Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Managing People”
I learned long ago that you should always be ready to take good advice — no matter where it comes from. This month, it came from a guy named Michael Dermer who touts himself in his blog and newsletter as The Lonely Entrepreneur. His words of wisdom were short, sweet, and spot-on. He said: “Turn off at a respectable time, …
I read a lot of HR stuff about high performers. We all want an entire population of these employees at our companies. Adding more high performers means better overall results, which means better everything, right? Maybe not. Depending on your culture, you could be making it hard for the best performers to stay. As Long As It Helps Me A …
Everybody has a story, maybe more than one, impacting your work life. A few years back while attending the SHRM National Conference in Orlando, Heather Abbott, a Boston Marathon bombing victim, gave a rousing 10-minute introduction to the conference. An HR executive whose life was dramatically altered after losing a leg in the tragic event. She has recovered, moved on, …
I did an interview for an open position at a client yesterday–during vacation, on the beach. That probably tells you where this post is going. Go ahead and fire up the comments about feeling sorry for me. About how my priorities are out of whack. About how I need to take care of myself. I’m not going to go all …
From the world of unicorn employers (Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc.), our next great HR experiment has almost gone undetected. What is it!? The use of Economists to run employee performance management! A recent article talked about a new trend of tech companies (Amazon, Google, etc.) hiring hundreds of PhD Economists for all kinds of roles: For example, Amazon runs a program …
How many of us have seen our leaders (C-Suite, bosses, the ivory tower, “the brass”) abandon their integrity when the going gets rough? Maybe they decided to cut salaries to shed costs without cutting their own, or they identified a sacrificial lamb to take the fall for what was their mistake. Perhaps they simply elected to flat out lie to …
It drives me crazy when I hear people touting “unlimited” PTO. That’s because “unlimited” time off is really just one big fairy tale. I know, I know; that sounds harsh, because there are a number of companies that will defend “unlimited” PTO to the death, and on the surface, it sounds like a good idea. But what often gets lost …
Do you know what really makes my heart hurt? The fact so many employees are still miserable at work. It’s not the fault of any one “thing,” but rather a systemic issue. In the US, both depression and loneliness epidemics are in full swing, which is exacerbated by many working environments. Somewhere in the intersection of technology, the demanding speed …
I’ve been doing a lot of performance work for some client companies lately. As you might expect, I’m trying to push the companies to get out of the mindset that the performance review transaction is the reason for the process. Repeat after me: The reason you do any type of coaching or performance management is to migrate employees. If you’re …
There’s a dirty little secret about great companies. Some of them are so great, the experience you pick up actually doesn’t transfer easily to other opportunities. Here’s how this phenomenon plays out: 1– You join a great company early in your career. 2–You are fortunate to work for a master, think the Obi-Wan Kenobi or Bill Belichick of your industry. …
