Last week I walked into yet another company that had a culture gap. This is a phenomenon I have experienced many times in the consulting world. What is a culture gap? It’s the difference between how leaders believe work gets done in their company and how employees really get that work done. While I’m very familiar with culture gaps, only …
I learned a lot in while I was in prison – working as a psychologist, that is. I saw there that behavior – even in its extremes – can be influenced by context or culture. And that’s what I still speak and write about today. Back then, there was a lot of talk about the “dark triad” of personality traits, …
What species gets cancer more often: elephants or humans? Now you might think that since elephants are so much bigger than humans — and have so many more cells that could be affected by cancer — that they suffer from the disease more than we do. Actually, though, elephants don’t get cancer. Well, they do occasionally. But not nearly as often …
To measure the state of your company culture, you can evaluate it using various metrics. Surveys, statistics and feedback will all give you valuable information. But there’s also a quicker way to get a gut check on what’s really happening in your culture. Sometimes we keep our heads so buried in our work that we miss what’s going on all …
Turnover in business is like leaving your doors and windows open on a cold winter day. You can still heat your house, but it will cost you. And you can save a boatload on your heating expenses if you just close your doors and windows. The U.S. Department of Labor cites the top two reasons that businesses fail: They run …
On March 12, 2019, a story broke in the news that continues to reverberate. Uber-wealthy parents paid between $200,000 and $6.5 million to ensure their children got into the colleges of their choice. Of course, the uber-wealthy have been leveraging their resources to get their children into elite colleges for generations, through large donations, legacy admissions, campus visits, tutors and …
I recently gave a presentation on different generations to a group of CEOs. Afterward, one of the older and wealthier CEOs told me this: “Behind every overpaid Millennial is a Baby Boomer executive who doesn’t know how to use his computer. Millennials would be nowhere without the wealth Boomers created.” While I know that is a common sentiment among Baby …
Last week, I was reminded of an article that was published in Harvard Business Review last year, “The Busier You Are, the More You Need Quiet Time.” In it, the authors go into how quiet time benefits everything from learning and memory to creativity, to increasing employee morale and productivity. Wonderful! But the authors fall short. At the end of …
I’ve been working with companies trying to manage a multigenerational workforce for almost 12 years. Until lately, the focus had always been on Gen Y or Millennials, the generation of people born between 1982-2000/01, as defined by “The Fourth Turning” by Strauss and Howe. But recently I have been doing more reading and speaking about the generation following Millennials. I’d …
In last week’s blog, we discussed the high cost of incivility in a workplace culture. This week, I’d like to discuss some ways you can create a more civil culture. Set a Destination An ancient Chinese proverb states, “If we don’t decide where we’re going, we’re bound to end up where we’re headed.” Creating a culture of civility requires leaders …
