Mike Neiss has a great entry on his blog titled Starving The Golden Goose. His theme is the need to improve employee engagement and he gives eight specific things you can do to improve in that area. You can have the smartest, most skilled employees, but they are essentially worthless if they aren't engaged and motivated. It's well worth the time to read it.

Some related articles:

• Passion Pays
• The Right People In The Wrong Jobs
• The Lesson of the Red Horse
• Larry Doesn't Work Here Anymore
• Take Ownership of Your Job

The bad economy and the pressure that puts on people and businesses has a lot of people stressed out right now. Too much stress can make you think less clearly or it can paralyze you. You probably can't remove all the stress from your life, but there are specific things you can do that will help you deal with it. Read Ten Ways To Reduce Stress At Work to learn how to feel better and be healthier at work.

And if any of your employees are showing signs of stress, these same tips can help them too.

If you are planning a team building exercise this summer, you should be planning your event already. The article Team Building Exercises and Icebreakers will help you make your event memorable and successful. This three-part article provides tips and resources to make your team building exercise the one everyone looks forward to each year, not the one they make jokes about.

Although I write about leadership topics myself (Leadership Skills) I enjoy finding great leadership articles by others. Here are a few I discovered today:

• Tips for being an inspirational leader. Not sure I agree with the 3rd bullet point. What do you think? Click "comments" link below.
• Being a Bad Leader: 5 Ways to Improve Your Leadership Abilities Through Communication. Done in the reverse style (like my article Top 10 New Manager Mistakes) it's a good read.
• Cut turnover and save. I agree that "turnover can kill you", but I don't know that I'd go so far as to undersell. What about just being frank and honest?

Add your comments below.