New York’s hottest club is Competent Management
March 23, 2022
The massive competition for talent has every HR and Talent leader running after the same ball. And the visual effect, from up here on the hill, looks a lot like Bunch Ball.
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The perks are great and the work is fine
February 23, 2022
Faced with that blandness, a lot of leaders are pushing back-to-office plans. They have nostalgia for the flavour of a packed and humming office, and feel like if people would just get back in there, it would fix things.
You only get punked when you don’t expect it
February 9, 2022
If we’re right about this prediction, the amount of energy coming at you is going to be intense. The question to ask is: do you have somewhere for that energy to go?
Bad advice you shouldn’t take
January 12, 2022
Resignations. Competitive talent markets. The structure of the org chart. All of these things can feel bigger than you, as an individual leader trying to get things done in your organization. We get that. But be skeptical of any advice that takes them as fixed.
We didn’t build *that* Better boss
December 15, 2021
People send us the links in part because, haha, you build better bosses. Here’s the literal CEO of Better and seems like he could have used some management training. Hardy har har. But some of them also want to know, “Is this normal?” And if so, how often does this happen? And why?
The cost of doing business
November 17, 2021
Every organization has costs, but there’s a lot of power in how they’re labelled. The labels people use bake in assumptions about whether those costs are internal or external. They tell you who we think should pay those costs.
The masks are off and the masks are off
October 20, 2021
We’re in the midst of a massive renegotiation of the rules of work. And the central focus of that negotiation isn’t back to office plans, or international salary parity, or vaccine mandates. It’s power.
You can’t seize the moment with your hands full
October 6, 2021
Today, our second book comes out. It’s an ender chest. It is a full year of these newsletters, from the first lockdown to the anniversary of those lockdowns. It is a place to put down some of what the past 18 months have felt like.
Just say hybrid because nobody knows
September 8, 2021
Can we get to a place where we start to reimagine the thing? Whatever the thing is that you miss, you can reinvent it without starting from zero. Pay attention to the ache of the thing that’s missing. What was important about it?
You can’t live in the airport
August 11, 2021
Now’s a bad time to lean on your employee’s sense of loyalty, but a good time to lean on their sense of possibility. New opportunity, high-quality networking, exposure to different ideas. That’s what people in a liminal space can actually engage with.
Have you noticed everyone’s on their worst behaviour?
July 28, 2021
People who are frustrated. Sharp. Daring someone to call them on it and spoiling for a fight. If you’re managing a group of people, you see it in slack messages. The passive aggressive ones. But also the aggressive aggressive ones.
Your home office is not a scent-free workplace
July 14, 2021
Every company is a community that needs rules. And, as bosses, making the rules of engagement clear is our job. That’s true whether your company is remote, in-office, or a mix of the two.
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