Strategic Leadership

Wow, now this is tone-deaf!

May 11, 2022
Recently, some workers received an email from their employer, a large health and science university. The email read: “In response to the current community hardship caused by the covid-19 pandemic, (company) has decided to assist all employees in getting through these difficult times.”

Think your way through an IRS audit

May 11, 2022
Most times an audit is relatively painless, a cut-and-dried look into your records. But there may be tricky moments in which your strategy is to reveal information, or not reveal information, in a way that benefits you the most. Keep these tips in mind.

The gamble of hiring bonuses

April 22, 2022
The last two years have seen dramatic shifts in the job market, many of which will cause ripple effects for the foreseeable future. One of the most pronounced markers has been the surge in signing bonuses offered by employers to potential candidates. Here are some important questions to consider about this practice.

Lessons learned from Amazon’s big union loss

April 14, 2022
The big labor story of the year is that e-commerce giant Amazon has lost its multimillion-dollar fight to remain union-free. How Amazon lost that election carries lessons for employers eager to avoid a similar fate.

Make tough tasks brutally simple

April 13, 2022
Don’t you wish things were… well, frankly, easier? Well, maybe that’s not as far-fetched as you think.

4 tips for letters of recommendation

April 8, 2022
At some point in your career, you may be asked to write a letter of recommendation for someone. This is a good thing; it’s an opportunity to show mutual respect. Any recommendation you write reflects on you as well, so it should be crafted carefully. Keep these general guidelines in mind.

How clear are your KPIs?

March 25, 2022
Key performance indicators, or KPIs, are progress metrics intended to help drive business decisions. Strong businesses don’t just ask, “How are we doing overall?” They discuss and define which specific KPIs best reflect their goals most effectively. Here’s just an idea of the range of KPI tools.

Stifle your staff’s blame game

March 25, 2022
Technology leader Nickolas Means gave a talk in 2008 about the lessons we can learn from one of the great engineering disasters in history: the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in March 1979.

Managing using the ‘5 Whys’

March 11, 2022
One of the most enduring approaches to problem-solving at work is the 5 Whys. Toyota founder Sakichi Toyoda developed this tool in the 1930s. The method starts with a problem, which is then deconstructed in a series of “why” questions—usually at least five.

Build a powerful call to action

March 9, 2022
A CTA, or “call to action,” is part of a campaign or advertisement that instructs your interested party what to do, what action to take or how to proceed to the next step. It’s the “click here to buy now” button, the download button or the button that says, “Yes, I’d like to receive a year of fresh vegetables delivered to my door.” Here are some things to keep in mind for crafting successful calls to action.