When striving for a culture of “collaboration” kills your business

We conducted a focus group about a year ago with a group of business leaders around the idea of organizational values and culture.   In this focus group, we presented seven key values, based on research that defined organizational culture.   The goal was to see what these professionals thought about these seven values in the context of a broader assessment product.  And whether this values set could predict a company’s culture in order to match candidates to cultures that align with individual the candidates’ values. Often things like this come down to semantics, but one piece of feedback where there was

What to do if ICE knocks on your door…

Immigration is a hot topic whether you have an opinion on it or not.  And most people do. This isn’t a post to comment on to build or not build a wall, but to deal with the reality that immigration scrutiny is on the rise for businesses.  Are you prepared as a business leader for what that means? One reality is that it is harder to get and keep visas for those who are not U.S. citizens.  One proposed change being discussed to H1-B Visas is to limit them to only positions that have a minimum salary of $130,000 a

Using Your Heart Not Your Head

I’m pregnant. With our third child. We are beyond excited and joyful about this new life coming into existence. But when you have an 8-year-old and almost 5-year-old, you and your husband both have demanding yet rewarding careers, and you are what the doctors call old enough to be of “advanced maternal age,” you get some interesting comments when you tell people this news. Some of my favorites have been: “You know, they say women with three kids are the most stressed.” “Well, when did that happen?” (I’m not sure if they were asking about conception or the decision to

4 Leadership Habits to Schedule

During my bout with the flu when my husband was proceeding to tell me about how busy his calendar was, he showed it to me on his phone later.  He actually did this while we were in the emergency room while I was hooked up to an IV that was administering fluids and nausea drugs to me while I waited to be admitted.  Hey, there is only so much you can talk about in the ER.  I was somewhat out of it (go figure) but talking about his schedule for the week reminded me of some good habits we ought

Have an Employee Bored as a Gourd? Not an ideal employment state!

What’s one thing that is extremely detrimental to both employers and employees? Boredom at work! I once worked with an adult client wanting to make a career change.  She was an extremely talented individual, and in talking with her about her then current employer she says she felt like she was just a “warm body”.  One of the main reasons she wanted a change was because she was bored as a gourd at work!  She worked for a government contractor (a waste of taxpayer money as she sat there bored) and none of her talents and skills were being utilized in