Learn How to Manage and Accept Change

By Becky Spohn   February 26, 2019
Categories: Management, Supervision & Leadership, Uncategorized Tags: change management, change management approaches, change management benefits

In business change is all around us, perhaps it’s a new software program that changes the way you complete your daily work, maybe your CEO retired, and the new CEO has a completely different management style, possibly you’re going through a merger or downsizing. We’ve all heard the saying “If nothing changes then nothing changes.”…
Read More

Shaping Change by Managing Feelings

By Sheryl McAtee   February 26, 2019
Categories: Management, Supervision & Leadership Tags: change management, change management approaches

A wonderful coach recently noted, “People don’t avoid change. They avoid pain.” She went on to stress that change management tools must consider change management behaviors— which are driven by underlying feelings and emotions. How does change cause pain?  When an employee or organization is asked to change, it can threaten deeply seated needs, such…
Read More

Customer Service Best Practices

By Sheryl McAtee   January 29, 2019
Categories: Customer Service Tags: customer service best practice model

Effective customer service requires understanding and responding to a customer’s motives and needs. When a need is met, the customer feels positive emotion.  When a need is not met, negative feelings may result. Reversal Theory is a psychological framework that provides a new customer service best practice model.  The theory proposes that there are eight…
Read More

Love Your Customers

By Becky Spohn   January 29, 2019
Categories: Customer Service Tags: customer service activities, customer service best practices

No matter what business you are in, if you don’t have customers, you don’t have a business. You want to build a strong relationship with your customers that keeps them coming back. Afterall, customers do business with people they know, like and trust. Let’s ensure they don’t just “like” you but that they LOVE you….
Read More

Mentoring Expectations

By Becky Spohn   December 27, 2018
Categories: Management, Supervision & Leadership Tags: mentor characteristics, mentoring expectations

At the ripe old age of eighteen I was promoted into my first assistant-manager position. To say I knew nothing about leading people was an understatement. Two weeks into my promotion I actually heard the words “Because I’m your boss and I said so” come out of my mouth. Wowza, I realized I was in…
Read More

Planning Your Mentoring Sessions: A Mentoring Program Outline

By Sheryl McAtee   December 27, 2018
Categories: Management, Supervision & Leadership Tags: mentoring, mentoring program outline

There are many ways to structure a mentoring relationship.  Some mentees benefit from a free-flowing exchange. The mentee may just need someone to talk to, or they may want to hear stories from you that offer insights for their own development.  Other mentees have expectations that demand more structure.  Mentor characteristics and qualities also play…
Read More

Super-cali-OSHA-listic-expi-ali-docious: A Safety Song

By Sheryl McAtee   November 29, 2018
Categories: OSHA & Workplace Safety Tags: benzene, beryllium, fall protection, osha

In 1964, Mary Poppins hit the theaters, and the word Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious was born. To commemorate it’s return to theaters, let’s have some fun with Pryor’s rendition of Super-cali-OSHA-listic-expi-ali-docious!   ♫ When noise is loud, and all you hear is danger all around, Then drop those decibels, and safety soon shall re-abound.   Look! We need…
Read More

OSHA Ergonomics

By Becky Spohn   November 29, 2018
Categories: OSHA & Workplace Safety Tags: osha ergonomics

In my former career as a facilities manager I was tasked with overseeing all of our OSHA compliance. We were a small company of forty-five employees primarily all office/desk workers. A few months after we moved into a newly built facility with all new furniture (chairs, articulating keyboard trays, etc.), we had a few employees…
Read More

Four Activities to Build a Safety Culture

By Sheryl McAtee   November 29, 2018
Categories: OSHA & Workplace Safety Tags: benzene, beryllium, fall protection

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has a mission to assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women, by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance (osha.gov/about.html). Making sure those standards are met, of course, is up to your organization. While OSHA publishes a myriad of…
Read More

Motivational States: Understand and Shape Employee Motivation

By Sheryl McAtee   October 25, 2018
Categories: Management, Supervision & Leadership Tags: motivational strategies

It’s hard to measure employee motivation in the workplace. Different people are motivated by different things at different times.  Given this changeability, how do we create a motivational strategy that will benefit the entire organization? A psychological tool called Reversal Theory can help. This theory provides a list of eight motivational states that managers can…
Read More