As organizations strive to align talent with the right roles, ensuring employee engagement and retention has become more crucial than ever. Over the past 17 years, I’ve worked in the realm of talent optimization, and one of the most effective strategies I’ve encountered is a simple yet powerful exercise called "Love, Loathe, Learn"—or as I like to call it, "Yays and Yucks."

In the ever-evolving world of small businesses, being a great leader is about more than just crunching numbers and making tough decisions. It's also about understanding and managing emotions—both yours and those of your team. Enter Emotional Intelligence (EI), the secret sauce that can transform your leadership style from good to great.

Recently, we partnered with the Small Business Development Center in Chico, California, to lead a workshop titled “Attract, Engage, and Retain Great Employees.”

If your company has compensation right -- and your managers are trained to drive engagement daily in a performance-based culture – Happy New Year!