Employees – can’t live with them, can’t live without them, right? Ha. Almost everyone I’ve spoken with recently has said they’re dealing with a higher-than-usual turnover rate (i.e., the Great Resignation), or they’re struggling to hire. Or both. It’s Yet Another Stress Factor in an already really difficult time. And I encourage you to recognize, even in the midst of …
Is there really a Great Resignation?
Yes, I think so. People have been arguing with me about this, but the data don’t lie. (Yes, I insist on “data” being plural, thank you.) The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that April and May, 2021, had the highest “quit rate” EVER. As in, never before this high. As in, really, really high. Look, I get the impulse to …
So what the *^?@ is “culture,” anyway?
Every company has a culture – a personality, if you will. In fact, in larger companies each department or division also has its own sub-culture, which can sometimes be quite different from that of the company as a whole, or that of other departments. If you’ve ever envied a colleague because they worked in a department known for its supportive …
Preventing a toxic culture
Last week, I wrote about managing toxic employees. But what about preventing toxic tendencies right from the start? Toxicity can develop in an environment where individual achievement is valued over team accomplishment. It’s important to acknowledge outstanding contribution at the individual level – and it’s equally important to avoid creating competition between individuals. The outdated and destructive practice of “forced ranking,” …
Got misocainea?
New ideas are the lifeblood of business, creativity, learning, growth – of life itself. And yet so often we fight against them. We resist the threat of change that new ideas bring into our careers and our lives. Obvious case in point: how many companies proclaimed that they couldn’t have everyone working from home, it just wasn’t technically or operationally …
Proposing routine maintenance for … employees?
Your company takes care of the things it owns. The office HVAC system gets regular inspections. Computer hardware and software are upgraded and scanned for problems. Potholes in the parking lot are patched and resurfaced. Manufacturing equipment is routinely overhauled and serviced. Security systems are maintained. And so on. We wouldn’t dream of ignoring holes in the roof or keeping …
Strategy: the alternative to spaghetti
Throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks doesn’t actually work. Supposedly a test to see if the spaghetti is cooked (if it sticks, so the theory goes, it’s done), it fails miserably. On the one hand, if your spaghetti is so well done that it actually does stick to the wall, it’s overdone for a good meal. …
The paradox of process
Process is good. Process is important. Process keeps you from reinventing the wheel every time you complete a recurring task. Without process, you run the risk (or, more accurately, the certainty!) of confusion. One client’s employer had no process for anything – proposals, contracts, customer interactions, project kick-off and closing – everything was ad-hoc, unnecessarily unclear, and fraught with misunderstandings. (Yes, …
Are you going *around* problems?
“Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.” ~ Henry Ford Does that sound familiar? It’s not unusual. There’s something about the human psyche that prefers to stay stuck in a familiar pattern – going around a problem – instead of evaluating the situation and creating change. We don’t like change, even …
Do you have “imagination intelligence”?
What do you want to be different than it currently is?* Can you imagine it? Can you look at and experience what’s here now, and then imagine something different? Do you have the courage to imagine something different? Can you step outside the mindset of how it’s always been – and see something new? Can you manipulate the future in your thoughts …