Profile

Professional summary

Stewart Liff is an internationally-recognized expert on performance management (including visual performance management), human resources management and team development. He shares his expertise as a consultant, an educator, a speaker and as an accomplished author of seven books.

Stew has 32 years of human resources experience working in the Federal government, the last 12 as a Senior Executive. His tenure was highlighted by numerous awards including the Presidential Rank Award, OPM PILLAR Award and the President's Council on Management Improvement Award. In addition, two of the offices under Stew’s direction received 3 Hammer Awards from Vice-President Gore for outstanding achievement in reinventing government.

Stew’s published

Engagement overview

I usually have an introductory meeting followed by giving training classes and/or extensive consulting services.

Clients

• Departments of Defense
• Justice
• Labor
• Agriculture
• Veterans Affairs
• OPM
• Several Medical Centers
• Brigham Young University
• State of Georgia
• Ohio Department of Alcohol
• Drugs and Mental Health
• American Management Association
• Federal Managers Association
• Various Federal Executive Boards
• A Private Sector Manufacturing Plant
• A Private Sector Entertainment Company

I have also spoken at dozens events including:

- ASTD International Conference and Exposition
- Government Executive's Conference
- The FMA Conference
- The BYU Marriott School of Business International Conference
- The Government HR Summit in Abu Dhabi
- The Training Magazine Conference

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Areas of expertise
Insights

Question: How best to improve team performance?

Organizations are perfectly designed to get the results that they get. Thus, if you want to change your results, look to your design.
How are your systems set up? Do they support teams? Do your processes support teams or units? (e.g. does your space promote teamwork or isolation? Do you reward individual achievement to the exclusion of group achievement?)
Are you clear about your mission, vision... Read more

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Question: Getting new hires up to speed faster

First of all, this is your one chance to make a good first impression, so keep this in mind in developing your on-boarding process.

In terms of the first day, hold the orientation in a well-designed location that honors your mission and history, celebrates your employees and positively shapes their view of the organization. Don't hold orientation in a dreary, boring room.
Second, make sure eac... Read more

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Question: Reducing dysfunctional peer competition among managers

Organizations are perfectly designed to get the results that they get. This means that if you want collaboration and cooperation, you must design that into your organization. There are two ways to do this, but they should both go hand in hand:

1) from the top leader down, management must drive and embody a culture where collaboration and cooperation are valued. If this doesn't happen, you need to... Read more

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Question: How do we use performance appraisals to drive a change in employee behavior?

If your goal is to change the behavior of the employee, you need to implement the concept of reliable consequences. By this I mean there needs to be reliable consequences for every level of performance and behavior regardless as to whether you like the employee or not. In other words, you need to systematize the consequences so that people see and understand that there are benefits to excellent pe... Read more

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Publications
STEWARTLIFF.COM

Practical Management Advice for Government

Undoubtedly, many of you have heard about the IRS scandal involving alleged improper audits of the Tea Party. You may also know about the debacle in Benghazi, which led to the deaths of several Americans. Most of you are probably familiar w... Read more

STEWARTLIFF.COM

The Importance of Dealing with Problem Employees

Why Not Dealing With Problem Employees Is Not A Solution — The outcome of this commonly held belief is that almost everyone is unhappy – the general public is displeased because they feel its civil servants are virtually untouchable –... Read more

STEWARTLIFF.COM

The 5 Warning Signs of Having a Difficult Employee

Even a single difficult employee can ruin the efficiency of your workplace environment. Teamwork requires cooperation and dedication by every member of your team. If you aren’t receiving this level of employee engagement from every employ... Read more

ATEAMOFLEADERS.COM

How Government Can Benefit from a Team of Leaders

From the perspective of this sample of federal employees, the things that cause them the most dissatisfaction are the actions or inactions of their supervisors. That means if their supervisors were to manage more effectively, the employees,... Read more

ATEAMOFLEADERS.COM

Building Teams of Leaders in the Government

A team of leaders is what we refer to as a Stage Five Team in the application of the Five-Stage Team Development Model. To get to that level, teams that desire to become teams of leaders evolve through careful planning from a traditional S... Read more