culture

5 skills

In: Culture, Effective Communication, Leadership

A recent US survey has identified the most important skills for managers as: communication, ability to train, time management, building culture and managing performance. In 2019 the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) released a study  The High Cost of a Toxic Workplace Culture which identified 1 in 4 American workers dreaded going to work and that US companies had lost $223 billion due to culture caused turn-over. In 2020 they updated the study with further research finding that 84% of US workers blame bad managers for creating unnecessary stress. This article unpacks the more recent study and finds that there are five skills that employees wish their managers have. Effective Communication The mostly highly regarded skill is effective communications (41% of those surveyed stated their manager could improve in this area). It is important to remember that effective communication is not just about talking it is also about listeningContinue Reading

innovation globes

In: Innovation

Continuous innovation is a focus on gradual improvement, it consists of smaller and more frequent innovations delivering continual benefits. Many people associate the term ‘innovation’ with game-changing disruption but that is actually the exception rather than the rule. A disruptive innovation that transforms an industry with a dramatic pivot, new services, creative business/service models and global scale does not come along every day. While continuous innovation is much more gradual, it is much more reliable at delivering small gains, which continue to advance the company year in year out. By focusing on continuous innovation over big disruptive innovations companies can: Strengthen the organisations’ Innovation Muscles Continually deliver improvement Build momentum towards larger innovations – potentially disruptive innovations. To establish the right culture for continuous innovation you need to develop the right innovative leadership. The authors state these leaders must understand: How to establish clear goals for innovation that are ambitiousContinue Reading

In: Leadership, Virtual Teams

This article is written by Raj Jana founder of the JavaPresse Coffe Company and he explains what he has been doing to keep the company culture going now that everyone is working from home. He proposes three specific tactics to help keep the culture alive through the virtual meetings. Nurture a meeting culture to connect employeesStructure your meetings in a way that amplifies the connection between colleagues, enable them to use the time to connect in a regular way. Establish a regular schedule for team meetings that doesn’t change, to provide a sense of stability. Give every employee the opportunity to speak, its not about the leader presenting and everyone else listening you need to engage. A good tip is using a Monday meeting to set the week’s intentions and a Friday meeting to reflect on any key learnings as a team. Mandate employee shoutoutsMake recognising individual performance part ofContinue Reading

In: Culture, Effective Communication, Leadership, Resilience, Values

Synopsis of an article in HBR by Michael Beer, Published 22nd June 2020 Michael explains that most organisations today are dealing with massive strategic challenges that require a redefinition of purpose, identity, strategy, business model and even structure. Many if not most of these will fail and not because the strategy if flawed but rather the organisation does not have the ability to execute. He explains that he has seen six common interrelated reason for failures, referred to as ‘hidden barriers’ which make organisations ineffective. Hidden barrier #1: Unclear values and conflicting priorities Often, the underlying problem is not this or that strategy, but rather the process by which the strategy was formed — or the lack of any such process. In these cases, strategy is often developed by the leader along with the chief strategy or marketing executive and only then communicated to the rest of the senior teamContinue Reading