Blog
In today’s tight labor market with historic levels of low unemployment throughout the U.S., it is imperative for businesses to hire the best people – and keep them! But how do you do that when so few people are looking for jobs, or maybe more importantly when so many can jump ship so easily just to get a quick bump in pay? There actually are several key elements in an employee’s life-cycle experience that can make a huge impact for your organization. Read more ›
As summer quickly comes to a close, I find myself reflecting on the many different leaders I have the privilege of coaching these days. One of whom actually took an extended 4-week vacation this summer, and another who worked her way through a shorter 1-week family trip to Hawaii.
Let’s be clear. I am not judging either of these otherwise very busy and successful results-oriented executives. One for leaving his team to their own devices for an entire month. One for not getting the quality get-away with her family that she had expected. I’m simply recognizing the value of getting away for some good old-fashioned R&R from time to time. The physical and emotional break from work not only gives our bodies the rest they need but also gives our minds the fresh perspective to contribute when we return to work. Read more ›
How often do your leadership and team development efforts stall out because you can’t settle on a day when everybody can get together for training? Or maybe you get stuck because your HR partner wants a full day of classroom training to achieve your most critical learning objectives, and your leadership can’t/won’t give up more than two or three hours – at most! Well, what would you say if I told you that you are probably putting 90% of your effort into solving just 10% of the problem? Read more ›
For more than 20 years now, I’ve been leading all kinds of change efforts in all kinds of organizations. New CEOs and business leaders with new visions or strategic objectives. Merger integration between two previously separate companies. Technology implementation to upgrade business systems. Small family businesses, high-growth companies, Fortune 500 corporations, not-for-profit organizations, and government agencies.
The one constant in all these efforts is PEOPLE. People commissioned with implementing the changes. And people on the receiving end who may or may not want these changes to be implemented. For better or worse, Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) coined the term “change management” back in the ‘90s, so many business leaders more commonly think about managing these complex – often contentious – changes as if it is merely a process you can manage from start to finish rather than leading them forward with the people most impacted by them. The largest association of professionals who specialize in this field even named itself the Association for “Change Management” Professionals just a few years ago. When are we going to learn that we can’t manage change any more than we can manage people’s reactions to and experiences of change? Read more ›
I participated in a leadership workshop for other CEOs and business owners several years ago, and the speaker shared one poignant remark that has stuck with me ever since! In many organizations, we have a tendency to hire very fast and fire very slow. While this may feel like the right thing to do in the heat of the moment, it rarely produces the results we’re looking for.
So why do we do it? More importantly, what can we do about it? The first step to solving this problem is understanding the root causes, so here are several reasons why leaders tend to hire fast and fire slow in most organizations. Read more ›
When I wrote my doctoral dissertation 20 years ago, I researched a variety of different tools to enhance virtual teaming and communications within and across companies. Email was already the most prevalent form of communication and information sharing back then, but people were not nearly as dependent upon it as they are now. Since then, email has had a profound impact on business and the world around us.
I recently had the honor of facilitating a management workshop that was the final course and culmination of a three-year leadership program for the participants. When asked about the key takeaways from their three-year learning journey, their resounding response was to share stories from and recognize the impact of their Business Writing course. Why? Because of the increased prevalence of email communication in each of their daily lives! Do we need any other proof to demonstrate the critical function email plays in our organizations? Read more ›
Eight years ago, I wrote a blog post entitled “The 4 P’s of Olympic Gold”. The article was inspired by Shaun White’s amazing Gold medal performance at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Anybody who watched the Men’s Halfpipe competition that year though knows that White didn’t just deliver one Gold-medal run…
The results were clear before White even started his second and final run. He was still standing on the platform overlooking the crowd when he learned he already won Olympic Gold. In that moment though, he didn’t stop and do the victory dance. He didn’t take the easy way down the pipe with his board in hand. After what seemed like a long debate with his coaches about what to do, he instead looked down to his fans and did what a true Gold medalist would do. He delivered an even better performance than his earlier run, stuck his final landing, and beat himself for the Gold medal – again! Read more ›
Let’s be clear. This article is not about what’s wrong with Millennials, how we can get rid of them, or even how we can change them. I’ve stayed out of the Millennial fray for years now because I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a generation of workers who simply have different wants and needs than those before them. As a somewhat typical Gen Xer myself, I am absolutely the antithesis of my uber-professional Baby Boomer father in more ways than our age! Read more ›
Did you just complete your annual performance reviews at the end of the year? If so, congratulations! No? Then, that probably means you’re still dreading it’s that time of the year!
How often have you heard a business leader grimace or otherwise complain when someone in HR announces it’s time to complete your annual performance reviews – again? People often think of performance management as that thing they have to do once a year at the end of every year for HR so that people can qualify for their bonuses. While that may be part of the process, I hope for your sake that isn’t all that performance management represents in your organization. To be effective, it really needs to be an always, ongoing activity! Read more ›
With unemployment rates falling across the United States since the tail end of the Great Recession, recruitment and retention of top talent has become a critical issue for many business leaders. Unemployment in nearly all our 50 States is under 5% now, so it truly is a strategic imperative to attract the best workers and then keep them engaged once they are on board. Any organization that doesn’t will surely struggle to succeed in 2018!
So how are today’s businesses tackling this growing problem with Workforce America? Many are turning to their compensation and employee benefits programs to create greater performance incentives, reduce employee turnover, and gain an edge on their competition. The following are some of the key strategies several CEOs and business owners reviewed in a CEO workshop I facilitated recently. Read more ›
