Posts tagged as:

Workplace Dynamics

Influencing Across Organizational Boundaries

January 11, 2012

Earlier this week I presented a session on Influencing Across Organizational Boundaries to the Western Michigan chapter of the Project Management Institute. The session was so well-received that many people asked for copies of the Power Point presentation. Well, you know how that goes—a Power Point without the corresponding speaker commentary is a bit flat. [...]

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Tag-Team Workplace Coaching

November 3, 2011

Sometimes, a person’s boss just isn’t the right person to do the coaching. Consider this story, as told to me by my client Pete: Pete was part of a new product ideation team tasked with creating a proposal for the company president. On the day of Big Presentation to the president Liz, the team gathered [...]

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Creativity is a Vital Skill for Leaders

October 20, 2011

The following post is written by Erin Palmer, a recent college graduate. When she contacted me to ask if she could write a guest post on creativity and leadership, I was thrilled because of her point of view: that of the follower, not the formal leader. Please read on to find out what this young, [...]

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What Type of Angry Boss Are You?

September 24, 2011

My kid came home the other day and showed me some artwork that he drew while waiting for his classmates to finish their math tests. He drew a series of random dots, connected them and then created a cartoon out the resulting shape. His first shape resembled an angry person screaming so he labeled it [...]

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Employee Recognition: Why the Lighter Side of Business has Serious Results

September 14, 2011

I believe that employee recognition is a vastly underused tool in a leader’s toolkit. Recognition need not be expensive, elaborate or time-consuming—but that’s how many leaders see it.  Therefore, I’ve teamed up with the recognition specialists at Baudville. They’ve agreed to pass along some great advice to the readers of The People Equation on how to [...]

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Old Men Don’t Ride Kick Scooters

September 13, 2011

Last night after dinner my ten-year-old wiped out on his kick scooter after trying to do some new tricks. He has a nasty scrape and some serious bruises to show for his efforts, but is otherwise all in one piece. After inspecting our son’s injuries, Mr. People Equation informed me “That boy actually left some [...]

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The Seven Moods of Employee Engagement

September 12, 2011

On this morning’s walk I saw a typical sight: kids waiting at a school bus stop. There were six elementary-aged kids, all lined up, hoods drawn up around their heads to ward off the chill in the Michigan air. Their body language telegraphed various attitudes: duty, sleepiness, and watchfulness. Six kids waiting for their day [...]

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The Way We Work: Creating a More Flexible Life

September 6, 2011

Part Three of a Three-Part Series The conclusion of this series on integrating our work and personal lives focuses on the changing nature of work—when we work, how we work, and how others around us deal with it. Part One of the series was What is Work Life Integration? and Part Two was Work Team [...]

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Work Team Leaders- A Key Ingredient for Successful Employee-Friendly Practices

August 30, 2011

Part Two of a Three-Part Series In this second installment of a discussion with Tracy Brower, Director of Performance Environments for Herman Miller, we explore a key factor that determines the probability of success for a company’s work/life integration policies. The first article in this series was in What is Work/Life Integration?.      JM: [...]

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What is Work/Life Integration?

August 23, 2011

Part One of a Three-Part Series   I attended a Workforce Issues panel discussion during which panelist Tracy Brower discussed forces shaping work/life integration. Tracy and I first met when we were colleagues in the Learning Development Group at Herman Miller. Tracy is currently the Director of Performance Environments for Herman Miller. In addition to [...]

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