Refresh your news feed and you’ll see that someone else on the national stage was fired. So let’s take a closer look at this phenomenon. How does frequent firing affect organizational culture? Is there a better option? And if not, is there a way to fire someone while maintaining their dignity? The Cost of Firing […]
Get a Grip on Employee Conflict
A client recently asked me to help him resolve some staff conflicts within his marketing team. At the surface, it looked like the staff were insubordinate, reactive, and uncooperative. However, after some discussions with all of the staff, it became clear that the real issue was GRPI (pronounced grip-i), not insubordination. Is GRPI a rare […]
Seven Practical Tips For Increasing Empathy
We have something in common with rats that may surprise you. Those scurrying little (sometimes large) rodents ruling garbage cans across the world are actually capable of empathy, just like humans. Many species display empathy in some form or another, but primates—especially us humans—have a more sophisticated capacity for empathy due to our large working […]
People Analytics: How Managers And Organizations Can Leverage Their Employee Data
Today we’ll be exploring Data and People Analytics, topics you may have heard of before but may not know exactly what they are or how they can benefit your organization. Even if you’re not already a data scientist, we’ll introduce you to these skills and show how you can start leveraging the data that your […]
Leadership Lessons from the Kitchen: How to Prevent Difficult Communication from Burning Your Fingers
I would never have guessed at the time but leaving the Ivy League to go to culinary school gave me the opportunity to learn a lot about leadership. I recently shared four of the lessons I learned as a chef and the response was overwhelming. Since my lessons seem to have hit a nerve, I thought I’d […]
Feeling Stuck? Might Be Time for a Crucial Conversation
The Vendor Gone AWOL I have been working with one vendor, Sebastian, for many years. I can honestly say that Sebastian is brilliant when it comes to numbers. He knows how to handle my books in a way that’s easy and intuitive. He Helps Me Enormously… When He Is On When he is on, he […]
Why Communication Fails and How to Fix it: The Perception Gap
Despite your best efforts, there’s a very good chance that your communication is being perceived and processed in a way you did not intend. The disconnect between what is meant to be communicated and what is actually understood is known as a Perception Gap. In this two part series, I will talk about Perception Gaps, […]
Diversity Officers Must Have These Four Qualities
Google, known for having its finger on the pulse of the future, has an employee base that is only 2% black and 3% Hispanic. Apple, also known for building our future, has an employee base that is 70% male. These indisputable stats show that ethnic, racial and gender imbalances are prominent in the U.S., despite […]
What We Want Our Future Leaders To Know
What will make a future leader successful? I explored this in my piece, *Portrait of a Future Leader, published as part of Upwork’s Work: Reimagined series on Medium. Really getting down to the nitty-gritty of how major workforce trends will affect leaders was exciting. But I don’t know everything. What will make a future leader successful? I […]
Can Eliminating Workplace Bias Be as Simple as Interrupting It?
Despite continued diversity efforts from the United States Government and organizations around the country, minorities are still largely underrepresented in the United States workforce. When looking at the statistics presented by “well meaning” companies, the picture is painfully clear. For example, Google reports that 6.4% of their employees are Hispanic and just 4.4.% are Black. […]
