by Mike Harden
There is an old business story in which a new employee asks an older, experienced coworker how to handle a certain situation. The old-timer tells him: “There are three ways to do things around here: the right way, the wrong way, and the company way. We do everything the company way!” Continue reading
by Melissa Janis
With employees feeling overwhelmed by ever-increasing task demands, it’s harder than ever to make employee development a priority with its longer term, often “squishy” topics. Fortunately, there are leaders who understand the value of focusing on employee development and look to leverage it to boost productivity, engagement and retention for today as well as to build for the future. Continue reading
by Gianpiero Petriglieri
Hardly a day goes by that I don’t meet it, the struggle with emotions at work.
The misunderstood colleague, filled with frustration, attempting not to show it; the executive wondering how to confront her team’s lack of enthusiasm; the student hesitating to confess his affection to a classmate. Continue reading
By Amy Power
Company “culture” is a major buzzword for big business — and with good reason. When an executive is leading a large enterprise with financial and human resources, it’s much easier to leverage a massive budget to create company culture. Google touts lavish perks including on-site physicians and nurses to save time, massage chairs, nap pods, free meals and a stable of electric cars for those in need of a ride. Facebook offers a bike-repair shop, barbershop, video arcade, free candy shop, bakery and free computer-accessory vending machines. Continue reading
by Andy Molinsky
You want your employees to become more effective and emotionally intelligent communicators, savvier negotiators, more compassionate and effective deliverers of bad news, better coaches, and more sophisticated cross-cultural communicators. So you offer them interpersonal skills training. It’s a packaged solution that can pay great dividends for your business. Right?
Well, not so fast. Skills training is a huge industry, but also one with an equally huge failure rate. Companies spend billions of dollars annually helping their employees develop all sorts of interpersonal skills with questionable return on their investment. And the big question is, why? Why does training seem like such an obvious solution to a real problem when it doesn’t prove fruitful much of the time? Continue reading
