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What really sets the best managers above the rest? It's their power to build a cadre of employees who have great inner work lives-consistently positive emotions; strong motivation; and favorable perceptions of the organization, their work, and their colleagues. The worst managers undermine inner work life, often unwittingly. As Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer explain in The Progress Principle, seemingly mundane workday events can make or break employees' inner work lives. But it's forward momentum in meaningful work-progress-that creates the best inner work lives. Through rigorous analysis of nearly 12,000 diary entries provided by 238 employees in 7 companies, the authors explain how managers can foster progress and enhance inner work life every day. The book shows how to remove obstacles to progress, including meaningless tasks and toxic relationships. It also explains how to activate two forces that enable progress: (1) catalysts-events that directly facilitate project work, such as clear goals and autonomy-and (2) nourishers-interpersonal events that uplift workers, including encouragement and demonstrations of respect and collegiality. Brimming with honest examples from the companies studied, The Progress Principle equips aspiring and seasoned leaders alike with the insights they need to maximize their people's performance. Teresa Amabile is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration and a Director of Research at Harvard Business School. Michelle Bavester, MSLOC student recommends this book. She says: "The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile? Her book has a checklist of sorts for making work meaningful and igniting engagement in employees. There's a lot of real-life examples from her research that she uses to illustrate her points as well. It's a great read!"

Gallup Business Journal by Robyn Reilly January 7, 2014 Only 13% of employees worldwide are engaged at work. Managers everywhere can help solve this problem -- and reap the benefits of higher employee engagement. Shared by Sonya Perez-Lauterbach, MSLOC student via Twitter

Author: Karen Bonsignore Date: NA Shared by: Sandy Schwan, MSLOC Alum on Evolving Strategies blog Organizational leaders must fully understand the consequences of disengagement, and devote attention and resources to initiatives that will increase and sustain employee engagement. Employees are free to leave their jobs to find more fulfilling work, or a better work environment, or even a more supportive boss. However, building an engaged workforce is the responsibility of a leader: from the top-down. The reason is that while there are known factors that can drive or derail engagement, regular employees are generally not in control of company policies and practices. Consequently, the buck begins at the top.

Written by Peggy Troyer, MSLOC Alumna March 18, 2014 "One of my responsibilities, as my company's Human Resource Partner, is to help managers make the right decisions on how they should reward their employees during our annual compensation review cycle. Over the years, a common assumption my managers may come to me for advice is, "How could anyone stay motivated to work if I don't give them a raise? Everyone must get something or they will surely leave." Is there more to a job than just money? Lately the people who have been awarded 5-8% pay increases have been the ones to leave our organization. In one recent exit interview, a high-performing employee said, "For some reason, I get paid exceedingly well for what I do, and though it was nice, I just didn't understand why the company won't use the money to hire more help." Interestingly, why do people still make the decision to stay with an organization after receiving no increase, while others leave after receiving an 11% increase in compensation and rave reviews?"

By Kelly Ross, MSLOC 2011 Today's increasingly global business world is resulting in more organizations sending employees to work outside their home countries as expatriates. Organizations incur tremendous costs to support expatriate assignments, which can be challenging for the employees. This study defines characteristics of successful expatriates and assesses how coaching can support the expatriate's success.

Author: Karen Bonsignore (MSLOC Alumna) Date: NA Shared by: Sandy Schwan, MSLOC Alumna magine how employee engagement might be increased if the performance feedback was for the purpose of positively influencing behavior change, or helping an employee grow in their job, and inspiring creativity and inspiration in a workforce. Yet no performance system is perfectly objective: no matter how hard we may try to be objective, our (even our reviewers') feelings, opinions, judgment are still subjective and will always interfere with the system! So how do we use a flawed system to our advantage?

Author: Will Yakowicz Shared by: Cathy Brough April 28, 2014 Is your company innovation-friendly? It's easy to talk about the need to innovate, create new ideas, and build new avenues of revenue, but if your employees aren't submitting ideas, it may mean they are holding on to them.

