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There’s a new discussion popping up in various European countries and Australia. It’s about establishing a right for employees to completely disengage from their work.
No phone calls. No texts. No emails.
In the US, we pretty much get it for hourly workers. But for salaried? Our culture tends more toward expecting – sometimes demanding – complete accessibility. But it depends on the organization’s culture.
Read the rest of this entry »If you started your company, or are the owner, you know what I’m talking about.
You’ve put your heart and soul into this venture, and it’s consumed every waking moment. For years. That passion and commitment has driven you to whatever success you’ve had. And hope to have.
But your team? Well, it seems like it’s just a job to them. You feel like they could walk away at any moment.
Read the rest of this entry »You want to deliver a uniform experience for your customers. I understand.
The problem is that much of the experience can become devoid of the humanity. You squash out any individuality from the interactions.
I think about my favorite coffee shop. Yes, I’d like to know what I’m getting, so I want the same quality of my cappucino or mocha. But the rest of the experience is all about the barista who’s in front of me.
Read the rest of this entry »Perhaps it’s time to look at things anew.
This comes to mind, of course, because it’s the start of a new school in the US. But there are other reasons why it might be good to get rid of some of that old stuff which isn’t really serving you anymore.
Perhaps you have a change in leadership. Or have just completed a big project. Or your business cycle just got you past the busy phase.
Read the rest of this entry »We use mirrors all the time to check how we look to the outside world.
My question is: How often do you hold a mirror up to your leadership skills?
As a leader, it’s tough to know how others perceive you. One useful tool is the 360° assessment, where you ask for formal inputs from employees, partners, and those above you in the organization. I’ve even seen those who ask for inputs from customers.
Read the rest of this entry »Some of us think about making repeatable processes, others don’t. I’m in the former camp.
You see, it can drive me crazy when I see something that’s repetitive and boring and could be made more efficient. I guess it’s the engineer in me.
Making a process isn’t the same as automating. For instance, I have my beginning-of-day routine which includes checking my calendar, email, app notices, and texts. It’s pretty straightforward, and within 4-5 minutes I feel like I’ve got my head around what the day’s going to look like.
Read the rest of this entry »It’s fire season in Colorado, which gets me thinking about conversations I’ve had with my business clients.
I know that seems like a little bit of a stretch, but let’s explore for a moment.
When disaster happens, our natural instinct is to run away. Get as far away from the danger as fast as possible. With that distance, we’ll have a bit of safety to examine the situation and figure out what to do next.
Read the rest of this entry »Last week I talked about giving in and bringing things to a close. But most of the time we don’t want to do that, right?
We want to be the cheerleader to bring everyone to that wonderful vision of the future. That’s such an important part of your role as leader, to help bring everyone together, align their actions, and help them commit to doing all the hard work.
The challenge may be that the team isn’t emotionally there yet.
Read the rest of this entry »I saw reports today that three national retail chains are shutting down or severely cutting back.
That puts me into a more reflective mood. I realize that there are indeed times where it’s appropriate to given in to the painful reality.
This has happened especially in the context of volunteer organizations. Sometimes there just isn’t enough heart and momentum to continue – like we saw many times during the pandemic.
Read the rest of this entry »When disaster strikes, some are affected more than others.
We saw this with the pandemic, with local fires and floods, and with the recent Crowdstrike failure. Every organization has exposure to things outside their control. The image of “fragility” seems appropriate to me.
Some people are super-organized and like to put plans in place for every contingency. Great, I suppose, but the Return on Investment can be very low. Most of us don’t have the time (or willpower!) to plan for unlikely things.
So what’s the right balance?
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The Values-Based Business 