciated.

Heather, a co-worker approached me and said, “You are new, honest feedback is just lip service, don’t fall for it.” I quickly learned loyalists and sycophants were appreciated, while realists were punished. They built a culture of “yes employees.” I knew I had so much to offer, yet I couldn’t. Six months later, my boss was fired. He made a mistake on a proposal that cost the company its biggest client. This could have been easily avoided if he had just asked for honest input.

Listening is the most powerful skill a leader can master but it requires humility.

“The Emperor’s New Clothes” – Promoting honest feedback

Be Humble. Many people think humility is a weakness, but it actually takes strength. It makes you approachable. The more humble you are, the more team members would be motivated to share their suggestions and recommendations with you. One of the best employee engagement tools is transparency. To be transparent requires two-way communication, therefore, feedback from employees is important. Honesty creates a solid platform to building a relationship of trust and loyalty. Employees want to be heard and they want to be respected. Listening shows that you care. Additionally when you receive feedback, act upon it. This helps improve employee morale.

PRIDE – The ego must go. The ego blinds us with a false sense of indestructibility, clouds our judgement thus leading to poor decisions and a break down of relationships. It’s not about you. Build a strong team and surround yourself with smart, passionate and highly competent people. Researchers at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in Illinois in one research stated, “flattery and opinion conformity” makes leaders overconfident, resulting in “biased strategic decision making” and an overall disconnect from the execution on the ground.

Developing leadership skills is a lifetime project. It’s too easy, as a leader, to feel like you have to be the one who knows everything. Great leaders recognize that they need to keep learning. Leaders need to be willing to learn and be open to seeking input from both inside and outside their organizations. Feedback allows us and the organization to grow. Additionally, treat everyone you meet with respect, from the janitor to the CEO. Great business tips may come from the most unlikely sources.

” Listening is crucial to gaining a complete understanding of situations. Without this full understanding, one can easily waste everyone’s time by solving the wrong problem or merely addressing a symptom, rather than the root cause.”

Titans as Blackberry, Kodak and Nokia have paid the price for leaders who refused to listen. Their leaders operated in a bubble and engaged in group think. The greater your success, the more you need to stay in touch with fresh opinions and perspectives and welcome honest feedback. Raw truth is needed to make well-informed decisions and steer the organization in the right direction.

As a leader, your job is to encourage others around you to be open and honest without a negative consequence. When employees offer their ideas and differing opinions – be open-minded. Companies that remain strong in this competitive market, understand the need to embrace change and continuous improvement. More than ever, leaders will need to master the skill of “Lead with Listening.” The success of your business will depend on it!

Check out my latest Bestselling Book

 Leading the Workforce of the Future

For far too long, being nice has been mistaken for being weak. In reality, niceness is an necessary quality of leadership for the world we’re living in. It has become so rare that when someone does a kind act or goes out of their way to be nice to someone, it goes viral on social media. Being nice doesn’t mean you can’t make hard decisions or stand up to difficult people, it just means you are respectful, kind, and show empathy to your employees.

When kindness isn’t modeled in the workplace, we find ourselves in an environment that is, unhealthy and at worst, toxic. Today people are clamoring for a more human style of leadership. In an age of automation and AI, leaders hard skills are easily being replicated by smart technology. What will make the difference in effective leadership is soft skills.

Here are 7 ways I’ve found being nice can bring you more success as a leader at work. You can start to encourage a culture of being nice to others by carrying out random acts of kindness during your day.

1. Be considerate: Hold the door open for the person behind you. If you are going to the water cooler, ask someone close to you if they would like you to fetch water for them also.

2. Smile at a colleague. When you make eye contact and smile at someone you are showing that they matter which gives them a boost of happiness.

3. Mind your manners. Say “Good morning” or “Hello” to colleagues more often.

4. Show appreciation: Be more vocal in your praise. Acknowledge the contribution and efforts of others.

5. Listen more. Learn to listen with the intent to understand. Don’t just dismiss or ridicule others’ viewpoints. Listening shows that you care.

6. Offer support and help to team members who are struggling.

7. Treat everyone with the same level of respect, whether it be the janitor or the CEO.

Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind always.

The way you treat others shows your values and true character. You can’t influence others if you aren’t authentic. Employees are looking at you as a leader to determine if they can trust you.

In my experience, tough and nice doesn’t have to be incompatible. Managers, please use the human-to-human approach when dealing with employees. It’s people you are dealing with, not just a statistic on a graph. Get to know your people, meet them where they are, and be flexible. Employees want to be treated as human beings.

In the end, people make companies successful. Any strategy or business plan relies on motivated and engaged people to make it happen! It’s just like a relationship. For a relationship to last, there must be mutual respect, love, trust, understanding and appreciation. Without these, the foundation is shaky. This is why the most successful companies focus on people and relationships, and make sure both are not just managed but lead and cared for.

Check out my latest Bestselling Book

 Leading the Workforce of the Future

There’s a lot of truth behind the saying, “People don’t leave bad jobs. They leave bad bosses.” More often than not, it’s not because they are underpaid, rather it’s because they feel undervalued and unappreciated. Sadly many managers think that they’ve fulfilled their duty by providing a paycheck, but that’s not enough if you want engaged and productive employees.

All great bosses know that employees need to feel appreciated. Nothing works better than positive reinforcement. Research suggests you need to praise at least three times as much as you criticize to keep employees happy. Instead of being quick to criticize, be quick to point out some of the great things you see your employees doing. This will not only reinforce these positive actions with the employees that performed them, but also encourage other employees to do the same. Appreciation coupled with incentive rewards is a great morale and productivity booster. Even the slowest employee will work to the best of their ability if they know their efforts are appreciated.

It does not cost much to show employees how much you appreciate them:

– Punish in private; praise in public. Make the public praise timely and specific.

– A personalized thank you giving specifics on how the employee has helped.

– Recognition in meetings.

–Remember to cc people’s supervisors. “Don’t tell me. Tell my boss.”

– A random breakfast or lunch.

– A relevant gift. Even something that can help them do their job better.

– Time off

Actions speak louder than words. Saying, “Thank You” can only have real meaning if employees know you are an authentic person. Be a leader who genuinely cares about employees. Other great phrases that go hand in hand with “Thank You” are:

•       Great job.
•       Well done.
•        I’m sorry.
•        How can I help you?
•       What are your thoughts?

“People work for money but go the extra mile for recognition, praise and rewards.” -Dale Carnegie

Two of the most basic human desires are validation and appreciation — we need to feel like we matter. People want to feel appreciated, respected and included. Sometimes it’s the little things we do that counts the most. Waiting too long to appreciate employees could result in those you lead feeling resentful. Not only do underappreciated employees cost more when they (inevitably) leave but they cost a lot more if they stay. (faulty work, poor customer service, reduced productivity)

Choose to see the best in others. Choose to see what makes them amazing. Let them know the amazing things you see. Play to your team’s strengths and everyone wins.

Check out my latest Bestselling Book

 Leading the Workforce of the Future