I’m not an attorney. I’m not giving legal advice. Typically, I focus on organizational culture. In my way of thinking, if your heart is in the right place, compliance with laws, regulations, and court rulings on topics such as discrimination, safety, sexual harassment, wage and hour laws and the myriad of other things regulating the employment relationship is easier and more powerful than forced compliance. Emphasizing how you want people treated in your workplace is way more motivating for your team than what you have to do... Read More

Unless you just need a generic person with a pulse and some skills, recruit someone who fits - who will value the same things your team values because they’re inherently wired the same way. While you should never make decisions based on illegal discrimination (sex, age, ethnicity, etc.), you should be very discriminating in selecting the people who you’re trusting your vision, resources, reputation, customers, and future to. The right hire can make your vision come true; the wrong one can turn it into a nightmare.... Read More

Help! I Hired the Wrong Person! Unemployment is very high, but not as high as it was a month ago. The employment market is picking up. Still, there are people who want a job and any job will do - like a job you need to fill. I'm in business to help organizations find solutions. BUT, I would much prefer to prevent all that by creating solutions in advance that help organizations find people who will get their mission, see their vision, and live their values. As a give-back, I enjoy helping people make transitions, get closure, and... Read More

You’re a leader. You’re expected to be visionary. So what happens when you constantly look at the future through the lens of what was? When we screen everything that's happening around us through the lens of what was, all we can see is constant change. When we look backward, we tend to glamorize the past. It becomes the good old days which the now and the future is contrasted with. In doing so, we fail to be visionary. We fail to see the "new." We see the "now," but rather than seeing it as new, we see it as... Read More

Our word “culture” is derived from a French word meaning, “to cultivate.” Implicit in that is that it takes work, which is different in different seasons. You can’t get the seasons mixed up and do the wrong work in the wrong season and get the right results. And here we are, in arguably one of the weirdest seasons in the lives of almost anyone alive anywhere in the world. It’s not ending anytime soon, though things could be about to shift for some employers. How do you cultivate your culture... Read More

Is Your Culture Cultivated? I live on an almost 20 acre greenbelt that I lovingly call a brownbelt. That’s because the only time it’s green is this time of year. It’s not cultivated; no irrigation, nothing planted, just whatever grows. If you want open space that is a habitat for a bunch of birds, frogs, mice, a rat or two and the occasional coyote, it’s great. If you wanted a place you could play soccer with your kids, it’s not. The plan wasn’t for it to be this way. There was... Read More

Blame it on my admiration for successful organizations that have chosen NOT to make a policy out of everything and yet have spectacular results. Places like Netflix and Nordstrom come to mind. By contrast, when I read of advice to business leaders about the need to codify rules around everything that employees might even think of doing that could negatively impact productivity, I wince. We’re at Sweet 16, smack in the middle of March Madness. So, those who would wring their hands cite: A change in the behavior of employees; ... Read More

Lose weight. Get in shape. Stop smoking. Get out of debt. It’s just so human to want new beginnings, fresh starts, and do-overs. So we come up with resolutions – our noble intentions to do things that may be more grandiose than what we actually do or even can do. But it’s all good because it helps us focus on the future, think of things we want to do, and create new ways to improve. We need that. So do our organizations. So do our teams. Survey after survey after survey after survey of working people show 3 things... Read More

Office Politics 2016 v 2.0 Less than a month to go and mudslinging is taking a new slog this election. I suspect it will get worse. A quick rundown of the last few days and what’s next: On Friday, we first heard of a video of Trump 11 years ago being pretty much as crass as everyone knew he could be; Over the weekend we saw shock and outrage from people in both camps, and a whole lot of talk about it and numerous showings of the video; Last night at the debates, this video and his words were discussed. In response,... Read More

What’s worse than workplace drama? It’s right up there with election year political attack ads. Pretty much everyone hates both, wishes they would go away, puts up with it thinking it will end soon. The attack ads do – at least for a little while; the workplace drama doesn’t self-resolve. That’s where leadership comes in. There are numerous reasons office drama happens. It manifests itself in attitude, gossip, complaining, overreaction, hurt feelings, sides, resentment and a lot of other things that have... Read More