Tips for Improving Workplace Culture

🧠 I’ve Been Thinking…

… about when technology costs time rather than saves it. No need to bore you with my recent email challenges, which are now all fixed. But when our AI overlords take over, I hope they correct all these time thieves masquerading as helpers. 😂

🚀 Stories to Help You Drive Change

As mentioned, before I took a break for Thanksgiving prep, I was cooking up a storm so my reading on your behalf was a bit lackluster. But I bet you’ll get something out of these, so please dig in:

SPECIAL NOTE: If you hit a paywall on any of the stories I share, go to Google Search, enter the name of the publication and something about the story (author, title, subject) to get a natural search link that usually by-passes the pay wall. And hey, if you like the publication, consider subscribing to it—that’s how they keep the good info rolling!

• Why do we tolerate toxic workplaces? Mark Palmer sees a future where they’ll be looked upon like we do smoking now.
• Have you heard about the concept of thinking slow and acting fast? What about slowification? John Cutler shares “new” ways for teams to work, and I am intrigued.

• Learning/Relearning to listen, debate rationally and calmly, and if need be, agreeing to disagree is essential.

• When someone is angry, consider you’re hearing feelings, not necessarily the truth. It will help you navigate the conversation better. For reals.

• Robert Glazer has us rethinking “I’m giving you two week’s notice” for good reasons. Find out what they are.

• High performers need feedback delivered differently than some of your other team members, according to Vinita.

• When was the last time you cried in front of someone? Charles Duhigg expects you to cringe when he starts his TEDTalk with this question. He uses it to lock us into an explanation of the 3 types of conversations and how to make sure you are having the same type of conversation with others. Brilliant.

• While women haven’t had major advances in the blue-chip C-Suite, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, they’ve made significant gains elsewhere, including on employees’ preference on male/female leaders. Here’s a snippet from the article:

“The most powerful shift may be that after years of favoring male leadership by sizable margins, workers indicate a growing preference for female bosses in their daily work life. Given the choice, more women under 50 said they would opt to work for a woman than a man, while 20-something men were nearly evenly split on their preference, according to a survey of nearly 6,000 U.S. adults by the Survey Center on American Life in August.

That’s a change from a decade ago, when far greater numbers of workers said in Gallup surveys that they preferred working for a man vs. a woman and fewer than half were neutral on the matter. In the August survey, two-thirds said they had no preference between a male or female manager.”

✍️ Free downloads make great gifts… just sayin’…

Here’s Week 5 of inspiring prompts to help you be kinder in your workplace and encourage colleagues to do the same.

The prompt above reminds you to take care of yourself throughout the work week so that self-care isn’t an afterthought.

Download the full, free, planner/reflector, and let us know what you think.

Download Free, Fillable PDF!

🌟 Do Good Spotlight: Home Sweet Hudson

Once a special needs person reaches the age of 21, they are disqualified for the IDEA (federal) services they’ve received throughout their life. Home Sweet Hudson helps ease the burden of this transition for caregivers and special needs people in the Hudson County area. Learn more about Home Sweet Hudson and its founder, David Tornabene.

🎵 On a Personal Note

Are you ordering takeout all wrong? A little wrong? If I’ve got you wondering, read this. 

⏳Until Next Time…

It’s official, we’re full into the December holiday season! Wishing you all the fun and none of the mania!

Niki