Opinion & Comment

Getting to grips with crisis management

Richard Harris-Deans | 22 Sep 2023

Managers are likely to navigate at least two or three major crises during their professional lives, and the way they respond could make or break their careers. So how should managers prepare for the worst?

Are we neglecting managers in the new world of work?

Marco Favaloro

With many managers struggling at a personal level in the new world of hybrid work, organisations need to offer additional support to build healthy workplace relationships.

Diverse teams and psychological safety

David Livermore

There’s been a surge of interest recently about the importance of psychological safety, and rightfully so. But like many good things, it's better not to have too much of it.

Inclusion is the key to engagement

Wayne Turmel

How do you keep employees engaged when they aren’t interacting with colleagues every day? The answer is to try to include them whenever the opportunity arises.

Making cross-organizational teams work

Simon Thule Viggers

Cross-organizational teams are a growing trend. But they can have some costly side-effects for the people who are assigned to these temporary projects.

Great expectations?

Wayne Turmel

An issue many managers come up against on remote or hybrid teams is that there are fewer opportunities to inspect peoples' work in person, or on-demand. Dealing with this is all about expectations.

Culturally intelligent teams: different values, same norms

David Livermore

Understanding cultural differences on a diverse team does not automatically translate into better performance. Instead, leaders need to develop team norms that are both inclusive and unifying.

Hybrid teams: keeping up the connections

Marco Favaloro

It's all too easy for those all-important 'water cooler' moments to evaporate in the new hybrid world of work. So how do you build deeper relationships in teams that rarely share the same physical space?

Leadership advice you should ignore

David Livermore

So much advice to leaders and entrepreneurs is ill suited to leading in today's digital, diverse world. It often includes kernels of truth, but much of it needs a major rethink, starting with these.

The great mismatch?

Wayne Turmel

First was "the Great Resignation." Then there was "Quiet Quitting." But the latest buzzword flying around to help us understand the changing workplace is "the Great Mismatch."

Five questions culturally intelligent leaders ask themselves everyday

David Livermore

While cultural intelligence (CQ) needs to inform big picture strategic and operational issues, where it really comes to life is in the everyday practices of a leader.

Leaders, teammates, and teams

Wayne Turmel

The trend for remote work was rising for years before the COVID tsunami hit. But now we've passed that first big wave of change, what will teamwork look like going forward?

We're at a post-Covid inflection point. Now what?

Wayne Turmel

Three years of Covid-inspired disruption to the way work is done has left uncertainty in its wake. But waving a magic wand and saying, "we're going back to the way things were," isn't going to work for a number of reasons.

We're at a post-Covid inflection point. Now what?

Wayne Turmel

The power of figured worlds

David Livermore

Figured worlds - the social contexts where we feel most comfortable - are everywhere. They might be countries, racial groups, fashions, friend groups or religions - and we underestimate their power at our peril.

Talking about mental health

Therese Procter

How can people in managerial roles listen, understand and support team members who open up about mental health issues?

Company culture: the bigger picture

Wayne Turmel

How do we judge a company or team's culture? What role does working together physically play in creating it? Maybe more important, and harder to answer - how do we know?

What Is the language of conscious leadership?

Vlatka Ariaana Hlupic

Words have their own energy and meaning and need to be chosen with care. That's why language is such an important barometer of organisational culture.

Does working remotely make work less toxic?

Wayne Turmel

Some unwelcome workplace behaviors disappear when we work remotely. But when the way we work changes, so do the ways we manage to annoy and undermine each other.

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From the archive

Morale: a moving target

Duane Dike

What we think we know about morale is probably wrong, especially the black and white notion that morale is either ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Like most human feelings, morale is a moving target, which is why being sensitive to its nuances is such a key skill for leaders.

Nobody's paying attention: don't panic

Wayne Turmel

If you feel that no one is paying attention on your conference calls, don’t worry about it. You’re not alone. Calls need to be managed to maintain focus and involvement. So plan them , don’t expect them to just magically happen.

What makes a great leader?

Dan Bobinski

Whether you're already in a leadership role, want to aspire to leadership, or just want to be able to recognize a good leader when you see one, you need to remember that leadership involves its own skill set. So here's what I think are the main attributes of a great leader.

The act of presentation

Janet Howd

Managers who are expected to give presentations can learn an enormous amount from the techniques of acting. So forget the Powerpoint slides for a moment and take some lessons from the stage...

What you say. What your customers think

Andy Hanselman

Have you ever stopped to think what glib scripted responses to customer enquiries say about your business? Perhaps you should try waiting in your own queues or dealing with your own call centre.

Earlier opinion

Money talks: the power of salary transparency

Noura Dadzie

In the U.S., six states have passed laws requiring employers to publish salary information in an effort to reduce wage gaps. So should more organisations be prioritising salary transparency?

How culturally intelligent leaders make decisions

David Livermore

What does culturally intelligent decision-making look like for today's global leader? It's certainly not as simple as "just make a decision."

Financial stress and employee wellbeing

Harry Bliss

With the cost-of-living crisis set to continue for the foreseeable future, supporting employees with their financial wellbeing must be a top priority for every employer.

Enough of all this 'quiet quitting'

Wayne Turmel

Every once in a while, the business press gets hold of an idea and works it like a dog with a sock until it's unrecognizable. Such is the case with 'quiet quitting'.

Does it matter if you like the people you work with?

Amanda Nimon-Peters

Most of us need a sense of belonging with the people we spend time with. So working with people we like is good for us as well as the organisations that employ us.

How to build trust on a diverse team

David Livermore

Diverse teams have a harder time trusting each other than homogeneous teams do. Here are three evidence-based ways to go about building that trust.

Is there a place for gossip in the new normal?

Bob Selden

Social chit-chat is a vital part of being human. But how does that fit in with the the new normal of hybrid or home working where our physical contact with others is limited?

The key ingredients for digital project success

Greig Johnston

More than eight out of 10 digital projects get delayed, run over budget, and/or fail to deliver what they promised. So how can organisations avoid falling into the same trap?

Corporate culture: have we lost our touch?

Bob Selden

Remote working is all very well, but how can we get a real feel for other people and build meaningful relationships without ever being in physical proximity to them?

Proper vacations are all about teamwork

Wayne Turmel

Far too many of us (especially Americans), don't use all our vacation time. But taking time off to recharge our batteries helps the whole team, so making sure that happens is a team effort, too.

The leadership trust crisis

David Livermore

Across the world, trust in leadership is at an all-time low. But global leaders also need to be mindful that many approaches to rebuilding trust are biased toward Western values.

Leveraging tech to succeed at hybrid working

Jesper Theill Eriksen

A variety of issues still plague today's hybrid work environments, particularly around the tech used to enable effective remote working.