Marnie Green

What Does It Take to Get a

If you are responsible for completing performance evaluations for employees, be prepared to answer the age-old question: "What does it take to get a ____ rating?" Regardless of the scale used in your organization's performance management system, employees... Read >

Myths of the Rating Scale

There are some wacky ideas out there when it comes to rating employee performance. If your organization's performance evaluation system uses a rating scale, you have inevitably heard some crazy ideas about performance evaluations. The following "myths" p... Read >

What Everyone Knows

Every organization has a set of beliefs, or norms, that guide day to day interactions and processes. Organizational beliefs help to frame our decision making and allow us to be consistent and efficient. In public agencies, there are a lot of them. Someti... Read >

Be Goals, Do Goals

Are you a finisher? Do you love the feel of completing a task and checking it off your list? Goal completion is a strong human motivator. Yet, writing significant goals that have a positive impact on the work environment can be tough. Here's a framework t... Read >

O-o-O: The Most Powerful Management Tool

The regularly scheduled one-on-one has been called the most powerful management tool we have. Yet many public sector managers are not having regular one-on-one (O-o-O) meetings with employees. To make the O-o-O effective, it should be regularly schedule... Read >

Who Says It Can't Be Done in the Public Sector?

Fast Company magazine recently featured a creative example of public sector innovation in the face of budgetary constraints. We can all learn from this example. The article profiled Marcel Melanson, Battalion Chief of the Compton, CA Fire Department. Me... Read >

What Else? 3X

As managers we know we are expected to engage employees in problem solving. We can't solve all the problems for them, right? We know that in the long run it's not a good idea to dictate answers and orders. They'll never learn to work on their own. In ... Read >

The Gift of Acknowledgement

The holidays are gift-giving time. In the workplace gift-giving doesn't mean you have to spend money to acknowledge the good work of employees. With reduced budgets and stretched resources, this is the perfect time to give what employees crave most: ackno... Read >

Performance Evaluations Don't Have to Be Painful

Why does performance evaluation season come with a sense of dread and anxiety? Why do we shrink from this annual routine with such pessimism? Managers and employees alike prefer to shun the performance management process and for good reason. Our long-held... Read >

Performance Management: More Important Than Ever

In today's business climate, organizations must actively managing employee performance. In a climate of restructuring and downsizing, top performers are a prized and valuable resource. And, with fewer employees on many payrolls, managers are realizing the... Read >

Ten for 2010

When we are in the middle of turbulence, we look for the smooth patch of air. That's exactly what I saw a client do recently and it was a great example of providing vision in the midst of uncertainty. During my training on mid-year performance conversa... Read >

Everyone Needs to be Seen

What really motivates employees today? Well, just look at them! I haven't met a human being on Earth (yet) who doesn't have a need to be seen. I'm often asked to speak about "motivating employees." This seems like a funny request because what catches the ... Read >

Ideal Isn't Ideal

Personally and professionally many of us have been content with the status quo. And it's worked for us. I know you are saying, "Hey wait! I'm innovative!" and you probably are in many ways. Still, we are now presented with opportunities to reinvent our wo... Read >

Laying Off? Communicate Early and Often

While the economy appears to be lifting from its fog there are still organizations facing the prospect of layoffs. The process of laying employees off is fraught with peril. There are laws to follow and timelines to respect. There is work to restructure... Read >

Doing All the Talking

On a recent cross-country flight I was seated in front of a gentleman who was highly intelligent, skillfully articulate, and utterly clueless. How did I know all this about the man who sat behind me? For the entire four hour flight he talked, and talked, ... Read >