Motivation and a Culture of Performance - Lisa D. Foster, Leadership Coaching & Training

How to build environments where motivation is embedded in the team fabric. This skill integrates confidence, empathy, trust, alignment, and decision making to create sustained performance rooted in human purpose and real needs.

leader wondeing why leadership stops working at scale

Why Leadership Stops Working Even When You’re Doing Everything Right

January 21, 2026

Motivation and a Culture of Performance

If you’re wondering why leadership stops working, consider the impact of the scale of your job. Has encouraging others replaced doing it yourself? In my clients, I see why leadership stops working pretty often. For example, a senior leader I worked with had doubled his firm’s size and revenue and could clearly see a path to doubling again. Yet he was increasingly frustrated. Mistakes were creeping in, and his team didn’t seem as committed as he was. As the organization…

paper airplanes as a metaphonr for the value of leadership skills banner

The Business Value of Strong Leadership

January 14, 2026

Motivation and a Culture of Performance

The Value of Strong Leadership Shows Up in Results The value of strong leadership isn’t abstract or theoretical. It shows up in faster execution, fewer mistakes, lower turnover, and teams that solve problems before they escalate. In most organizations, managers at the same level are judged on similar criteria: results. Everyone is busy. Everyone has their own work to deliver. What separates effective leaders from struggling ones is not effort or authority—it’s how well their teams perform. Organizations don’t just…

Why Leadership Feels Harder Than It Should — and Leadership Skills that Actually Help

December 22, 2025

Motivation and a Culture of Performance

A Leadership Skills Framework that Works as a System to Improve Results without Force or Pressure Leadership skills work together as a system to achieve the results your organization needs, and that every leader needs to be more effective. These skills build on one another and create a system for improving motivation, engagement, and performance. If one of your leadership skills is undeveloped, the whole system weakens. Leadership rarely fails because people don’t care or aren’t trying hard enough. More…

employee engagement vs employee satisfaction at work

Employee Engagement vs Employee Satisfaction: What’s the Difference and Why It Matters for Your Business

December 5, 2025

Motivation and a Culture of Performance

When comparing employee engagement vs employee satisfaction, which should you measure? If your company is still relying on employee satisfaction surveys, it may be time to shift toward measuring employee engagement — the metric most strongly linked to performance, retention, and profitability. For more than a century, researchers have tried to understand what helps employees thrive and what drives productivity. Today, most organizations focus on employee engagement, not satisfaction, because engagement is what truly predicts effort, innovation, and long-term value.…

manager giving effective feedback in the moment

Effective Feedback: How Great Managers Help Their Teams Grow

December 3, 2025

Motivation and a Culture of Performance

If you want to give your team effective feedback that actually helps them grow, focus on making it future-forward, specific, and frequent. Most of us have negative experiences with feedback—criticism that felt harsh, vague, or demotivating. No wonder so many managers hesitate to offer it. But here’s the good news: research shows that when people receive meaningful employee feedback, they learn faster, perform better, and stay more engaged. So, the question becomes: How can we make giving feedback a positive,…

How to Get Promoted: 5 Traps That Hold High Performers Back

December 2, 2025

Motivation and a Culture of Performance

Thinking about how to get promoted often brings out our best instincts — ambition, motivation, and the desire to grow. But for high performers, it can also activate habits that quietly work against promotion. Many people assume advancement comes from working harder or speaking up more. In reality, leaders are promoted for how they make others feel: respected, trusted, aligned, and supported. If you’re aiming for your next step up, here are five promotion traps to avoid — and what…