All articles by Nathaniel RottenbergBlog Index

Great leadership insights. Sweet moves.

Commentary by Derrick Sivers

Tags: Funny Fridays, Leadership, Leadership Lessons, Rypple

How important is workplace culture? Well, do you prefer success or failure? Do you want the best talent trying to break down your door to get in or charging out the door to get away?

How often have you heard someone say something along these lines, “I love what I do, but I can’t stand my company”? For many people, this sentiment is expressed everyday. Who, faced with an alternative, would choose to remain at an organization where they dread going to work everyday? My guess, very few people.

How do you create a great corporate culture? How about: A major upheaval, lots of consultants writing recommendations, tps cover sheets, and all sorts of crazy re-organizations. How about something a little lighter?

One idea: Simple techniques that recognize the hard work, dedication, and accomplishments of your colleagues.

Here are a few ideas – for everybody, not just managers – on how to recognize the hard work and dedication of co-workers:

• Say it!: Walk over to a colleagues desk and say “Great job on that project”. Often, a simple acknowledgment is powerful enough to put a smile on someones face and make their day. Simple, but powerful.
• Celebrate success: When your team completes a tough project, celebrate. Take them out for lunch, have fun, and relax before you get down to the grind again.
• Make it visible: At a meeting, share how well you thought an individual or a team performed.

A great corporate culture is something that takes time and effort to build. But hey, recognizing the hard work of your colleagues and reports is great way to start, and you’ll notice the effects pretty quickly. Hopefully you’ll start to hear “I love what I do, and I enjoy working for my company.”

Tags: Corporate, Kudos, Recognize Accomp, Rypple

Kudos is a social way to publicly praise teammates and recognize them for a job well done.

Until April 9th, give Kudos and be automatically entered to win awesome prizes!

You Could Win:

• Trip to Miami’s South Beach!
• Apple iPad
• Apple iPod Nanos and Shuffles
• Flip MinoHD Cameras
• Lots More Great Prizes

Your team is full of rock stars. Give them their well deserved kudos and win a whole whack of fabulous prizes. More Details at workplacehero.com

Tags: iPad, Prizes, Rypple, Workplace Hero

Should you internationalize your business and acquire foreign customers? That can be a tough question. Rypple co-CEOs, Daniel Debow and David Stein, share their experience in the The Mark News article, The Trick to Going Global

While some industries are better suited to foreign expansion than others, successful internationalization ultimately comes down to managerial will and skill.

Check out why Daniel and David believe international markets are a key component to the success of Rypple.

Tags: Daniel Debow, david stein, Rypple, The Mark News, The Trick to Going Global

What’s changed? Everything. I’m not joking: we’ve literally changed everything from the homepage, to how you get feedback, to the entire application. Over the past few months we’ve been busy speaking to thousands of people at many different organizations to understand how we can make Rypple better. We learned a ton. The result: Rypple 2.0.

The new Rypple is three tools to turn managers into leaders and employees into high performers.

Rypple Kudos:

You work hard and so does your team. Recognizing and praising your team’s work and dedication is essential for creating and maintaining a motivated and hard working team. Enter Rypple Kudos. Rypple Kudos is a a social way to publicly praise teammates and recognize them for a job well done. They’re fun too. You can award badges and personalize the design of your kudos. Check out Rypple Kudos for more info.

Rypple Insight:

Rypple Insight is the new way to get feedback. We’ve made getting feedback social to help increase collaboration within your team and make team members more effective. Get immediate, anonymous feedback on quick questions. Gather ongoing insights from trusted advisors. Improve! Check out Rypple Insight from more info.

Rypple Coach:

Great leaders coach their people to help them learn, develop, and improve. That’s why we created Rypple Coach. Coach helps managers become leaders and makes it easy to have ongoing and productive 1:1 conversations with your team. Check out Rypple Coach for more info.

Rypple’s New look

We’re very excited to announce these new tools and the new design of Rypple! We think the new design is much cleaner and does a great job of explaining what the new Rypple is all about. Of course we want your feedback, so let us know what you think of Rypple 2.0

Tags: Release Notes, Rypple, Rypple 2.0, Rypple Coaching, Rypple Insight, Rypple Kudos

Have a great long weekend. Enjoy!

courtesy of Dilbert.com

If you want learn how to have a successful performance review, check out our performance review tips. Here’s a summary:

Be Prepared: It’s like the saying “Know thy enemy”. Maybe that’s a little dramatic, but you get the idea. Know what you’re facing so you can do everything in your power to ensure a successful outcome.

Read more on How to be prepared for your performance review.

The Response: Start by highlighting the areas that you’ve improved since your last performance review. Especially the skills that were previously identified as weaker. Use an example of a successful project you worked on to highlight how you’ve improved those skills. This shows that you’re tracking the areas you need to improve and actively working on them.

Read more on How to respond to tough performance review question

The Negative Review: Don’t turn your review into a ‘boxing match’. If your manager gives you negative feedback, don’t get defensive. Acting defensively won’t change the outcome, and will only make you look worse. Being able to take criticism is an important aspect of business and life, and something that managers look for in future leaders.

Read more on How to handle a negative performance review

Tags: how to have a successful performance review, Negative Performance Reviews, performance review tips, Performance Reviews

Performance management NFL style!

Like this? Check out last week’s Funny Friday: Performance Review lessons from the Office

Tags: Performance Reviews, Perfrmance Management

Performance reviews are no fun in general. They’re especially painful when you receive a poor grade. Here’s a few helpful tips to help you get through a negative review:

• Don’t turn your review into a ‘boxing match’. If your manager gives you negative feedback, don’t get defensive. Acting defensively won’t change the outcome, and will only make you look worse. Being able to take criticism is an important aspect of business and life, and something that managers look for in future leaders.
• Ask questions and seek clarification. Ask for specific steps you can take to improve your performance. Not only will this help you improve, it will show your manager that you’re serious about improving. Your goal should be to finish your review with an understanding of exactly what you’re doing (or not doing) that lead to a less then stellar review.
• Don’t take it personally. A review that doesn’t honestly assess your performance will hurt more in the long run than negative feedback now. You’ll keep making the same mistakes which may eventually lead to your dismissal. Remember this: negative feedback may sting now but will help in the long run.

A poor performance review isn’t the end of the world. Use it as motivation to improve, and show your boss what you’re really capable of.

Check out our previous performance review tips: Be Prepared and The Response

Tags: Feedback, negative feedback, performance review, performance review tips

Now this is how to have a successful performance review…

Tags: Funny Fridays, performance review, performance review lessons, The Office