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Discretionary Effort

By Eric Johnson The front-line of many organizations is often the first segment of interaction of the company to its customers. In a past post, we have discussed the importance of customer care. In this post, we discuss empowering employees to make the decisions that align with the organization while increasing their own satisfaction with their roles and ability to achieve their career objectives. To do this, a considered approach consists of the following: 1. Develop a robust human resources program with the goal of understanding employee incentives2. Create a cross-training / rotational program to expand employee skillsets3. Create clear association of expected

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By Eric Michrowski The research is very clear on the value of diversity in the workplace. And when leaders think of diversity, it shouldn’t be limited to only 1 or 2 dimensions. The goal should be to bring as many perspectives and viewpoints to the table. In addition to being fair and a good corporate citizen, the purpose of diversity is to stimulate better debate when decisions are being made. When the right culture is in place, this helps improve the quality of solutions. In turn, this drives improved business performance. With tomorrow’s challenges and organizations becoming more global and diverse, those

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By Martin Royal For many leaders, the responsibilities associated with their roles take a significant toll on their energy levels. Leaders make many decisions, participate in diverse daily tasks, attend many meetings, and monitor progress on organizational goals. There is evidence that these responsibilities slowly take away the leader's energy and ability to remain engaged at work. When this energy depletion occurs, leader performance may suffer and they may be prone to violate work norms and expectations, and this may also further impact their teams and direct reports. In more extreme cases, this can lead to the leader's burnout. Stay energized through

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By Julia Borges & Kelly Cave What is organizational culture? Many may know the term ‘culture’ as a word that describes the behavior, thoughts, feelings, and traditions of a group of people or society (1). However, in organizational change and development, its definition means something slightly different. Culture, in the context of organizations, refers to the shared norms, beliefs, and attitudes that exist among the employees of the organization (2). For example, Southwest Airlines is famous for their friendly and helpful customer-oriented culture. At Southwest, employees are empowered to go the extra mile to make customers happy, which in turn leads to

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By Eric Michrowski We’ve all seen it or heard the stories. Someone claims to have been injured and seeks benefits. Or someone that is always off with “injuries”. I’ve heard all of them over the years including a worker that was injured over 35 times in a 20-year career! Injury-prone or are these signs of something more? What keeps me up at night isn’t the abuse. It’s when Executives get jaded by these stories and distracted from their focus on improving Safety. Safety is a real issue - and for senior leadership, owning up to our safety commitments is a moral obligation. For

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By Martin Royal It's been well established that training initiatives often result in a limited transfer of new knowledge back into the workplace. While you'll commonly hear that only 10% of what employees learn is implemented, this figure is actually closer to an average of 47%. According to a study done by Saks & Belcourt (2006), almost half of the information gained through training, by members of a training and development society, found its way into the workplace within a year of training. In any case, what this suggests is that the majority of training investment dollars don’t actually result in

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