Shoes provide an interesting metaphor for thinking about how we handle the coordination of work and the other elements of our life. While we certainly wear a life shoe when we come to work, we often wear a work shoe during life. For a variety of reasons, this has become the new normal. This article reveals the shortcoming in how we have traditionally thought about the issue of coordinating work and life and presents a different way of thinking that is more aligned to our current work/life scenario. The results are higher profits, reduced medical costs, increased employee retention, and a rise in employee engagement. Can you afford to ignore that?
Lack of accountability. If there was ever a single characteristic of a culture that could guarantee underperformance, Lack of accountability has to be it. We’ve all seen it. Deadlines missed. Lack of follow-thru. Messages ignored. We’ve all experienced the frustration and aggravation and wondered why does it have to be this hard? This article provides a novel way to ratchet up the degree of accountability in your organization. BONUS TIP: Forwarding this to your team may be a small step that produces big gains.
It’s common knowledge that the days of lifetime employment (i.e. working for the same company for your career) have passed. But an interesting shift has accompanied that change. Employees are taking more ownership over their own career development. On one hand, this sounds like a really good thing. But self-driven career management may correlate to talent mobility, which can be bad if the organization isn’t prepared. As an employer, what can you do to prepare? I have 5 simple steps to help aid you in better handling this dilemma, as well as tips for those that feel they have become a training ground for their competitors.
Continuing on the topic of organizational alignment… In organizations, alignment has three dimensions. Vertical, Horizontal, and Contextual. It is this third dimension is about sustainability and congruence and the softer side of leadership. Read more about all three in this week’s article, and consider how you would you rank your organization’s alignment across the three dimensions. Is your focus on the dimension that will produce the highest payback?
I admit it… I confess… I have a few favorite words and I tend to overuse them. Some of these favorite words come and go, but some stay for a long time. One of my all-time favorite words is ‘alignment’. I’ve had it for a while and I plan to keep it forever. If you show me a problem, any problem, then I’ll explain why it is caused by a lack of alignment.
In considering alignment as it relates to organizations, two questions arise – what does alignment mean and why is it important?