Train new employees for four weeks, then offer them $1,000 to quit? Sounds like a crazy way to run a business. The bribe is one way online shoe retailer Zappos ensures that its employees have the commitment and energy needed to make this customer-obsessed organization succeed.

Only one in 10 workers looks forward to work, and most say the lack of leadership is why, according to a Maritz Research survey last year. That doesn’t have to happen. Here are seven ways to get across your vision, values and mission.

Who doesn’t hate performance reviews? They destroy morale and teamwork, says Samuel Culbert, a management professor at UCLA, and they hurt the bottom line. The alternative: Instead of a one-side-accountable, top-down review, consider a both-sides-accountable performance preview.

The British Empire in the 1920s was losing its grip on India. Winston Churchill and F.E. Smith, aka Lord Birkenhead and the secretary of state for India, keenly wanted to hang on. So Birkenhead came up with a counterintuitive idea ...

What do the nation’s top 25 small business employers (those with 50 to 250 employees) have in common? Great communication. The top 25 put into play an “open communication” concept, says Deb Cohen, chief knowledge officer at the Society for Human Resource Management.

In workplaces where ideas grow, there are many more ideas than time to harvest them. If that’s not true in your shop, or if the ideas are not as tasty as they could be, check out CEO Philip Newbold, who, at age 60, champions innovation at a hospital in Indiana ...

Bouncing your great idea off a co-worker before presenting it to the boss or in a meeting can help you tweak the idea to perfection. But by doing so, you run the risk of someone else “borrowing” your idea and passing it off as his or her own.

Never underestimate the importance of followers. Here’s a quick way to estimate your followers’ potential so that together, you can get the most done.

The former USS Benfold commander is a font of advice on leading a self-contained group, gleaned from his early days aboard an “ugly bucket” through his current studies of leadership. Capt. Michael Abrashoff operates by respecting his staff and taking necessary risks. Here, at random, are three of his approaches to leading:

The great military genius of antiquity, Hannibal, relied on strategy over strength because that’s what he had. An army brat from the thriving North African kingdom of Carthage, Hannibal lived from 247 to 183 B.C., becoming a general at age 26. He spent 16 years fighting and winning against the mighty Roman legions. Here’s how.

Navy captain Ed Gantt teaches Junior ROTC at a Maryland high school, where he asked a dozen students to serve as color guards at Andrews Air Force Base. “Is there anyone willing to take this responsibility?” asked Gantt.

Groom future leaders by investing in their development early.

You need both common sense and humility to send your people into the unknown. Adapt this 10-point checklist to keep them moving forward:

Here are 16 ways to invest in your employees and not spend a dime. Separately, each can generate a positive return on your investment in the form of greater engagement and motivation and passion for their company, your company, their brand, your brand.

To build a positive workplace culture, you must deal with negativity and energy vampires head on. CEO Dwight Cooper dealt with the negativity problem by creating a company policy he called “The No Complaining Rule.”

A recent study on hotel towels may have implications for the office. Researchers found that guests were more likely to hang up and reuse their towels if the little cards in their bathrooms focused on the actions of other guests ...

As the leader, you need to take your team through uncertain situations by absorbing uncertainty for them. People facing an uncertain future go into “frozen in the headlights” mode: Nothing happens while they wait for more information.

As U.S. companies struggle to weather the recession, many are cutting back employee hours. In fact, part-timers now make up 5% of the workforce. Using part-timers may make economic sense, but it can give supervisors fits. Here are five ways to get the most out of part-time workers.

The most popular team-building exercise among employees of InsureMe in Englewood, Colo., is a four-day trip to Juarez, Mexico, during which they build homes for low-income Mexican families. Nineteen of the firm’s 64 employees have made the trek. Each employee gets two paid days off to participate ...

Many interruptions come from decision-averse people, or people who think they don’t have the power to make decisions. Stem the tide of interruptions by adopting a military tactic: Train your people to make their own decisions.

You expect colleges and universities to prepare your youngest workers for their new jobs. But are you prepared for them? These digital natives quickly grow impatient with last year’s hardware and software. Hiring them puts more pressure on your organization to keep its technology ahead of the curve.

Imagine building a product used by 150 million people and relying extensively on volunteers and individuals outside your company walls to create it. That’s what Mozilla Corp., maker of the web browser Firefox, has done for the past 10 years, under the helm of Mitchell Baker.

When faced with a poor-performing or disruptive employee, it’s easy for supervisors to play the wait-and-see game and simply hope the situation will improve. But problems rarely solve themselves. And that’s especially true with problem employees.

With the Employee Free Choice Act on the Congressional front-burner, organized labor is poised for rapid expansion. Now is the time to audit your vulnerability to union organizing. How can you tell if workers might be eager to become union members? Ask yourself these questions.

Your company probably put up a Christmas tree to brighten the workplace during the holidays. Don't be surprised if an employee suggests putting up other symbols of the season, such as a menorah. If you reject that suggestion, should you worry that you’ll be ringing in the New Year with a religious discrimination lawsuit?