By the time we’ve been in the workforce a couple years, most of us begin to get solicited and unsolicited feedback on our personal behavior. Sometimes it’s painful, but sometimes it’s wonderful. Recently, I chuckled over the fact that when one Gen-Yer left a firm to go to another, he heard some marvelous words: he was being referred to as the “golden boy.” That was great for his ego, especially since he was unaware of how many of his colleagues from his last firm saw him.

That experience, however, illustrates a very important point. Very few of us have a rich understanding of self-awareness. Instead, it’s a chimera: a fantasy, built on delusion or just plain ignorance. Yet, self-awareness colors all the messages we send, profoundly affecting the conversations and the way we communicate with others.

The obvious implication of this is that the more self-awareness, the better we’re able to send effective messages and engage in successful conversations. In short, our needs, which are the bricks and mortar of self-awareness, are inevitably front and center in our awareness. So it’s safe to say that a growing ...

Recognize This! – Some turnover is needed to ensure the best are able to excel in a strong, positive company culture and work environment.

Two of the most direct, measurable people metrics affected by strategic, social employee recognition are employee engagement and employee retention. Nearly all organizations I consult with cite improving retention as a primary ambition for creating a culture of appreciation through strategic recognition. But not all employee turnover is bad.

Jack Welch became somewhat infamous as “Neutron Jack” for his practices around removing low performers. But when you consider his focus, the perspective changes. In his own words:

“My main job was developing talent.  I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too.”

As in nearly all things in life, a careful balance must be struck between employee engagement initiatives and employee retention goals. Some people simply need to move on from your organizations. Bullies should be fired outright. Some have grown as much as they can in the position you have available and can no longer contribute ...

The following is a guest piece by Jon Katzenbach and DeAnne Aguirre.

It is striking to see how many chief executives see their most important responsibility as being the leader of the company’s culture. According to Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM, “Culture is your company’s number one asset.” Her counterpart at Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, has said, “Everything I do is a reinforcement or not of what we want to have happen culturally.”

Recognizing the importance of culture in business is not the same thing as being an effective cultural chief executive. The CEO is the most visible leader in a company. His or her direct engagement in all facets of the company’s culture can make an enormous difference, not just in how people feel about the company, but in how they perform.

There are several things you can do from your highly visible position at the top of the hierarchy to spark and foster the cultural realignments you want to see:

1. Demonstrate the power of positive urgency
Time and again, we hear executives cite the importance of having a “burning platform” – a stress-producing crisis, whether externally driven or ...

Recognize This! – Building and strengthening a culture of recognition requires consistent, daily effort and action.

Over cake with colleagues at a recent company celebration, I had an epiphany. Well, perhaps not an epiphany as this is a truth I’ve long known, but definitely an analogy worth sharing.

As we enjoyed cake and petits fours (they’re smaller, so fewer calories, right?), my colleagues shared their plans to “get into shape for swimsuit season,” as they called it. New Year’s resolutions for losing weight and getting fit were long passed, so now it was time to focus on the latest quick weight loss scheme – the newest pill, the craziest fad diet.

As we all joked together, I realized – this is what many companies do with employee recognition, motivation and engagement. They try the “quick fixes” – Pizza Party Wednesdays, Bagel Fridays, Employee of the Month, and my personal favorite: some form of peer nomination with a “winner” drawn from a hat.

Like the infamous grapefruit diet, these are all quick fixes. Just as no one can eat grapefruit every day for months on end, no strong company culture ...

While flipping through the latest HR Magazine, an infographic caught my eye. It related to a conversation I was having only yesterday on rising health insurance costs and the decline in the number of organizations offering employer sponsored insurance (known in the industry as ESI).

According to a recently released report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and prepared by researchers from the University of Minnesota's State Health Access Data Assistance Center, health insurance costs, organizations' offerings, and employee participation have dramatically changed over the past 10 or so years.

In an interview about the report, Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D.--CEO; and President of the RWJF--noted that, "Employers continue to shoulder about the same percentage of costs for employees' health insurance as they did 10 years ago, but everyone's costs have increased dramatically. Higher costs naturally translate into fewer employers offering insurance coverage, and fewer employees accepting it, even when it is offered."

 

Specifically, the report notes interesting information collected between 1999/2000 and ...