If you had the chance to design your ideal workplace, what would it be?
Let’s stipulate that these spaces would be clean and safe, because that’s the very least you should expect from work. I’ll also set good technology as a baseline: computers and phones, quality office machines, and a solid WiFi connection.
Considering all the ways we work nowadays, I think I’ve come up with what I’d consider to be the ideal workplace. Read more…
Millennials, the generation born between 1980 and 2000, are entering the workforce at huge numbers.
They’re the biggest generation since the Baby Boomers, but they want something different than the generations before. Millennials are perceived as being entitled and fickle, but they’re actually just unwilling to compromise long term principles for short term gain.
If you manage Millennials you’ve probably scratched your head a few times with this technology-driven generation. It can seem like a tall order to build the kind of trust that’s necessary to build a team when Millennials seem so different from the established workforce.
Building trust with Millennials doesn’t have to be difficult when you understand what’s important to them and build a culture that dovetails with their view of work: Read more…
One of our key insights: 79 percent of people leave managers, not companies.
It’s often reductive to say you left a certain company. The chances are, you didn’t leave a company, you left a manager.
You left a manager who made your work life (and sometimes your personal life) difficult to the point where you were willing to leave a secure position and enter an unknown situation. It’s time to take a hard look at how managers are affecting your retention rates and how you can improve them.
Here’s how you can be a better manager: Read more…
Even the most ideal workplaces can undergo upheaval and changes over time: key people leave, products fail, and restructuring or mergers can feel unstable.
I’ve been in companies where cultural upheavals eventually resolved into great cultures, and others which descended into terrible. There were several significant differences between the companies that rebuilt a better culture and those that failed. Read more…
It almost doesn’t matter how a company is divided, whether it’s vertical (management vs. employees), or horizontal (department vs. department), the end result is a constant state of stress for everyone in the organization.
My empathy to those companies divided into both horizontal and vertical sections. On good days you feel you’ve won a victory, and on bad, you feel like you’ll be fired at any time for any reason.
There’s nothing wrong with inter-department contests and genial ribbing, but there’s a line where sporting behavior crosses into attack and defense, which eats a company from the inside. Read more…
Last week, I discussed how to identify current and future leaders inside your company.
The tactics include observing colleague interactions and basic skill testing (but I encourage you to read the details if you haven’t yet.) Now that you’ve identified some potential leaders inside your organization, it’s time to put them through their paces.
The best leaders have been through a baptism by fire: refining their character, work ethic, and practical skills. You’re going to provide that experience — but in a nice way. Read more…
We all want people on our team who work hard, work smart, work together, and make work fun. But have you actually considered what you’ll do once you have your great employee?
For so many of us, our daydreams about the perfect employee end with the phrase, “You’re hired.” Maybe it’s time to start thinking about how to keep great employees, instead of just how to find great employees. Read more…
“I don't trust her neither. Just like all those Democrats. They all lie. As much as my rugs. They haven't . . . ”
— Soldier on SHRM Chicago 1: Here’s What I Didn’t Get to Hear From Hillary Clinton, 2 hours ago
“Powerful. Thought provoking article”
— Claudia Psonak on Agile or Disengaged? How to Avoid Managing by Exception, 4 hours ago
“I have had a chip on my shoulder since 1975 -- but at some point, you let it go. :)”
— lruettimann on SHRM Chicago Insights: Take Criticism Seriously, Not Personally, 11 hours ago
“I will write about politics later. That is important.”
— lruettimann on SHRM Chicago Insights: Take Criticism Seriously, Not Personally, 11 hours ago
“Carol Great article. I really enjoyed your article and how the word engagement has become so overused. . . . ”
— Ellen Einsohn on I’m Getting Really Tired of All the Talk About Employee Engagement, 11 hours ago