An article a few years ago in Forbes noted the changing nature of what used to be called “affinity groups” but are now known more often as employee resource groups. If you are in a large company, or if you would like your SME to become a large company someday, the value of these groups […]

Over coffee recently I was telling someone about a recent study on changing work styles. As I told him about the discussion of the changing environment and the new ways people expect to work, his response was: “Well, duh.” Now it’s worth mentioning that this person is 25, and only entered the workforce last year […]

Workers in repetitive industries may need less feedback than employees in creative industries do. Assembly line workers or bureaucrats who do the same thing over and over may not need to be told “yes, you’re doing it right…just like you did yesterday, and the day before, and the year before.” But creative employees, by the […]

We know it is important not to go overboard when it comes to meetings. People have meetings to plan other meetings, they hold meetings to complain about how many meetings they have…too often it gets to be too much. But sometimes — sometimes — they can be very important and very useful. And THESE meetings, […]

The idea of “shooting the messenger” was first expressed by Shakespeare, or so says Wikipedia. But in a nutshell, the leader who lashes out at the poor subordinate who got tagged to report bad news is wasting time, and wasting messengers. Don’t be that leader. Many leaders say they want open communication in their workplace, […]