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Feb 26

Why Offering ‘Home-Office’ Balance Leads To The Most Engaged Employees

Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom is a true believer, and like many true believers, he lets his message outrun his evidence. Based on a single study of a Chinese travel agency, he enthusiastically declares working from home a “future-looking technology” with “enormous potential.” Not so fast. Bloom’s study comes with serious limitations and is contradicted by a later Gallup report. However, while it is far too soon to draw broad conclusions from his findings, savvy business leaders can read between the lines and extract some valuable lessons for working optimally with all employees. Bloom focused on China’s biggest travel agency, Ctrip, which wanted to expand while controlling office space costs. They instituted a remote work trial, expecting that productivity would slip a little, but not enough to cancel out the savings. Instead, productivity shot up 13%, and attrition dropped 50%. When the work from home option was rolled out to the entire company and employees were given a choice, the productivity gains were 22%. Those gains are impressive, but it is important to keep in mind that the Ctrip employees are just doing call center work that requires little creativity or collaboration. The trust and teamwork essential for innovation in today’s business world […]

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Feb 26

4 Ways Leaders Can Improve Mental Health In The Workplace

Mental illness is a stubborn foe. It affects how we think, feel, and act. Advocates must dispel the perception that depression and related conditions are a private concern that belongs in the shadows. Progressive business leaders understand that mental health is a shared concern and that promoting mental health and overall organizational health are the same fight. Today is World Mental Health Day which seeks to build awareness and drive education and advocacy. Since its first observed year in 1992, we have made modest progress in raising awareness and in reducing the stigma around mental health issues. A report from the Mental Health in the Workplace Summit held earlier this year confirms how far we have to go. Mental illness is the leading cause of disability for U.S. adults aged 15 to 44. More days are lost to absenteeism due to mental health than to other illness or injury. One in five U.S. adults experience mental illness in a given year, and only 43% receive treatment (Deloitte). Mental illness costs the global economy $1 trillion in lost productivity, with over 300 million people suffering from depression (World Health Organization). It is in the best interest for everyone to continue to destigmatize mental illness […]

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Feb 26

Remembering Steve Jobs: A Visionary Leader Who Changed The World

Apple CEO and co-founder, Steve Jobs was the most inspiring and inspired individual I have ever met and worked for. Today precisely seven years after his passing his name is still synonymous with visionary, genius, innovator, and icon. He revolutionized the world with ground-breaking innovations with the personal computer, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Steve was and still is a role model for many struggling entrepreneurs, ousted business leaders, college drop-outs, adoptees, and disease-fighting people who could relate to his journey. Many people aspire to be like him and drew from his courage and “think outside the box” mindset. I recently re-connected with one of those people whom Steve had a direct impact on. Mike Slade, Strategic Advisor to Steve, was on the executive team when I worked for Steve Jobs as his Executive Assistant at Apple. Mike worked for him from 1998 through 2004. He considered Steve like a brother. They had connected on many levels and were very close. They shared their passion for marketing, products, and the tech scene. I remember the two of them spending every Monday and Tuesday together. After the executive staff meeting on Monday mornings, Mike would shadow Steve at every meeting for those two days. […]

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Feb 26

An Agile Leader Is A Self-Aware Leader

In a business landscape where volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (“VUCA”) is a fact of life, we need to be nimble, flexible and adaptable. We need to be agile. The key to becoming agile is to be self-aware in order to innovate or risk becoming archaic. However, being agile is more than just a characteristic. It is a philosophy, a method, a movement. Agile began as a way to promote innovation in software development and in that world it has a specific meaning. The concept has since spread throughout the business world where its meaning has become broader, more ambiguous and more elusive. That broadness is a good thing. We can all glean some useful wisdom from agile. In software development, agile is about a short development cycle where small teams quickly generate a product, get it in the hands of customers, incorporate feedback immediately, and start the cycle all over again. Poke around in agile philosophy and you will repeatedly encounter words like scrum and burndown. You will even find a manifesto. What can agile teach the rest of us? Published on Oct. 3, 2018 Click here to read the article on Forbes.com

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Dec 06

Our Approach To Employee Engagement Is Not Working

A staggering 87% of employees worldwide are not engaged. Employee engagement is sometimes referred to as the holy grail for today’s business leader, and for good reason. According to Gallup, a highly engaged workforce means the difference between a company that outperforms its competitors and one that fails to grow. It is a matter of life or death for a business.

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Dec 06
Dec 06
Dec 05

Are Hard Skills Or Soft Skills More Important To Be An Effective Leader?

LinkedIn has more access than just about anyone to data about a) the skill sets of today’s top talent and b) the skill sets companies are seeking. There is a mismatch between the two that LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner calls a significant skills gap. “Somewhat surprisingly,” Weiner says in an interview with CNBC, “interpersonal skills is where we’re seeing the biggest imbalance. Communications is the number one skills gap.”

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Dec 05
Dec 05