Archive for the Leadership Category
Performance Evaluations from Hell – and how to survive them
Almost Everything I Know about Performance Evaluations I learned in the School of Life
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Susan C.
Love ‘em or loathe ‘em, performance evaluations seem to be a fact of working life for employees of most companies or organizations. I don’t think I’ve ever actually met anyone who claims to love performance evaluations. I would guess that most people, including myself, have mixed feelings about the ordeal—an observation that seems to be borne out in the research literature on the subject. I have a friend who seems to loathe them and is convinced that not only are performance evaluations a waste of time, but they actually train people to be less–rather than more–creative, innovative, independent and productive. He’s not alone in his thinking. An increasing number of HR specialists are beginning to reach a similar conclusion. They argue that in its current format, the practice is more destructive than constructive, and is a holdover from earlier paternalistic ideologies about the relationship between employer and employee.
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Why Companies Should Allow Their Employees to Work from Home
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Evita of Evolving Beings
It seems that as technology expands forward, it is allowing more and more people the freedom to not be tied to a desk at their office any longer.
More and more people are either being approached by their company with an option to work remotely, such as from home, or are themselves suggesting the option to their company.
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Freedom – Rehumanize Business Part 3
When a business stops trying to control their employees, the employees begin to feel free at work. This freedom will allow them to feel more comfortable and happy.
Let’s say you have 50 employees who each have 100 Facebook and 100 Twitter friends. That’s 10,000 people that your employees are interacting with. They are talking about you to their friends.
What are they really saying?
Employee Outreach
You should be encouraging your employees to talk about their company, but never force them to use social media. Your employees will share the company’s story with their friends when you treat your employees like the superstars that they are.
This is where freedom comes in. If your people feel that they are free to do what is best for them and the company, they will use this freedom to make both themselves and the company happy.
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Unleash Employees’ Inner Creative Marketing Talents – Rehumanize Business Part 2
You may have read that title and thought, “What does my company’s marketing have to do with work happiness?”
A lot.
70% of business is transacted because your friend told you about a product or service. You probably own an iPod because your friends wouldn’t stop raving about their iPod. You trust your friends to recommend good stuff.
Zappos let’s their employees Twitter on the job. They trust their people to connect with the customer.
I love Zappos, not because they have every kind of shoe on the planet, but because they ship for free, have a 360 day return policy and pay for shipping back to the company if you want to return a purchase. Now that’s worth spreading.
People want to share stuff that makes them happy. It’s up to companies to encourage their people to share their story.
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Rehumanize Business – Part 1
Too many businesses are worried about playing it safe. They don’t want to uncover the bad stuff that is happening in their business, so they look the other way instead. Human Resources is there to protect the company. Upper management only wants to know about positive sales figures.
Who can most employees turn to?
They don’t turn to anyone; they just leave.
I want to rehumanize (I borrowed the word from Chris Brogan) business so that people feel free to speak up. The only way business is going to become faster, more enjoyable and more profitable is if you have every person in your company and even your customers become a part of your marketing department. That means they tell their friends, family and their internet buddies that your products/services are awesome.
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Why France Telecom Suicides Never Should Have Happened
You may have heard about the 24 employees at France Telecom who committed suicide because work was too stressful. I’ve been thinking a lot about this problem.
Many employees are afraid to speak up for fear of being fired or looked down upon by their peers.
France Telecom is going through a restructuring in order to stand out competitive communication industry. They are trying to trim the fat and fix the problems. This isn’t easy in France where demand for employee rights is very strong.
I was thinking about the times in the past when I was depressed and worn down by work. That’s why I quit that old job.
I really think people should quit instead of putting their lives at risk.
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4 Techniques to Help You Deal With a Difficult Boss
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Adrienne Carlson.
If life could be split into two general parts, work would take up one compartment and personal life the other. While we tend to put our personal relationships on a higher rung, work too is significant in the larger scheme of things because it puts food on our table and provides us with the money we need to lead a comfortable life.
So when your work life is not satisfactory, your personal life suffers too, because as much as we may try to keep the two like parallel lines that never meet, the fact is that they are like train tracks that tend to cross over and merge once in a while. So if you have the misfortune of working with a boss who is difficult, your work tensions may spill over into and ruin your personal life, which is why you must know how to deal with superiors who make your work life a heavy cross to bear.
A few ways to deal with a difficult boss are to:
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Work Happiness Tip – Tag Your Co-Worker
I posted on Twitter about the importance of rewarding your co-workers. I love Twitter, by the way. The ability to connect with fun, smart and quirky people is brilliant.
A friend on Twitter told me that she likes to create tags for her co-workers.
I asked her what she meant and she explained that she likes to give out random acts of kindness to the people she works with. She draws beautiful pictures on pricing tags. She sent me these photos so I could share them with you.
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The Secrets to Workplace Leadership
I shared a drink with a friend who manages a team of five people. He was wondering how people’s moods can fluctuate in such a broad range, which affects the quality of their work. One of his employees is always up and down. He is engaged with his work one week and then he seems to lose interest. His interest fluctuates and he isn’t sure why.
We all have this problem it’s just that most of us force ourselves to stay focused. My friend told me that he has tried giving this employee various kinds of work to see what interests him, but that didn’t work either.
I asked him if he ever sits down with his staff to explain the reasoning behind the work.
He said he didn’t. He never really thought of that because it’s pretty obvious to him. They need to design websites that exceed the customer’s expectations.
He was losing out on a huge opportunity. People often stop looking at the larger picture because they get comfortable. This comfortable feeling reduces their desire to go above and beyond the normal effort.
A study at the University of Alberta showed that people need a sense of purpose in order to feel engaged with their work. A ‘Spirit at Work’ intervention program for a group of long-term health-care workers boosted morale and job retention. This program urged employees to rethink their job, which reduced absenteeism by 60% and turnover by 75%.
“We discovered that people who are able to find meaning and purpose in their work, and can see how they make a difference through that work, are healthier, happier and more productive employees,” said Val Kinjerski, a University of Alberta PhD graduate who co-authored the study.
- E-science news gathered this information from the Journal of Gerontological Nursing.
By helping your people understand why they do what they do – you can increase happiness and productivity.
I’m going to give you a few ideas that might help your employees/coworkers to connect with their work.
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How Your Company Can Bring the Fun Back
We’re afraid of having fun because we might get caught by our boss. The dreaded Fired hangs over us like a dark cloud. So we quietly go about our work trying to stay under the radar.
The problem with this method of working is that our confidence takes a hit. We don’t always make choices that best fit the situation, because if the choice scares us then we avoid it. Living this way puts us in a state of lack instead of abundance.
Most of us were raised to stay under the radar. We got negative attention for being bad. When we did something good there was no fanfare because it’s what we were supposed to be doing.
Much of the corporate world works this way too. The people who get promoted are the ones who do the least damage to the company. That’s no way to reward an employee who has the courage to try something new and they fail.
We need to build a culture that accepts mistakes especially if an employee puts their neck on the line. When people are encouraged to take risks, they will be more likely to accomplish projects that will succeed big.
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