Leadership

For many bosses, the employee’s transition to negativity comes for no apparent reason. However, a common complaint I hear from dissatisfied employees is that they do not get creative freedom. They suggest creative solutions that would yield better results, but get told “No.” They feel caught in the “but we’ve always done it this way” trap. Creativity is essential for your employees’ work to have meaning. With meaning, they are more engaged, which means less absenteeism, better teamwork, better service, and increased productivity. To foster creativity, try the following:

I learned about the concept of Muri at Toyota. 

I was surprised to find that many Lean practitioners either never use it or barely pay it lip service. It is one of the most crucial lead productivity measures of all.

Muri means overburden

Muri is a Japanese word used in The Toyota Way. It means the unnecessary and unreasonable struggle in a system. Just as materials should flow seamlessly with minimum fuss and effort, the same should be true for people.

Recently, I had the pleasure of delivering a workshop for the ICSA conference in London. 

As the premier conference event for company secretaries, board and governance professionals it was an opportunity to explore how inclusion and diversity in corporate governance, in all its guises, is being addressed. It was encouraging to realise that the issue of inclusion was not a discrete topic of discussion but one that permeated many of the issues under scrutiny.

I was talking to a friend the other day and, as usual, asked how it was all going. She said it'd been busy at work, very busy in fact and for all the right reasons, but it had meant that she’d had to put an out of office on her Email to say that she may be a while responding and for people to phone if it was important. One such person, who had been waiting and chasing for a response, cheekily found a slot in her diary and chanced their arm for a chat. She accepted.

Social media is littered with beautiful photos of happy people doing wonderful things. The pursuit of happiness has become a catchcry. Success is measured by popularity, beauty and material wealth. Thank goodness for the creation of selfie filters to tweak the imperfections!

The temptation in coaching follows a similar rhythm. Work out who you need to influence most, ensure you have the right corporate look, the outfit, the grooming, the physique. Create inspirational goals. Go on a values-driven journey to enable a happier, more successful life.…

We have never stopped evolving and we must never!

In my last few pieces, I have written about the slave trade, conscious capitalism and how we have to do better in the world today.  A review of history shows us so clearly how we as a race/species have evolved over the past thousands of years.  Not all of our progress has been good, wars, genocide, extinction of species, pollution etc. But we have also made progress by reducing infant mortality, expanding human rights,  education, life expectancy, technology etc.

Regardless of how many organisations espouse a core value of integrity (e.g. Accenture, Adidas, Alibaba, Amex, Coke, Huawei and Tencent etc.) cases of individuals and organisations breaching common ethical standards continue unabated (Volkswagen and diesel emissions, DJI and supply chain fraud, Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology and rabies vaccine quality or Renault-Nissan and Carlos Ghoson’s alleged financial misconduct ). Organisations, rightly, are seen as serving the societies in which they sit and breaches of trust consequently are devastating – destroying significant brand value.

It’s going to happen. There will be conflict! Conflict is not always bad as it shows that people can have open discussions and voice their opinions. However, personality conflicts can be painful and destructive.

If you have a personality conflict, you have to decide: Do you want to improve the relationship? If so, here are some tips.

Look at yourself first. Ask yourself questions like: When did the problem start? Was there a defining moment or did it build over time? What did I do to cause or escalate the conflict?

We’re all creatures of habit – it’s human nature. However, how do we know we have the right habits that can help us to thrive as HR and People leaders?

With valuable nuggets from Virgin to Facebook, we take a look at the habits the most highly effective HR and People leaders practice day-to-day.

The fact that you are here today reading this, is proof that (at various stages throughout your life) significant people helped guide you along the appropriate path resulting in you becoming a better person.

From early years, through troubled teens, seemingly endless college days and now the world of work, we all grew personally and professionally because we were led the right way by parents, relatives, teachers, peers, managers and various other mentors.