My HR role affords me a unique opportunity to get into the heads of the rank and file; my colleagues who perform the important work of the business. I’ve learned a lot about what frustrates employees about their direct supervisors based on conversations with staff over the years. There are several themes that continue to […]
Archives for September 2013
Adaptive Leadership: “Holding Environment”, Part 5
Holding environment, also referred to as “pressure cooker” (Heifetz et al., 2009, p.306), is defined as having “The cohesive properties of a relationship or social system that serve to keep people engaged with one another in spite of the divisive forces generated by adaptive work” (Heifetz et al., 2009, p.305). Holding environment provides appropriate adaptive […]
Notification Requirements Deadline For Affordable Care Act For Employers Looming
The notice period for informing employees of their options in the Health Insurance Marketplace as part of the Affordable Care Act is October 1, 2013. You may be wondering: Are all employers subject to the notice requirement? Which employees should be getting information on the health insurance marketplace as required under the Affordable Care Act? […]
Study Shows That Kindness Makes For a Better Workplace
Does kindness at work matter? Yes, according to psychologists. Compassion and kindness have proven to be a powerful force which can actually reduce workplace stress. So how can you ensure that your staff plays nice in the office sandbox? By leading by example: Practice what you preach. If you are in a perpetual bad mood, […]
Adaptive Leadership: Resistance To Adaptive Change, Part 4
Adaptive leadership involves telling people the hard truth and asking them to sustain losses, therefore adaptive leaders invariably provoke resistance. Flower (1995) writes, Some resistance strategies are well known and rather obvious, such as scapegoating, externalizing the enemy, or killing off the leader in the hopes that if only we had the right leader our […]
5 Ways To Successfully Manage TeleWorkers
Telework is changing the way work is performed. Good management is the key to keeping remote workers productive.
Adaptive Leadership: Distinction Between “Leadership” and “Authority” – Part 3
Most people use “leadership” and “authority” interchangeably. Heifetz argues that there is a great difference between a figure of authority and a leader and that people in authority do not usually exercise leadership, while a leader oftentimes leads without formal authority (Flower, 1995). In the language of Adaptive Leadership, authorities perform very distinct functions: they […]
Do Recruiters Base Their Hiring Decisions On a Handshake?
According to the article, “All in the wrist: The bizarre case of handshake bias“, research shows that HR recruiters may subconsciously determine the “hire-ability” of a job candidate based on the candidate’s handshake. What’s behind the possible handshake bias? The assumption that candidates with weaker handshakes may have less than optimal social or workplace relationship […]
Adaptive Leadership: Distinction Between “Technical” Problems and “Adaptive” Challenges, Part 2
While most challenges contain both technical and adaptive aspects, it is critical to distinguish between those two elements. Otherwise all too often adaptive challenges get treated as if they are technical problems and do not get resolved. According to Heifetz et al. (2009) technical problems share the following elements: existence of known solutions, made feasible […]
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