Dear Madeleine, I manage the US Eastern region for a global manufacturing company. Our new CEO, who is in Europe, is very frustrated at our US employees’ resistance to return to the office. He has decreed that everyone who wants to keep their job should be in the office five days a week, and that…
What started as a book to help an author’s college grad daughter navigate the business world turned into a guide for employers everywhere who want to build a high-performing workforce. In her new book Winning the Talent Shift: Three Steps to Unleashing the New Higher Performance Workplace, Berta Aldrich explains why companies struggle to hire…
Marcus Buckingham believes some basic assumptions about work are simply no longer true in today’s business environment. He shares his insights in his latest book, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World, coauthored with Ashley Goodall. Lie #1: People care which company they work for. Many companies use their corporate…
Dear Madeleine, I am a manager who has done well at a professional services company. I run a large and growing group of entry level professionals who manage logistics and customer service for the entire organization. I absolutely love my job. I enjoy helping people be successful as well as being seen as someone who…
Dear Madeleine, I am a fairly experienced senior manager at an organization that was acquired about eighteen months ago. The larger organization makes a new acquisition about every eight months, with no end in sight. The changes are really hard to keep up with. There seem to be new processes and procedures every day. I…
When other companies are moving ahead and yours isn’t, it creates a gap that impacts your employees’ perceived value of your company. “The number of job transitions is only increasing, so high potential people are looking for opportunities to grow and develop. Organizations that don’t address this need are in for a rude awakening,” says…
Earlier this month, I noticed that a few of my Facebook friends were posting a link to a Wall Street Journal post titled What Do Workers Want from the Boss? The article describes the results of a Gallup study showing that employees want communication, a trusting relationship, and clear measurement standards from their immediate supervisor.…
I’ll say it right up front: I’m not a fan of the infamous practice of ranking employees and continuously turning over the bottom 10 percent. I think it is bad business. So when I speak about eliminating performance problems, I am not suggesting we get rid of employees. That should only be considered in rare…