Blog Posts

Our working lives have experienced remarkable change in the past month.  Many careers like yours have been forced to move home and online, with Zoom and Hangouts becoming the new normal. In this new normal, many organizations and leaders are realizing that it’s more powerful and efficient to have a remote work model.  In fact, the metrics are there to prove it. You may ask yourself why didn’t we make the change to a remote work model sooner?  The answer is because it’s easier and more comfortable to keep doing what you’re already doing. Now it’s a ...

During one of my recent keynote speeches, a member of the audience asked me to share the funniest or most unusual story about Human Resources management I had ever heard in my 35 years as management consultant. I included one below, but I thought it would be fun to invite my newsletter subscribers to share their funny HR stories. If you need a good laugh, these stories won’t disappoint!   From Kevin: I was doing employee survey feedback sessions for a company in Michigan and I met with the third shift of the manufacturing operation who scored very, very, ...

Millennials, Millennials, Millennials.  Very much in line with Millennials’ insatiable desire for recognition, it seems like the last ten years of articles, videos, and speeches, were all about Millennials. As the first surge of Generation Z enters the workplace, organizations may be surprised at how different they are from Millennials (also known as Generation Y).  Organizations, human resource leaders, and managers will need to learn about, and fully understand, this unique generation especially since they may be the solution to the never-ending talent attraction and talent retention challenge.  Thus, employers will need to also adapt and bring ...

We’ve all seen it or experienced it firsthand: Someone is speaking at a meeting or presenting at a conference, while half the audience members are looking down, openly fiddling with their smartphones.  As a keynote presenter myself, I find this audience behavior especially frustrating.  I’m up there passionately speaking about ways to truly help people improve their day-to-day experience at work, and the messaging is lost on an audience that is simply not listening or being fully present.  Even when event planners ask participants to silence and put away their cell phones, people can’t seem to part with ...

Last month we polled nearly 130,000 HR/OD/Talent Management/Senior Executives about the top traits of a great job recruiter.  We thought it would be extremely valuable to identify recruiter characteristics, since 86% of staffing firms feel they are doing a good job recruiting, yet only 60% of job candidates report having a positive experience during the recruiting process.1 The results are in and the top recruiter characteristics are listed below in the order most frequently cited by respondents: They have great listening skills. The highest-performing and most effective recruiters harness the power of careful listening, which far better ensures ...

“ONCE YOU STOP LEARNING, YOU START DYING.” - Albert Einstein It is not uncommon for Chief Learning Officers (CLOs) to struggle trying to secure funds and commitment for leadership development programs, despite the value that organizations see from such programs. I’ve been surprised and disappointed to read so many recent articles that assail the value of these programs versus the amount of money spent on them, including a Wall Street Journal article entitled “So much training, so little to show for it,” and a 2016 Harvard Business Review article calling leadership development programs “the great train robbery.” ...

Ever sense generational friction in your workplace? You are not alone. This workplace tension is most common between Baby Boomers and Millennials. Luckily, there are a variety of things you can do to improve coworker comradery despite generational differences. Subtle changes can go a long way in improving your company culture and boosting employee retention. Here’s how. ...

When asked about the single greatest detractor of workplace productivity, most employees, and especially managers, will incorrectly cite workplace meetings or meeting mismanagement. While it is certainly true that a great amount of productivity is lost to these things, the real answer is workplace interruptions, especially given the push to open-office floor plans. While this design trend was intended to facilitate more communication and collaboration, it no doubt carried an unintended downside. The lower cubicle walls, communal snack bars and break rooms, and removal of office doors bring heightened interruptions, as well as concerns over keeping information confidential. A study ...

You may work at one of the most positive workplaces in the world, but invariably, there will be times when you must deliver bad news at work to a team or a colleague. We’ve all been there. Probably the most visceral example of this is when you have to lay someone off. Many of us have been the recipient. Just in November 2016 alone, more than 26,000 workers were terminated.1 Certainly, it is never easy to deliver bad news to a colleague. With that said, here are 3 useful tips for “softening the blow” to the colleague: 1. Put ...

How confident are you that your employees are staying engaged? Here are five of the most common signs that employee engagement is waning: 1. Productivity suffers. Engaged employees are all about going the extra mile and putting in extra effort. Employees who are not engaged are all about doing the absolute minimum. How are you measuring employee productivity and its close parallel to employee engagement? 2. Higher absenteeism. Companies with less engagement have employees take more sick time. In fact, one study by HR Zone concluded that companies with the lowest level (bottom 10%) of engagement, experience 2.3 times ...

Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent with recruiters and staffing firms each year by companies trying to attract top talent to empty positions. The obvious hope on the companies’ part is that the recruiters will find the perfect person for the position and that the new hire remains fully engaged in the years to come. A natural question posed by the people holding the purse strings for recruiting is: Are we getting our money’s worth? I was invited to do a keynote presentation at the 25th Annual Staffing Industry Analysts Executive Forum later this month to answer that exact ...

One of my most popular blogs this year was 19 Ways to be a Bad Boss. So I thought it would be equally as valuable to outline behaviors and traits of a Best Boss as well. As fortune would have it, I discovered a fascinating leadership study conducted by Lead Well LLC in partnership with Chicago-based Vantage Leadership Consulting. The 2013 study identified five common traits of a Best Boss: Leads From a Higher Purpose – The Best Boss demonstrates a purpose beyond self-interest and self-profit and/or a purpose beyond the organization that is put into action on behalf of ...

I recently read a New York Times article that featured The Three Most Influential Phrases in the Workplace. I was surprised to be in agreement, that indeed using these three phrases is the most powerful way managers can show that they are human, and show they truly care about the relationships they have with their direct reports. I was so excited to begin using these phrases in my keynote presentations and leadership development workshops, that I went home and shared them with my wife. Each phrase is featured below, along with my own explanation as to why they are so ...