Workplace culture unfolds to be what it is due to interactions of several influences. Included among these affects are how leadership and managerial styles project specific decision-making approaches, the modes of communication present, and guidance behaviors displayed by management and mentors. In addition, organizations may attempt to adhere to mission statements or other codified value declarations to drive operations, policies, and procedures. Workspace design can also matter when assessing the safety, comfort, and efficiency of the workplace. Further, diversity and inclusion, learning and development, and work-life balance initiatives can make a difference in employee attitudes. All of these factors are ...
Harvard Business Review recently released a 2023 talent management piece by Richard Florida from the University of Toronto and Vladislav Boutenko, Antoine Vetrano, and Sara Saloo, all with Boston Consulting Group, entitled The Rise of the Meta City. Their thesis reveals an emerging development in the evolving work-from-home (WFH) paradigm that is novel and worth considering as we envision the future of both our careers and where to become a resident. It is no secret that mobility-enhancing technologies combined with the face to face limitations wrought by the Pandemic resulted in a rapid expansion of remote work. From approximately 6% ...
It is common for a worker to know at different times throughout their working years that they have hit a rut. Their energy is leaking, enthusiasm is waning, anxieties are building, and performance is suffering. Questions arise in the self-dialogue pointing to serious doubts about their job. Eventually, the feelings of dissatisfaction mount and the worker becomes faced with a dualistic and existential choice concerning their job — should they stay or should they go. In this piece I would like to review the signs and the nature of employment discontent in hopes that an analysis of the topic may ...
As I write this piece the calendar is about to flip to the year 2024. Therefore, my thinking is that this is a good time for careerists to revisit the perennial topic of how to communicate one's strengths and weaknesses in the context of their professionalism. How one self-perceives their strengths and weaknesses factors significantly into the impressions left upon others whose opinions of you may matter in how well you achieve success on the job. Typically, we think of the strengths and weaknesses question as one that comes up in job interviews and to be sure it still does ...
First to the good news for women in the workforce. Women in America are enrolled in greater numbers in higher education than men. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, during the fall of 2021 female students comprised 61% of the higher ed student body with men at 39%. A year earlier the stats were 58% female and 42% male. Projections for 2030 indicate that there will be 2.37 million more women in postsecondary institutions than men. The trend is clear. Women are more drawn to improving their levels of education compared to men. This was not always the ...
I recently attended a high school reunion. This was not the typical high school reunion, which is attended only by alumni from your graduating year. I attended a private all-male boarding school in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, which operated from 1926 until 1971, after which time it closed. So, reunions for this school include any surviving alumni from any year during the time the school was open. This most recent 2023 reunion included alumni ranging from the graduating year of 1948 until 1971. As you can imagine, nearly all of the attendees are now retired from their careers. But ...
It is a conventional understanding, sometimes expressed explicitly but often simply assumed, that if we are to work for a living, then our efforts yield richer rewards if we have a genuine passion for our career choice. Passion, we are told, is the greatest motivator. It is what compels us to willingly throw ourselves into our work and to perform at our finest with no external stimuli needed. "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life", is the way the maxim goes. What could be better than to feel such fervor for your career? It ...
The world of creativity is a realm brimming with boundless imagination and innovation, yet the journey to being discovered often proves challenging. Emerging artists, fashion designers, and makers confront the daunting task of standing out amidst a sea of talent. Fortunately, there are strategies that can illuminate the path to recognition. Leslie Campos of Well Parents unveils seven proven paths that creative minds can tread to claim their spot in the spotlight. Why an Online Presence Is Essential for Creatives In the digital age, an online presence acts as a creative's virtual storefront, open 24/7 to the world. A captivating ...
Those of us who use LinkedIn often have noticed a troubling trend recently. An increasing number of profiles, those displays which serve as defacto online resumes, are fake. A growing number of profiles, which on first appearance look legitimate turn out to not be at all. This took me by surprise when I first realized it was going on. Why bother creating fake LinkedIn profiles? What is to be gained? Well, scams are the reason and it is keeping LinkedIn busy. Salaria Sales Solutions reveals that over the first half of 2021 LinkedIn deleted 15 million of these fake profiles ...
Data-driven decision making has been the rage in business for some time now. The collection of data based on what are determined to be key performance indicators specific to a business is used to justify the outcome of higher quality organizational decision making, which in turn drives the formation and execution of business strategy. Data aggregation can be crucial with tasks as basic as answering difficult questions to more sophisticated functions such as developing and testing hypotheses and formulating theories. Further benefits of having vital information available include risk evaluation, resource allocation, program and policy assessment, and performance measurement. The ...