Author: Matt Palmquist March 20, 2014 Shared by: Andee Weinfurter Bottom Line: Although the forward-thinking and innovative efforts of employees drive many elements of corporate strategy and success, managers lag behind in their ability to support such creative endeavors. They must give employees the resources to take on their own pet projects, and turn them into corporate assets.

Andreas von der Heydt February 2, 2014 Shared by Michelle Bavester There was a strong agreement that in most organizations - and although people spend a substantial part of their lives working - a vast majority of teams and employees are not engaged at all. And as a result such organizations do not perform at their best. Let me share with you the main points we touched upon . . .

By Robyn Clark and Judah Kurtz (MSLOC alumnus) January 15, 2014 Coaching is a proven, effective tool for helping leaders to create a culture that fosters higher employee performance, increased engagement and retention, and enhanced business results."

By Eric Jaffe Shared by Keeley Sorokti, MSLOC alumna "By now we're all familiar with the stereotypes of different generations in the workplace. Boomers are workaholics who respect authority and have a lifelong loyalty to their company. Generation X employees prize a work-life balance. Millennials float from job to job and flaunt managerial authority and are too busy texting to care what you think of that. Given the popular consensus about office generational gaps--and the abundance of advice columns on bridging them--you'd think evidence for these traits would be strong. That's not at all the case, says management scholar John Bret Becton of University of Southern Mississippi. "We're always looking for a reason why people are different," Becton tells Co.Design. "But at least half of the research shows there's really not a lot of difference.""

11/04/2013 by Jason Feifer Shared by Claudia Richman, MSLOC Student, on Twitter - @claudiarichman

Shared by Brynn Harrington, MSLOC alumna, on Twitter "Gallup has found that one of the most important decisions companies make is simply whom they name manager. Yet our analysis suggests that they usually get it wrong. In fact, Gallup finds that companies fail to choose the candidate with the right talent for the job 82% of the time. Bad managers cost businesses billions of dollars each year, and having too many of them can bring down a company. The only defense against this massive problem is a good offense, because when companies get these decisions wrong, nothing fixes it. Businesses that get it right, however, and hire managers based on talent will thrive and gain a significant competitive advantage."

Author: Phyllis Korkki Date: April 12, 2014 Shared by: Jessica Catz, MSLOC Student Who really makes the changes in an organization? It's not always the people with the highest executive titles. A growing body of research has pointed to the importance of informal leaders known to researchers as "brokers," who have the gift of connecting employees in productive new ways.

Author: Peggy Troyer (MSLOC Alum) Date: NA Shared by: Sandy Schwan (MSLOC Alum), on Evolvong Strategies blog Is there more to a job than just money? Lately the people who have been awarded 5-8% pay increases have been the ones to leave our organization. In one recent exit interview, a high-performing employee said, "For some reason, I get paid exceedingly well for what I do, and though it was nice, I just didn't understand why the company won't use the money to hire more help." Interestingly, why do people still make the decision to stay with an organization after receiving no increase, while others leave after receiving an 11% increase in compensation and rave reviews?

Results from 2013 survey of change management success, reasons for failure.

November 25, 2013 by Lisa Evans Thanksgiving provides an opportunity to reflect on all that we're grateful for, but for some companies, gratitude is not a once-a-year occasion, but is a value embedded in their company culture. Shared by Dorie Blesoff, MSLOC Instructor

Shared by Dorie Blesoff, MSLOC 441 Designing Sustainable Strategic Change Instructor

April 2014 Blog post by Swati Sarupria, MSLOC Alumna on Sandy Schwan's Evolving Strategies blog. "Values are enduring patterns of belief that we, as individuals, consider to be fundamentally important in our personal lives. They consciously or unconsciously guide our thoughts and actions. The alignment of values also forms the basis on which a group of people might flock together - like runners running for a common cause, or activists rallying against an unfavorable policy. Values influence who we get close to and forge stronger friendships with. In some ways, values help define our individuality. However, are values really only relevant to our personal lives? How many of us pay attention to values in the context of our jobs and organizations?"

Author: Simon Sinek Date: May 19, 2014 Shared by: Andee Weinfurter