We’re better off nurturing existing employees than hiring new ones.
As an HR consultant who works with startups and small businesses, there are certain client interactions that make me beam with pride because I can tell they get it. It’s one of the reasons I’ve chosen to build my business around the ‘little guy.’ They get the importance of the people side of business because they started their companies to escape big corporations who did not.
“Let me be clear, I don’t want any new employee hired with an hourly rate that starts with ‘$7’ from this point forward,” a small business owner and client said to his leadership team…
Focus on outcomes, and the people around you will learn to do the same.
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t spent a whole lot of time looking at job postings lately. Perhaps that’s because I quit my full-time job during a global pandemic to start building my own thing, but that’s a story for another day.
What I do spend a lot of time looking at is my LinkedIn feed. I can’t help it — “Once a recruiter, always a recruiter,” they say. And just like anyone else on LinkedIn, you never know what the algorithm will feed you on any given day. Today, it happened to be a job posting.
It…
5 considerations for creating a non-management career path
I attended a webinar the other day that culminated, like all webinars do, in a Q&A session with the speaker. An early-in-career attendee was looking for advice about how she could make more money. “What you probably want to look for and apply to are management positions because those typically pay more,” the speaker told her.
She wasn’t wrong. Managers do typically get paid more than individuals contributors.
But compensation is far from the only consideration one should take into account when it comes to deciding whether or not to step into team leadership. And yet, the speaker made no…
More than 50% of us are predicted to start new jobs this year.
Is it just me, or do you also feel like you’ve put a lot of major life events on hold for the last year? So many things have been sitting in a sort of pandemic-induced purgatory, including our careers. Even if you hated your job pre-pandemic and were planning to leave, you probably felt grateful even to have a job during these last 12 months when so many did not. And when we’re feeling guilted into gratitude, we tend to stay put and stick it out.
But that’s about to change and, with it, the metaphorical flood gates are about…
3 actionable ways to cultivate a collective sense of ‘team’
If you’re a team leader, you’re probably used to wearing many hats. Among those demands is the expectation that you will inspire and motivate your people, influence your colleagues, and develop the next generation of leaders. And, while you’re at it, make sure that you stay within budget, outperform your KPIs, and ensure your team does the same. Are we having fun yet?
Perhaps the most important role a leader plays is one that doesn’t get enough attention; the curator of the team. …
Let’s fix that, shall we?
McKinsey recently published new research on the impact bosses have on their teams, and I’ll be honest — it ain’t good.
56% of American workers say that their boss is “mildly or highly toxic,” and 75% of Americans say that their boss “is the most stressful part of their workday.” Yikes.
So if you’re someone’s boss, I have to ask — could this be you?
According to McKinsey’s research, it could be. They found that “bosses consistently underestimate how their actions affect and will be interpreted by others.” …
By using motivational interviewing techniques.
Have you ever experienced a lightbulb moment? People describe these as moments of sudden inspiration, revelation, or recognition. I experienced my own lightbulb moment just a few days ago as I was reading Adam Grant’s newest book, Think Again, which explores “the power of knowing what you don’t know.”
I was struck by a moment of recognition where I suddenly had the perfect words to describe something that I couldn’t have defined even an hour before.
For years I’ve struggled to find the perfect words to summarize how I approach coaching and influencing others to change at work. When asked…
A thought leader is someone who inspires innovation and influences others to do the same.
When I was toying with the idea of leaving corporate to start my consulting firm, plenty of people were happy to provide guidance on how to make that leap. As former colleagues and trusted advisors offered various pieces of advice, one comment kept popping up over and over again.
“If you want to be successful at doing your own thing,” they’d say, “you have to be seen as a thought leader.”
A thought leader is someone who uses their expertise and perspective in a specific industry to offer unique guidance, inspire innovation and influence others. And this made sense as…
And make sure something better starts.
Have you heard the adage, “sh*t rolls downhill?” It means that whatever unpleasant thing is happening at the top of any chain of command will inevitably “roll downhill” impacting everyone down to the entry-level.
Nowhere is this more true than at work.
The boss has a bad day, he lashes out at his direct reports, and they subsequently lash out at each of their direct reports after that.
Or, your boss doesn’t respect your time, so you don’t feel the need to respect your team’s time either. If you have to stay late, so should they.
Or, the CEO behaves…
No one will ever care as much about your career as you will.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again — no one will ever care as much about your career as you will. Not your boss, not your partner, not even your parents. As such, we must own both the circumstances we find ourselves in and the impact that changing those circumstances may have on our careers.
Too often, when we’re unhappy about something that didn’t go according to plan or disappointed with how something turned out, we’re quick to point the finger at others.
My boss never told me I needed to improve at this.
He only got the…
