Culture & Leadership

Whether it’s fears about COVID-19, a pending hurricane, or other potentially disastrous situation, your workers need you to keep them calm, confident, and productive. Are you ready?

Talk and fears of a potential pandemic are everywhere. Regardless of what ultimately happens, you can take a leadership role now to help reassure employees and keep your organization functioning without interruptions or lost productivity. How can you be the leader your company needs and the trusted source of guidance your employees want during stressful times?

You’ve worked hard to craft the perfect mission statement to drive purpose and leadership. But are you really getting the message out?

According to a recent report, while 90% of HR managers say their company has a mission statement, only 28% of first-level leaders make the same claim. Read more about the miscommunications happening in your organization and how you can bridge the gaps.

Involving employees in decision-making can boost engagement, profits, and efficiency while reducing turnover and skills gaps.

Participatory management is making inroads in organizations worldwide as an innovative way to grow, thrive, and increase employee engagement and satisfaction. Now it’s moving into post-acute and long-term care, and early results are promising.

Lying on a resume may be more common than you think. Taking the time to vet job candidates carefully can save trouble or even disaster down the road.

According to a recent study, 36% of people admit to fibbing or fudging a bit on their resume, and 93% say they know someone else who has. HR and other leaders need to know how to look beyond resumes and detect lies before they hire an unqualified worker.

When you’re seeking team members to nurture, mentor, and promote, overlooking introverts can cost you some promising leaders.

While more people are introverted than extroverted, introverts represent only 39% of top executives and senior leaders in the U.S. This trend is even more pronounced in other countries. For instance, only 28% of UK leaders are introverts; and 9 out of 10 workers there say they feel pressure to act more extroverted. However, just because someone is introverted doesn’t mean that person can’t be a great leader or, at least, a leading team player.

Workers who worry that they aren’t worthy suffer personally, professionally; and their negativity can hurt the organization.

Employees who suffer from imposter syndrome tend to experience less job satisfaction and higher levels of burnout, according to studies. At the same time, these individuals also perform poorly at work. By identifying these people and getting them the help they need to feel better about themselves and their abilities, employers can improve productivity and keep promising employees from failing.

Formalized processes ensure legal/regulatory compliance, prevent costly errors, and cultivate an engaged, stable workforce.

Innovation, creative problem-solving, and out-of-the-box thinking play an important role in your organization. However, don’t forget the value of formalized workplace processes, which are necessary to ensure legal/regulatory compliance and prevent costly errors and omissions. Employ these three best practices for establishing and maintaining workplace processes for success in 2020.

Grief is not one-size-fits-all. Make sure everyone gets what they need to deal with the loss of a colleague. 

Imagine this scenario. The executive director of a small rehab chain is killed in a plane crash. He was a popular, charismatic leader; and staff members are devastated by his death. Senior management is sympathetic. They involve employees in determining how to honor the deceased; and they urge people to seek help if they need it. Then, very quickly, a new director is named, and the tragedy is only discussed in whispers behind closed doors. Within three months, several employees have resigned, absenteeisms are up, and employee healthcare costs have ballooned. What could have management done differently?

The death of a coworker, whether it’s sudden or expected, can be traumatic for management and staff alike. It is in everyone’s best interest if you implement a well-thought-out strategy to help deal with their grief. By developing a forward-thinking, person-centered response to a death, you can prevent a tragedy from causing long-term damage to employee morale, engagement, and retention.

You don’t have to be time poor. Take these steps now to start 2020 rich in time, poor in stress and exhaustion.

Time affluence, the feeling that you have enough time to do what you need and want to do, is too rare for most professionals. Instead, they are bogged down by time poverty, where they’re stressed, rushed, overworked, and constantly trying to catch up. Increasing your time affluence takes effort, but doing so will give you a powerful edge in business and life.

New data shines a light on what employees feel about their companies, their work, and their lives and how leaders can use this information to create great cultures.

According to a new study, workers feel isolated and pressured; but they also welcome positive change and are looking to their employers to lead the way. As a result, say the study’s authors, “Leaders are turning their attention to creating workplace cultures that can withstand the uncertainty of changing business models, an increasingly diverse workforce, a flood of new technology, and the resulting disconnectedness.”