Five decades of research shows the huge impact of organizational culture on outcomes like Return on Investment, stock prices, service/quality levels, productivity, sales, profitability, cost-effectiveness, and similar results. Organizational culture is also a key factor in levels of employee engagement, extra effort, innovation, morale, and teamwork. “Magnet cultures” attract and retain the best people. Or […]
Read post »Last week’s review of Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet generated a good LinkedIn discussion in The Letter Leader. Paul Born’s comment on Canada’s significant reduction in poverty rates is a great example of the progress documented in Superabundance. Here are a few quotes of note […]
Read post »Back in the day, I took a very depressing university course featuring the Club of Rome’s 1972 report, The Limits to Growth. Falling into that ageless prediction and prophesy sinkhole, this group of prognosticators forecasts that we will exhaust all of the earth’s resources and energy sources within 50 years. They foresaw overpopulation, mass starvation, […]
Read post »Shopify’s recent announcement about canceling, banning, and restricting meetings is the wrong solution to a huge problem. It’s throwing a deflated pool toy to someone who’s drowning. Meetings can energize or enervate. When meetings are effectively run, they create that elusive synergy to dramatically boost a team’s effectiveness. Research clearly shows that when run effectively, […]
Read post »Numerous studies show that a major reason many people quit their jobs is that they feel unappreciated. Brains follow hearts to where they’re valued. As I wrote in Do You Focus on the Field of Wheat or Stone on the Hill?, too often managers point out what’s wrong while failing to recognize what’s right. […]
Read post »Let’s start the year with a big scary dose of gloom and doom! That was the approach of a national media organization with their January 2nd leading headline story: “If you thought 2022 was bad, wait until you see what 2023 has in store for the economy.” It featured a photo of a despondent man […]
Read post »As we look at a new year ahead, what do you think is the state of our world? Are we living in the best of times or the worst of times? Are these statements true or false? The poor are getting poorer as the rich get richer US carbon emissions are rising Home ownership is […]
Read post »Santa can now relax after his big night. Hope the kids in your life aced their big performance review and rated highly on his naughty-nice scale. The Holidays are a good time for the pause that refreshes — even without drinking a little glass bottle of Coca-Cola as Santa did in those old commercials that […]
Read post »One of my holiday traditions is watching various movie versions of Charles Dickens’ much-loved classic, A Christmas Carol. Once our grandkids are old enough, we’ll watch my favorite version, The Muppet Christmas Carol, with them. Depending on their age, we might skip a few of the ghostlier parts. When Les Standiford’s book, The Man Who Invented Christmas (which […]
Read post »Early in my career, I reported to Harold, a leader who proudly described his MBE approach – “management by exception.” “If you haven’t heard from me, that’s a good sign,” he explained. “That means I think you’re doing just fine. I only deal with the exceptions. I look for problems and people that need correcting. […]
Read post »A favorite ritual this time of year is decorating our Christmas tree while the movie Christmas Vacation is playing in the background. I’ve watched it often enough to recite most of the dialogue. But after repeated viewings, it still lives up to its tagline – “Yule crack up!” Yes, I do realize how pathetic my […]
Read post »Vocabulary.com defines musky as “a smell might make you close your eyes and smile, or it might make you leave a room. Either way, it’s a very strong and sweet odor that’s hard to ignore…sometimes rotting fruit smells musky as well. Hard to know whether smelling musky is a good or bad thing.” Elon Musk’s […]
Read post »Compatibly charged electromagnetic particles will pull toward each other and bind together. When the particles aren’t compatible, they’ll repel each other. We’ve all experienced meeting someone for the first time and feeling highly attracted or repelled by them. We’ve also experienced entering a new office or organization and feeling energized and positive or anxious and […]
Read post »Nine-year-old third base player, Juan Miguel, fielded a ground ball and tried to tag a runner going from second to third base. The umpire, Laura Benson, called the runner out, but young Juan immediately ran to her side and said, “Ma’am, I didn’t tag the runner.” Umpire Benson reversed herself, sent the runner to third […]
Read post »We’ve got a big leadership “opportunity.” Cynicism and trust are falling. According to the General Social Survey, the belief that “most people can be trusted” has dropped from 45% to 30% in the last five decades. It’s a global issue. This year, the annual Edelman Trust Barometer found that nearly 60% of people in 27 […]
Read post »For many years I’ve been facilitating a 360 assessment and leadership development process for a deeply technical science/engineering association. These technical leaders usually score high in analytical skills and technical expertise. However, their overall leadership scores are generally well below those of other less technical groups. Many poorly rated participants are quite surprised — even […]
Read post »Every workshop or planning session I’ve led since returning to in-person sessions earlier this year has discussed approaches or policies to working remotely or hybrid models balancing in-office and at-home work. These discussions expose underlying values about trust, partnering, and treating team members as adults or children. Last week was an especially clear example […]
Read post »“The Great Resignation” is part of a greater rethink about what matters most at work — and in life. The pandemic forced a pause that gifted us with time to step back and search more deeply for purpose and meaning. The last seven posts focused on Frank’s search for spirit and meaning. This seven-part series […]
Read post »Last in a 7-part series: Let’s Be Frank about Spirit and Meaning (Links below to previous installments) That greener grass on the other side of the fence often turns out to be spray painted. Frank had broken through his “trapped emptiness.” He had a renewed sense of hope and purpose. He was energized. Life was […]
Read post »Part 6 in a series: Let’s Be Frank about Spirit and Meaning (Links below to previous installments) Frank decided to quit his job. The price of “success” was too high. The awakening he experienced that morning in his study helped him realize that he needed to get off the speeding treadmill before he killed himself. […]
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