So what happens when the pandemic-storm is over? Presently, we are in a tight job market, especially in the hospitality and travel industries. Our employees are reluctant to change jobs now, even if they are not particularly happy.
Managing Morale
In a recent podcast, Mike Robbins spoke of the need for leaders to think about employee morale. I think of morale as being another word for culture. Changing culture is one of the most challenging change-management tasks a leader has to tackle. Seemingly overnight, perhaps literally overnight, leaders have had to move workers to remote working cultures.
Different Boats
A colleague sent me a link to a presentation by Mike Robbins, a mentor, and coach. When I finally made time to view it, I understood why she enjoyed it and recommended it. Mike had several twists on how to lead during change. Of course, he had a lot to work with because of the pandemic.
Serendipity—Again
Recently I joined a few fellow photo club members on an outing to a nature preserve. My wife decided to tag along. We had several reasons for getting out despite the pandemic restrictions. One of them was that a cleaning crew would be in our home during the morning, and we usually find somewhere to go that is safe so that we can leave our home to them. Another reason was that we are going a little bit stir-crazy.
The outing made sense for us. The club members are COVID aware and careful. Masks are required, we would all be outside, and social distancing is enforced. The surprising thing was that this nature center is about 15 minutes from home, and we never knew it was there.
What You Don’t Know
An Old Saying: A saying I grew up with was, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you.” I wasn’t far into a college education when I figured out that that was a lousy saying. I knew what it meant—if you didn’t know about a tragedy or pending trauma, then you can’t worry about it. However, these days, some folks appear to take that saying literally. They stay willfully ignorant.
A Stake in the Ground
The Elephant: I guess that most of you know the story that describes how a fully-grown elephant is kept in place by a relatively small spike in the ground. Simply stated, an elephant baby is steaked to the ground with a substantial stake, chain, and ankle cuff. The baby elephant isn’t able to pull the steak up or break the chain, and after wearing itself out by trying, it learns that it is useless to tug at the restraint. An adult elephant could easily pull that steak out of the ground or break the chain—without even trying. But the elephant remembers the lesson, so when the chain gets taught, the elephant stops tugging. Having a memory like an elephant isn’t always a useful thing!
What’s Going On Upstream?
Babies in the River: I was chatting with a good friend and colleague this past week. We touched on several personal subjects and then gravitated to business topics. At one point, I was remarking about how some leaders find systems thinking to be so difficult. That triggered an oft-told story in his mind about the “River Babies.”
It’s As Easy As A-N-C
First Things First: I have not taken any pilot training. However, I love the rule of thumb taught to each new pilot as they train. They carry this teaching throughout their time as pilots: Aviate, Navigate, Communicate (A-N-C). It’s the priority for their attention; in other words, first things first and stay focused.
The Bright Side
Customer Service Excellence: Last week I posted a little rant about how MS annoys me with a poorly designed news feed customization interface (from a customer point of view). However, all experiences aren’t so frustrating as that one…