"Quantifying the gap between exemplary and average employees demonstrates the tremendous potential for organizations to increase the performance of their workforces." —Tom Gilbert, author of Human Competence: Engineering Worthy Performance In the last four blog entries, I've explained my new Productivity Management Matrix in considerable detail. This metric compares levels of employee engagement and performance against one another, organizing workers into four broad categories: Campers, Cheerleaders, Defectors, and Productives. But as within any categorization system, not everyone fits neatly. For example, what if someone is just plain average on both fronts? What if both their performance and engagement levels, taken together, fall right smack in the middle of all four quadrants—on the … [Read more...]

"When employees and employers, even coworkers, have a commitment to one another, everyone benefits." — Donald Trump "You can lead an employee to water, but if you find one who knows a better path to the water, shut up and get a bucket." —business writer Dale Dauten. Last but far from least, let's take a look at the ultimate employee category in my Productivity Management Matrix: the Productives. These are the extraordinary people who manage to combine high engagement with high performance in a synergistic way that makes them the superstars of just about any organization. How to Spot a Productive Productives are the employees you wish everyone could be. The combine a firm sense of engagement with high performance, making life easier for everyone else on the team—which usually makes … [Read more...]

"I consider it the highest compliment when my employees go out and start their own companies in competition with me. I always send them a plant to wish them well. Of course, it's a cactus.” —Norm Brodsky, entrepreneur and author. "The actively disengaged employees are the "cave dwellers." They're "Consistently Against Virtually Everything." They're not just unhappy at work; they're busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day, actively disengaged workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish." -- Curt Coffman, author of First Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently If you've been reading my blog recently, you're no doubt familiar with my Productivity Management Matrix , a method by which I categorize employees based on two factors: performance … [Read more...]