As a gardener, I enjoy this time in the summer because you get to step back from your garden and appreciate what all that hard work you did in the spring and early summer has given rise to. This time of the year is also an ideal time to review how the plants are faring in your garden so you can anticipate what changes might need to be made in the upcoming fall or spring.

Walking by the various gardens around my house, I noticed how certain flowers planted a few years ago were now doing a great job filling out what used to be bare spots in the garden. At the same, I also noted which perennials would need to be transplanted in the fall given how they were beginning to outgrow their current place in the garden.

Now, it wasn’t always the case that we had a thriving garden full of multi-coloured blooms and various kinds of foliage. In the first few years when we started working on our garden, it felt more like a losing battle with nature given how many plants we lost to pests, problematic growing conditions and who knows what else. Although it was frustrating, those early years provided us with some valuable lessons about our garden, lessons we’ve since used to create a garden we could enjoy and admire.

After reviewing the steps I took over the last few seasons to get my garden to this point of abundance and sustainability, I noticed that there were some interesting parallels that could be drawn to the process of how to go about creating a strong and successful team. And so, I’d like to present these four valuable lessons I learned from my garden which can help you through the process of building and developing a successful team for your organization: Click here to continue reading »”4 Lessons On Team-Building I Learned From My Garden”

One of the lessons we were all taught by our parents was the importance of saying thank you to others. No matter how small or insignificant the interaction was, we were reminded that expressing gratitude to others was not only polite, but the right thing to do. Of course, as we got older, we also began to appreciate the impact we can create on others – and the impact others can have on us – because we take the time to share with them a word of thanks for their help or support.

While the value and benefit of saying thanks remains apparent and in use (most times) in social settings, there is still some doubt as to whether a similar value can be found in expressing gratitude in business interactions. In some cases, this is due to an organization’s culture or leadership, which may frown upon such gestures being brought into the workplace. For others, it might simply be a question of not having anything outside of anecdotal references that demonstrate the importance and value leaders would gain by expressing thanks to those they lead. In addressing this latter group, there may at last be some empirical evidence that explains how expressing words of gratitude can motivate and engage your team. Click here to continue reading »”How Two Simple Words Can Energize Your Team and Grow Your Business”

With many of us enjoying a festive long weekend, both here in Canada as well as in the United States, I was reminded about the inspiration behind one of my most popular posts from the last several months, that touched on the connection between having a fun time and employee engagement. For recent readers of my blog, I’m sure you’ll find this an enjoyable and inspiring read. And for those of you who have been reading my blog for the last year or so, this will be a pleasant reminder of how to encourage collaboration and engagement within your team.

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Inspiration can be a curious thing.

I’m always amazed at how seemingly unrelated pieces can stir up new ideas or perspectives about our world and the way we live and conduct ourselves within it.  Take, for example, this commercial released on YouTube last week by Coca-Cola called the “Happiness Machine”.

While the commercial is effective in creating this idea of Coca-Cola being a source of happiness, there’s also a valuable lesson here that can be imparted to business leaders in how they interact with their employees.

It’s not hard to see that this social experiment by Coca-Cola led to Click here to continue reading »”A Lesson in Employee Engagement… From A Vending Machine”

Today, the net is abuzz with the release of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s book “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose”. I was fortunate to be selected as one of the bloggers who was sent an advance copy of Hsieh’s book to review on my site (as well as a second copy of the book which I will be giving away for free to one of my readers. More on that later).

In addition to being thrilled at the opportunity to read this book in advance of its release, I was also understandably curious to read the insights of an entrepreneur who was able to take a struggling online shoe retailer and transform it into one of the decade’s biggest success stories. A few chapters into Hsieh’s book, that curiosity soon transformed into one of delight as Hsieh revealed his need to move past seeking profits to finding some purpose and meaning behind his efforts.

Hsieh’s book begins by sharing some stories from his childhood, featuring moments where his budding entrepreneurial spirit propelled him to come up with all sorts of plans on how to make money. The tales are for the most part endearing, reminding the reader of the whimsical image of the makeshift lemonade stand children create to sell beverages to the passersby.

Though Hsieh shares stories going from his college days to the growing success of his first internet company LinkExchange, to help the reader understand where his drive to push Zappos to its current success came from, the story behind his sale of LinkExchange to Microsoft for over $200 million represents Click here to continue reading »”Delivering Happiness – Hsieh’s Book A Celebration of Purpose and Joie de Vivre”