You want a team loaded with star players, right? What leader wouldn’t want a team filled with high-performing folks? Isn’t a team stacked with rocks stars is a good thing? It depends. Research into team performance reveals a surprising element: you can have too much of a good thing. Consider the study reported in Gartner’s…
When Leaders Hold on Too Tightly Employee Engagement Suffers
Are we looking at employee retention the wrong way? HR professionals and leaders invest significant time and effort on employee retention. There’s an interesting paradox to this organizational form of “holding on” to employees: the more we try to retain talent, the more we squeeze the engagement right out of the very individuals we want…
A Very Human Julia Louis-Dreyfus
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hearing actor and comedian Julia Louis-Dreyfus speak at the WorkHuman conference in Phoenix. She was interviewed by Michelle Gielan, a former news journalist turned positive psychology researcher. As Louis-Dreyfus settled in for the interview, her trademark wit surfaced: “Huh. Happiness researcher. I just can’t get enough…
Michelle Obama’s Mindset for Coping with Change
Former First Lady Michelle Obama has a tried-and-tried formula for coping with change: don’t make a big deal out of it. That’s the workplace take-away that most impressed me when I heard Mrs. Obama speak at WorkHuman 2017 conference. It’s advice borrowed from parenting her two girls. Mrs. Obama said that she and President Obama’s…
WorkHuman: Still on My A-List for Conferences
WorkHuman 2017 is now a memory. I’ve traveled home from Phoenix and had a few days to digest the benefits of this conference. I’m happy to report all of the observations from my first WorkHuman still apply. Now in its third year, the WorkHuman conference continues to help HR and business leaders can bring humanity…