general-business

Four Words of Caution When Promoting a Culture of Even Better

We’ve talked before about the four benefits of promoting a culture of even better. While we believe in those benefits, we also want to offer a couple words of caution to go with them.

Four Benefits of Promoting a Culture of Even Better

Here at Your Clear Next Step, we have long believed in and practiced creating a culture of even better. What is that? Well, it is the relentless pursuit of continuous improvement. It is a cultural and organization-wide acknowledgment that we have both the desire and the ability to make today even better than yesterday, tomorrow even better...

Work smarter, not harder, plan better!

Five Steps to Sharing the Load in Our Organizations

Recently, I’ve engaged in a couple of conversations with others about a trend we continue to see, especially in volunteer, non-profit, and church organizations. The trend is a little bit distressing and certainly puts a lot of burden on a handful of people. So, the purpose of this blog is to make sure we’re aware of this trend and invite...

Five Tips to Make Small Group Meetings More Effective

If you’ve been following along for a while now, you’ve likely noticed several classes and newsletters about formal meeting etiquette and presentation skills. As one of our most requested topics, we all know there is very much a time and place to put these skills to work. Likely, we’ve all encountered at least one opportunity to facilitate a...

Four Steps to Success by Trying Again

Recently, I watched an individual, who had been asked to complete a task, make one attempt at it, find the results were not what they thought, put their hands in the air – in a gesture of resignation – and say “Nope it doesn’t work”. They showed no frustration, irritation, or hostility. There was simply apathy, a sense of “I tried it, it didn’t work, and...

A Few Thoughts on Having and Being the Favorite

My grandmother gave all five or her children a t-shirt that said, "Mom loves me best." My dad, aunt, and uncles all started teasing each other about who was really the favorite child. Each insisted that mom loved them best.  My grandmother, of course, said something about how they were all her favorites. While this might seem like a sweet gift...

6 Phrases for Kinder, More Productive Conversations

It’s no secret that civil discourse in our modern American society is, at best, eroded.

6 Characteristics Leaders Look for In Their Employees

We’ve heard it before, and we will hear it again: soft skills really are important. Emotional intelligence and communication skills are paramount in the decisions hiring managers make to engage a given candidate, or not. But once you’ve got the job, what kinds of things can you do to cause a boss to look on you with more favor?

Employee engagement continues to be a hot topic. But, we've found that fully understanding what it is, and even more importantly, what to do about it, can be tricky.