Performance
May 28, 2019
Employers would be wise to stop promoting individuals as a reward for performance in a different role. Choose supervisors based on their talent to communicate well and ability to develop others. Natural supervisors want to be open and are approachable. Good supervisors establish priorities and goals. Good supervisors focus on others’ strengths. Great supervisors improve the level of trust in the workplace. Gallup’s four-decade research of 27 million employees identified five talents great managers possess. “They motivate their employees, assert themselves to overcome obstacles, create a culture of accountability, build trusting relationships and make informed, unbiased decisions for the good […]
November 25, 2018
The term “employee engagement” is more than 30 years old. Employers are still trying to figure out how to improve engagement. Perhaps we missed the target because we didn’t pay attention to its definition. William A. Kahn who coined the term defined it as “simultaneous employment and expression of a person’s ‘preferred self’ (displaying real identity, thoughts and feelings) in task behaviors.” The more one can be oneself at work, the more likely the person will stay and be personally engaged in performing their job. Business being business is entrenched in rules, efficiency, and management by objectives to control and […]
September 24, 2018
In 1962, the purpose of business was simple; use your resources and engage in activities to increase profits according to Milton Friedman, a leading economist of the time. Friedman stated an executive has direct responsibility to his employer. “That responsibility is to conduct business in accordance with their desires, which generally will be to make as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of the society.” Profit as a purpose increased individual greed and created a workforce focused solely on a paycheck. Society pushed back with a workforce who checked out, who came to work to do […]
June 27, 2018
Federal, state and local governments as well as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) are all talking about sexual harassment. The federal government is focused on settlement disclosures, arbitration agreements and tax deduction denial. States are proposing restricting nondisclosure agreements and requiring anti-sexual harassment training and policies. The EEOC proposed new enforcement guidance outlining legally protected characteristics and liability standards for employers as well as a threshold for hostile workplace and training considerations. Like the EEOC guidance most of these initiatives have yet to be enacted. Along comes the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision in the Boeing Co., 365 […]