It’s December. As the year wraps up many companies close their books and put finishing touches on next year’s annual plans. Something that I bet few executives are focusing on: their retention strategies. They might want to rethink that. According to a Right Management poll of American and Canadian workers, 83% say they plan to actively…
Essays on Gratitude – How to Give, Receive and Share at Work and Home
How do you give gratitude? How do you receive it? The American holiday of Thanksgiving is just around the corner and Karin Hurt of the blog Let’s Grow Leaders has compiled an excellent gratitude-themed compilation of essays to help honor the holiday. Topics include: – How to Give Thanks and Praise – The State of…
How to Tend Your Company’s Cultural Garden
How much care is taken with your company’s values? Are they simply slogans on a banner in your lunchroom . . . or something deeply embedded in your organizational culture? And what happens when leaders make business decisions that fly in the face of those values? That’s what I write about in this month’s Smartblog…
Office Musical Chairs – The Pros and Cons of Rearranging Who Sits Where
Back in the day, I worked for an office furniture manufacturer. At the time, the open office plan developed by Robert Propst was in full swing. The benefits were many: more collaboration between different departments, increase innovation and a lower cost of capital expenditure. In many aspects, the tweaking of “who sits where” is a…
How Narrow Is Your Company’s Definition of Leadership?
It’s cool when you realize that one of your projects was ahead of its time. A couple of years ago, when our book The Character-Based Leader was in progress, the authors (all 21 of us!) had vigorous debates about the definition of “leadership”. Many felt that leading with character was less about one’s job title…