Enabling A Positive Culture and Productivity

I was at a client this week listening the CEO speak to a group of his leadership team about diversity and he made a simple but very astute statement.  Paraphrasing but essentially he said "employees that are listened to, accepted and encouraged are more productive".  

I've seen so many people in leadership positions behave like tyrants falsely believing that they can brow beat or even bully people into better results that its often comical.  Granted, negative reinforcement can get an immediate "shock" and even work in the short-term, but it eventually implodes.

Having witnessed the benefits of a positive leadership style of my CEO client, my premise is that creating a positive culture where employees are accepted for who they are, valued and encouraged will result in a workforce that is more motivated and productive.  The article attached by Korn Ferry touches on research that leadership actions such as understanding work - life balance and creating an environment where people can perform at their best is spot on.  

Good insights that leaders need to understand and incorporate into their leadership style,

Agile HR →

Excellent article in LinkedIn by a former colleague and human capital management strategist, Mary Sue Rogers. 

One interesting element for consideration by organizations pursuing Agile HR is the notion of value created by each core HR activity.  As Mary Sue points out, company's need to make choices on which HR activities to invest in becoming Agile.  Each organization will value HR activities differently and therefore will want to focus resources and develop solutions that are unique to their organization.

That brings us back to this notion of understanding the value of each core HR activity (i.e. engagement, talent acquisition, payroll, etc.).  My premise is that organizations need to be able to assess value - to the organization (financial/non-financial metrics), to the employee (employee experience) and to customers (enabling the desired customer experience) - in a thoughtful, analytical way.

Company's that take a value-based approach will likely better focus resources and are more likely to realize the most value from Agile HR initiatives.

Leadership (or lack thereof)

Good article in HBR...I've seen too many examples of leaders that focus on engaging up the chain while only superficially engaging the people that they are supposed to lead.