I recently announced that I have just finished a thirteen-year stint at Cisco. I’m moving on to start my own consultancy (which you’ll hear about in coming months), but the key point right now is that I already have some strong ideas about what I want to do next and I’m finalising how I want to get there. The reason that’s important is that by the time I actually left the office and had a lot of free time, I wasn’t overwhelmed by it. I know that sounds odd – who wouldn’t want to suddenly have a
Most days organisations don’t make long-term, enterprise-wide decisions based on current events. But these are not most days. The coronavirus has shifted from an unexpected, life-altering, abrupt event, to a universal, dominant, ongoing presence in our lives. In fact, “presence”, understates it. It has become the lens through which we see most of our decisions. If there is a silver lining to world events this year, it might be that necessity has not only bred invention but provided the platform for long-term digital transformation during coronavirus. For businesses everywhere, digital transformation begun during coronavirus was employed as a
During these difficult times, there’s constant anxiety on both a personal and professional level. Everyone is on high alert about their own health, as well as their loved ones. For those negatively impacted economically, there’s fear about making rent and paying bills. And for those still working, many are trying to adjust to an office job performed from a kitchen table or the living room sofa. But individual responses to the coronavirus aren’t the only change in the current environment. There’s also pressure on organisations to find ways to adjust. Some companies are considering permanently switching to remote
According to a Gallup survey, 43% of the American workforce work from home at least occasionally. Occasionally is of course the key word – the same survey found that only 5.2% of workers do their jobs from home full time. But in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the vast majority of employees in numerous countries are working completely remotely. It’s an abrupt adjustment, and it can add more anxiety to an already stressful situation. So it’s important to make some changes to
Anyone who saw an episode of Mad Men had to notice the Sterling Cooper Agency workday hours. Sure, there were occasional late nights where Peggy and other junior copywriters spun their wheels all night trying to find a witty way to sell cola or toilet paper. But really, most days Don Draper was headed home before sunset. Fast-forward to the era when the show was filmed, not set, and putting boundaries around your workday feels as doable as the three-martini lunch.
Millennials have changed the workforce in countless ways. That’s not all bad, of course, and Gen X leaders should embrace Millennial corporate values (some of them, anyway). Millennials have changed the face of companies, literally, with more diverse employees. They’ve changed employee expectations, with more emphasis on things they care about, like CSR efforts and a voice in their career. And they generally have questioned – even rejected — many of the professional norms (read: restraints) around dress codes, organization charts and communication style.
One of the challenges of initiatives regarding promotion of women in the workplace is that it can feel like a chicken and egg problem. Studies show that women in positions of power are more likely than men to hire and promote other women. And there are obvious reasons for women to mentor women. And in the era MeToo, it seems a particularly dicey time to encourage men to mentor women in the workplace. But as I wrote in a prior post about the challenges of female leadership, just 7% of the CEOs in the FTSE 100 are
The other day, a friend of mine told me about a new employee at her office. The woman on first glance was just another twenty-something new hire with what my friend called “appropriate business look”. Apparently the woman had an unremarkable hairstyle in a natural-looking colour (“no streaks of purple or green”), simple jewelry (“only her ears were pierced”), and a tailored, silk blouse. At the meeting, she was articulate and well-informed on the subject matter, with insightful questions and useful ideas. Then, when she raised her hand to make a point . . .she revealed a sleeve
I was recently asked to give advice to a professional that was really struggling with the best way to succeed in a divided workplace. She asked: “At my job, you can tell that employees are divided in many ways. I’m not the type of person to fall into groups because it’s what everyone expects or it’s how you get things done. So, how can I get ahead, as an individual, without compromising my character?”
It’s totally understandable why you’d like to be a grown-up and