Engagement

October 24, 2021

Make Shift Happen

Remote and hybrid work arrangements have shifted the role of manager in our uncertain COVID world. This shift is likely to threaten managers of knowledge workers. Our brains constantly scan for threats to keep us safe. The limbic system fires up when it perceives danger. A social threat may be more intense than a physical threat according to David Rock, Ph.D. founder of the Neuroleadership Institute. Rock developed the SCARF model to  identify social triggers. Status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness is the framework that activates social threat or reward. The brain distinguishes whether to avoid or approach something based […]
November 3, 2014

BYOD—Where’s The Party?

Bring your own device (BYOD) is anything but fun. Every employer needs to address employees’ personal communication devices. More and more employers have decided it’s better to let employees use their own devices to manage their business and personal lives. Employers and employees risk privacy breeches along with countless other headaches. Policies to protect both parties are difficult to write and manage. A one size policy does not fit all. The nature of the business and what kind of data it uses will determine what legal obligations exist. Developing a BYOD policy requires legal advice after the employer decides in […]
May 28, 2014

Stop assigning numbers to people!

Performance appraisals may finally be a human resource system of the past. Tons of evidence and our guts tells us they are ineffective measures of performance. Often, the best performers do not get the highest performance scores. The more we try to fix the appraisal process, the more convoluted and difficult to administer it becomes. The appraisal process is threatening for both the evaluator and the person being evaluated. Seldom has the evaluator been trained in judging performance, have a clear understanding of the position’s expectations and have frequent opportunities to observe an individuals’ performance. Recent findings reveal the ratings […]
April 30, 2014

Where’s The White Space?

The work world is smaller and spinning faster than ever. Many of us keep up by moving faster, doing more work with fewer people and modifying processes to minimize cost. That is what makes profits grow. But it may not distinguish us from others. Imagine if you could stop time for an hour. Chances are most of us would use that hour to clean off our desks, reply to emails or perform other tasks that give us a false sense of accomplishment. Since information is coming faster than ever, you would gain little ground with that spent hour. An empty […]