The 5 most-clicked links in SmartBrief on Workforce this past week:
- The art of the schmooze
- Managers must influence action
- Apparently, she ate all the good cookies
- Unlocking the potential of frontline managers
- Fighting “grade creep” at work
Photo credit, iStock (read more…)
Today’s guest post is by Mark Nyman, a principal of The RBL Group, a strategic HR and leadership systems advisory firm. He is co-author, with four senior partners at RBL, including Dave Ulrich, of “HR Transformation.” His expertise is in large systems change, organization design and alignment, change management, strategy development processes, executive coaching, large group intervention, team based organizations, and merger and acquisition design.
During times of economic uncertainty, restructuring is common. While most managers agree that structure should follow strategy, few have a process for moving from strategy to restructuring. Businesses that guide restructuring using a clear and widely understood strategy are able to cut fat, not muscle.
In many organizations, strategy is not formulated or understood in a way that provides a basis for making decisions about restructuring. Often the term “strategy” is used to describe budgets and forecasts. Sometimes the word designates a business objective. (read more…)
SmartPulse — our weekly reader poll in Smartbrief on Workforce — tracks feedback from leading managers and HR practitioners. We run the poll question each Wednesday in our e-newsletter and feature analysis from SmartBrief on Workforce Senior Editor Mary Ellen Slayter on this blog.
Last week’s poll question: Do you drink alcohol at business lunches?
Do you drink alcohol at business lunches?
- No, never, 86%
- Yes, but only if someone else orders a drink first, 8%
- Yes, if I feel like it, 6%
If you had any doubts, the three-martini lunch is officially dead. Like most of you, I simply can’t imagine ordering a drink at a business lunch — even a glass of wine. I am far more likely to be sipping iced coffee, to help power through all the extra work that will likely be waiting for me when I get back to the office. (read more…)
Ann Herrmann-Nehdi, a pioneer in the study of the business brain, will help decode C-level thinking and map out ways to increase your productivity in SmartBrief’s Aug. 25 webinar, “4 Secrets of the CEO Brain.” SmartBrief on Workforce Senior Editor Mary Ellen Slayter recently spoke with Ann about how business leaders can harness the thinking styles of their teams to be more effective.
MARY ELLEN: In your experience, do successful executives share any distinctive thinking patterns and work habits?
ANN: Absolutely! One key attribute of successful executives is their ability to integrate different perspectives when faced with a challenge, and then ultimately make the right decision. This means that they need to surround themselves with people who make them uncomfortable. Many managers are more inclined to engage and hire colleagues that are “on the same wave length.” Similarity creates short-term comfort, but ultimately short-changes the executive by minimizing the variety of “stimulus thinking” available in their entourage. (read more…)
The 5 most-clicked links in SmartBrief on Workforce this past week:
- Courts scrutinize 24/7 work demands
- Sexual harassment 2.0
- 3 tips for handling a rowdy audience
- In defense of napping
- A blueprint for managing up
Image credit, iStock (read more…)
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