Stereotype: “We need fresh ideas.” “We need a Millennial to address our social media marketing.” “I don’t think Frank is up to the demands of the new software.” “If our salespeople won’t use the automation system, then we’ll get some younger folks in here who will!” I’ve heard these comments or comments very close to them on more than one …
All Year Long: Several things have converged to make me think a bit more seriously about recognition. First, of course, is that the year-end holidays are upon us. The holidays frequently make me take stock and appreciate my good fortune. Second is a holiday party I attended for one of our clients. A third event was a story that was related …
Attitude ~ Values: In a recent speech to a group of business leaders, Peter Salvati, CEO of DPR Construction, said that he makes sure his team “Hires for attitude, trains for skills” And of course, he does the same when he is hiring or promoting his leadership team. To my way of thinking, attitude is pretty close to the same …
In a safe environment, there is room for contrary opinions, and we hear those opinions. In a healthy and thriving organization, opposite views are not only heard, but they are also encouraged. Contrarians are not naysayers or doom-and-gloom people. They look at things differently! The Red Card Some organizations insist that there always be a contrary proposal—a devil’s advocate. They …
A Sense of Accomplishment We grew up in the Northeastern part of the United States of America: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York (up-state, Syracuse area). Our daughter is living in the Boston, MA area and sent this beautiful picture (today, 2/5/2016) of the sunset after a good winter snowstorm. It caused a flood of memories that, of course, merged with what I …
Face it; many (most?) employers have employees only because they have to in order to provide a product or service. Few employers will admit this in public. They make jokes about it — “Business would be fabulous if I didn’t have to deal with employees,” — and we know that jokes are at least half true. (By the way, sometimes, they say the …
This post discusses how properly framing the discussion about the culture of your company and how a prospective employee will fit in leads to the establishment of success factors for an open position with your company.
Multi-tasking is not all it’s cracked up to be. If you and your team are trying to handle many things simultaneously, you are likely delivering poor results in all those tasks.
We can’t have it both ways. As employees, if we think it’s fair to give two weeks notice and leave an employer to pursue our own self-interest, then it is fair for our employer to have the same privilege. We cannot believe that there is an obligation for a company to employ us as long as we want to work there while we retain the right to leave at will.