Tag Archives: workplace

Why Diversity Improves Project Management – by Michelle LaBrosse

The human capacity for self-delusion is nearly bottomless. We think we’re smarter than we are, more capable than we are and tougher than we are. For example, in one survey, 9% of men actually believed they could win a fight against an elephant!

That unwarranted confidence certainly extends to project management. According to a Project Management Institute survey, 85% of executive leaders said they believe their organizations are effective in delivering projects to achieve strategic results.

Continue reading Why Diversity Improves Project Management – by Michelle LaBrosse

Mastering the Unwritten Rules of the Game: Political IQ – by Nancy Halpern

Many of us begin new jobs with hope, enthusiasm, commitment and drive. And then something happens. We come up across obstacles we struggle to navigate. Bosses we thought were champions go silent and become unavailable. Colleagues who should be supportive thought partners seem to be hoarding information and have no time for us.

It’s easy to blame ourselves, and even easier to blame someone else. But the truth is, it’s bigger than that. When people are brought together, they inevitably compete for limited resources. The problem is that resources are always limited whether it’s additional headcount, a promotion, a manager’s attention, or a runway for your new idea. And that competition is the definition of office politics.

Continue reading Mastering the Unwritten Rules of the Game: Political IQ – by Nancy Halpern

From Virus-Suppression to Workplace Return – by Deborah Levine and Cathy Light

How Leaders & Employees
Go from Fear to Optimism:
          One TEAM again

The new norm of work is a challenge for businesses and the workforce. No one is exempt from the challenges we face during this period of isolation.  Even those who are used to working virtually will have new demands placed on them. Teams will be forced to communicate differently and accommodate home-based needs. Team leaders must find ways to collaborate and move forward despite unprecedented uncertainty. Business owners can find themselves in a fight for survival while not only maintaining the ability to restart operations, but implementing creative ways to make that transition. How are we going to manage all this? Continue reading From Virus-Suppression to Workplace Return – by Deborah Levine and Cathy Light

Beware of Cupid’s Arrow at Work – by David B. Grinberg

While office dating can send you to the honeymoon suite, it’s more likely to land you in the heartbreak hotel, outside on the company doorstep, or in a red hot legal mess.

Whether you’re shooting Cupid’s Arrow or being struck by it, workplace romance can have a detrimental impact on your career. Office dating can damage your prospects for advancement, negatively impact your health and wellness, while causing your productivity to plummet.

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Recognizing Workplace Harassment Beyond #MeToo – by David Grinberg

When most people hear about workplace harassment it’s likely to be sexual harassment, especially in today’s #MeToo era. But sexual harassment is just one of multiple unlawful bases of harassment in the employment context.

More than just sexual harassment…

Other forms of job harassment usually don’t get the same amount of national media attention, unless the case is particularly egregious — such as racial harassment involving a hangman’s noose, KKK graffiti or the N-word.

Continue reading Recognizing Workplace Harassment Beyond #MeToo – by David Grinberg

The Atheism Challenge – by Terry Howard

‘Terry, I’m (gasp) an atheist!’  There was not a hint of anger in her during the entire time “Mary” and I talked that afternoon in the crowded sandwich shop. In fact, it was just the opposite. “Mary” laughed, we laughed, so hard and so much that out of the corner of my eye I could see icy stares from booths nearby “telling us” to pipe down so that they could get back to their business dealings, grandkiddos, tuna sandwiches, chips and lattes. Here’s the email “Mary” sent me the Friday before that prompted that late Monday meeting:

Continue reading The Atheism Challenge – by Terry Howard

Workplace Flexibility: It’s Time for Straight Talk – by Paul Rupert

In 1986 colleagues Barney Olmsted and Suzanne Smith asked me to join them at New Ways to Work, the original flex think tank, in a national campaign to promote “equitable flexibility.” It was one part response to the promising emergence of Job Sharing, Part-time, Telecommuting – and possibly Phased Retirement – as scheduling flexibility in a range of corporations steeped in industrial habits.

And it was another part defense against the growing popularity of the “contingent workforce.” This strategy of creating a ring of benefit-less part-time, temporary and contract workers surrounding a core of “regular employees” offered companies staffing flexibility – but it was flexibility at the expense of employees. (The DNA of these practices seems emergent on steroids in today’s “Gig economy.”)

Continue reading Workplace Flexibility: It’s Time for Straight Talk – by Paul Rupert

Those Meddlesome Metaphors – by Terry Howard

“Biggest bang for the buck!”…..”Firing on all cylinders”….”Let’s bury the hatchet”. “Let’s raise the bar”.

“Think out of the box.” “They need to ramp up soon.” “Level the playing field!”

Ever notice how metaphors – figures of speech in which one concept is used in a place of another to suggest an analogy – have etched themselves into everyday conversations?

Continue reading Those Meddlesome Metaphors – by Terry Howard

Toxic Employees, Toxic Workplaces- By Mauricio Velásquez

Toxic employees are trying to “take over” and create toxic workplaces. As a diversity trainer, sexual harassment prevention trainer, consultant, executive coach, and expert witness, for twenty five years now, so much of my work points to one emerging phenomenon – toxic employees, toxic workplaces, are on the rise!

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The Business Case for Gender Diversity — by Caroline Turner

Most people don’t change, or willingly go along with change, because the change is “the right thing to do.” They do it if there is an important reason to change. Businesses don’t change their corporate cultures so that they retain women because doing so is nice for women. They do it if there is a compelling business reason to do so. The bottom line reasons to achieve gender diversity in leadership are exactly that—compelling.

Continue reading The Business Case for Gender Diversity — by Caroline Turner