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🗣️ “Perseverance is a great substitute for talent.” -Steve Martin

🗣️ "Extraordinary benefits accrue to the tiny majority of people who are able to push just a tiny bit longer than most." -Seth Godin

🗣️ "It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward." -Rocky Balboa

🗣️ “The cowards never started and the weak died along the way. That leaves us, ladies and gentlemen. Us.” -Phil Knight

​5 Actionable Tips for Taking Better Handwritten Notes in Your Journal, Work Notebook, etc.​ Try these helpful tactics to make it easier to find important notes when you need them most. ​Read more​

​Performance Management: A Step-by-Step Guide for Managers​ If you have an employee who’s struggling, this guide provides clear steps for how to proceed through each feedback conversation—up to and including termination. ​Read more​

​The Steps by Sylvester Stallone​ ​Nonfiction: Memoir, Film/Entertainment I had no idea Stallone had such a brutal childhood and dealt with so much rejection early in his career. Countless agents told him he'd never make it, so he wrote his own script (Rocky), then refused to sell it to a studio until they agreed to hire him as the lead. Such an inspiring story! Great book.

​The American Way of Killing by Malcolm Gladwell​ ​Nonfiction: Current Events, Politics One thing I love about this book is that it's essentially bipartisan: it will piss off both liberals and conservatives. Gladwell simply follows the data about gun violence and uses his Canadian charm to poke at the many flaws in America's current system (on both sides). I haven't loved some of Gladwell's recent books, but this one was a return to form.

🗣️ "No one is wrong on purpose." -Socrates

I hate it when managers call a direct report "bad," "lazy," or "stupid."

Ninety-nine percent of the time, those are cop-out excuses. They assign blame without examining what else could be at play, like insufficient training, a mismatched skill set, a demotivating environment, etc.

When managing a struggling employee, it’s helpful to accept 3 truths:

1. No one wants to do a bad job. Sometimes, people lose focus or motivation, but that doesn’t mean they’re a bad person or that they’re actively trying to do a poor job.
2. Sometimes an employee is a great fit in one company and a bad fit in another. Performance is a function of how closely someone’s skills and behavior match the specific job tasks, culture, manager, company, etc. Just because someone’s not successful in one job doesn’t mean they won’t be successful somewhere else.
3. The best way to help someone be successful is to share feedback early and often. If you don’t give them feedback, they can't grow and address their weaknesses.

Many times, I've seen poorly performing employees turn things around if their manager simply provides clear direction and candid feedback.

If you're a manager trying to improve your performance management skills, check out this exhaustive guide. It will give you a clear path to follow.

A week ago, I told some of my best buds I couldn't join them for a round of golf because I had to work.

To "honor" my work ethic, they created a less-than-flattering AI image of me ditching out on golf. (Gotta love good friends, eh? 😂)

If you need a laugh today, you can check out the image below.

Have a great week, y'all!

I read one news source first thing every morning: 1440. If you're unfamiliar, you can check it out below. I highly recommend it, and it's totally free.

Visit me at BobbyPowers.com for more articles and book reviews about leadership, communication, and personal development.

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