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I’m currently in a season of recognition and appreciation for the people I’ve been working with.
It’s actually a pretty interesting topic, primarily because it depends so much on the existing relationship and the cultural context.
We all remember that appreciation should be timely, specific, and honest:
Read the rest of this entry »Do you have periodic one-on-one meetings with each of your employees?
I would imagine we all INTEND to do that, but … things get busy. It’s not critical. So these powerful conversations get delayed.
I’d say you don’t realize just how amazing these kinds of meetings can be. What’s the point?
Well, primarily you’re:
Read the rest of this entry »We try to make our businesses fairly resilient. Investments will fluctuate, customers will come and go, disasters will happen.
The smaller you are, the more you’ll feel it. That’s just the way it is.
But I don’t see leaders spending as much attention on critical roles that depend too much on a single person. Especially themselves.
Read the rest of this entry »That quote is attributed to Peter Drucker, the amazing leader who helped redefine business in Japan and then around the world.
It’s good to remind ourselves that plans and strategies are fine – even necessary. But the real foundation of getting anything done is the culture of the organization.
This brings to mind a year in an organization I worked for about twenty years ago. The company was getting into serious financial trouble, and it was noted that growth in the number of employees was getting out of hand while the economy was headed the wrong direction.
Read the rest of this entry »Our work is SO serious! SO important!
So can we allow ourselves a little fun in our work? Why not?
OK, so sometimes the work really is super serious. I want my surgeon to know as much as she can and not play around with my life. But even in this example, you’ll find that medical professionals often develop a wicked sense of humor, to take the sting out of the weight of their work.
Read the rest of this entry »How much do you actually design the experience for the new person on your team? I ask, because so much of that person’s attitude is going to be formed by what happens on that first day.
Imagine that you’re going into a store that you’ve never seen before. You heard some positive things, so decided to check it out on a whim.
You’ll know within the first two minutes whether this is going to be a place you’d like to come back to. The layout. How attractive the products are. Whether someone welcomes you. Even the smells and sounds.
Read the rest of this entry »Our society is all about working hard, achieving, and getting results. As a result, the business environment can be quite cruel towards employees.
As the leader, you’re tempted to just let people work themselves into the ground – it’s their own decision, right?
But you’re the one who sets the culture for your organization. And you know it’s poor reasoning to let your people burn out. So what do you do?
Read the rest of this entry »Culture is a powerful concept in business, identifying the way people actually work together to get stuff done. It’s connected with other larger cultures, of course, including the community, society and country we live in.
Individuals also bring their own micro-culture — how they interact, communicate, make decisions, and so on.
But here I’m focusing on the culture we all share in our organizations. Our key processes interleave with the way we work together as people. We’d like to think that they’re in sync. When they’re not, everyone gets frustrated and the processes don’t work well.
Read the rest of this entry »I want to express my appreciation for all of you who have stuck with me for so many years. I’ve been publishing a newsletter since 2010, and have received an incredible amount of support and valuable feedback.
Thank you.
And that’s the subject of this article, actually. Expressing thanks for the great work that people are doing, whether paid or not. This is something I’ve learned with leading volunteer groups, but just as important for my employees.
Read the rest of this entry »Here’s today’s headline from Gallup’s research: What’s Driving Record-High Employee Engagement in the U.S.?
This great company has been monitoring the trends for many years, so seeing an upward trend in employee engagement is truly important. And a bit shocking, really, after all the bad news we’ve been hearing.
So what’s behind it?
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The Values-Based Business 