Changing an organization’s culture is considered one of the most difficult challenges for leaders, and those with experience will confirm that it can be a massive undertaking. Whatever challenges the organization is facing — low morale among staff, bad behavior…
Organizational Leadership
7 Ways to Make Your Project Fail and 7 Ways to Prevent That
Wonder why some projects fail while others are successful? Like the 7 deadly sins, this article from Toledo Solutions lists 7 of the most common ways to ensure a project fail — and they all come down to people and…
Here’s a 4-Step Recovery Plan for Meeting Addiction
We have a love-hate relationship with meetings. Most of us want to get rid of them — they drive frustration and waste our time. However, when we don’t invite someone to a meeting, that person feels left out. Sounds familiar?…
No One Works There Because You Have a Foosball Table
Ping-pong tables, nap-pods, endless snacks and beer on tap are the hallmark perks of trendy start-ups, tech companies and creative agencies, but what value do they really hold? Sure, they rank high on the cool meter, but how tangible are…
Want to Spark Innovation? Start by Changing How You Listen
With millions of messages bombarding us every day, the ability to listen is becoming a lost art. As leaders, we need to be able to hear what can move our businesses forward. After all, none of us is as smart…
How Productivity Analytics Tools Are Making a Difference
Imagine my surprise when I started receiving emails from Microsoft last summer that included descriptions of my Office 365 activity, like how much time I spent multitasking in meetings, who is my “top collaborator,” how much “focus time” I had,…
Spicing Up the ‘Change Equation’ For Today’s Organization
Meaningful organizational change is the result of an optimum mix of several factors. Some of them are internal and largely controllable, whereas, others are external and primarily uncontrollable due to their susceptibility to outside influences. The desire to elevate an…
Narcissists Become Leaders. What Do You Do If You’re Not One?
Do you work closely with executives? If you do, you’ve probably run into a few surprising aspects to leadership that don’t get talked about much. For instance, what’s with the common occurrence of charming, good looking executives moving quickly up…
7 Culture Insights for Positive Change and 3 Reasons Change Fails
This post is a salute to passionate and experienced culture and performance change agents. You understand the power of culture in organizations and the challenge, frustration, restlessness, and exhilaration inevitably linked to intentional culture-related action. We’re living in the absolute…
Overcome Your High Performer Bias to Improve Your Whole Team
Everyone loves high performers — hot shots who deliver exceptional work on a regular basis are unique. However, there’s a problem I frequently observe when facilitating team offsites and workshops. Our obsession with top performers can backfire. Managers’ quest for…
Using Job Embeddedness Theory to Improve Employee Turnover
A common concern across all industries is employee retention. Though various factors may contribute to turnover among personnel, recent research may shed new light on practical means of improving retention and reducing the costs associated with excessive employee turnover. Human…
The Good, the Bad and the Not-So-Ugly Reality of Group Chat in the Workplace
Email may be the veteran of communication in the workplace, but rookie platforms for instantaneous group chat, such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, have changed how employees correspond at work. Digitally-savvy workers of all ages have started replacing email with…
How to Overcome 5 of the Worst Hits to Productivity
Productivity at its most basic, signifies the rate of output per unit of input. The phrase echoes an era where people were seen as elements in a production line, measured by the amount of time it would take them to…
A Data-Driven Guide to Dealing with Toxic Employees
Imagine the workplace as an ecosystem and at its heart, lies a community of living, breathing organisms. In an ecosystem, how you work is just as important as the work you do because even seemingly small actions in this environment can have…
How the ‘D’ Word Can Improve Performance
Sometimes saying that you are “disappointed” is a very powerful statement. Several years ago, I watched a hospital president speak with employees who messed up. It could have been a med error, tardiness for a shift, or poor treatment of…
Re-Thinking How We Think About HR Tech
Every year, usually in Las Vegas, there is a big HR Tech Conference and Expo. This year’s was held last week. There is one thing that bothers me: Maybe we should just be calling it the “HR Conference” not the…
5 Steps to Improving Engagement in Meetings
The interview for that new job you’re hoping to get. The coffee date with your personal hero, and hopefully, future mentor. The make-or-break sales demo with that perfect-fit client. The last-ditch attempt to mend a broken partnership. When you are…
Don’t Let Uncertainty or Trust Keep You From Adopting Flex Work
Flexible working has been a corporate buzzword for years. Yet, despite how often the extensive benefits of flexible working are touted by human resource specialists and demonstrated by multiple studies, it has not enjoyed the kind of wide-spread adoption predicted…
Your Next Contractor Could Be a Digital Nomad
According to new estimates from MBO Partners’ 2018 State of Independence in America research, 17 million independent workers aspire to someday become digital nomads — a term referencing workers who embrace a location-independent, technology-enabled lifestyle that allows them to travel…
Five Things You Can Expect of Generation Z
“Generation Z only knows a world that is hyper-connected, where by the tap of a smartphone, a pair of shoes can be delivered to their doorstep via Uber or a drone in less than an hour. To Generation Z, a phone will…