Talent Management

In an earlier piece, we examined the four questions leaders need to ask and answer in order to make work-from-home successful. Below, five recommendations for replacing traditional, outdated modes of management with leadership approaches designed to work remotely.   Everything runs downstream from leadership, so if WFH in any form is going to work, it has

Amid one of the toughest talent markets in history, Bristol Myers Squibb, USAA, Greencastle Associates Consulting and Principle Services were honored today as the winners of the 4th annual Patriots in Business Award. Presented each year by Chief Executive magazine and Thayer Leadership, the award is part of an ongoing effort to raise awareness of

Rising employee resignation rates are not new—they’ve risen every year since 2010, in fact. But halfway through 2021, previous records were shattered, with 1 in 4 people actively searching for a new job. In addition, industries across the board are experiencing voluntary turnover. Surprisingly, it’s not only happening in businesses where you’d expect it, such

The how, what, when and where of return-to-work alternatives are clearly the purview of the management team. However, management decisions made now will have long-term, strategic impacts on individual companies and on whole industries. Boards should be thinking about and asking questions of management to understand the potential impacts. In many respects, the current decisions

More than 15 million U.S. workers have quit their jobs since April 2021. Companies are responding with well-intentioned quick fixes—increasing pay or financial benefits or offering retention or “thank you” bonuses. However, employees are still leaving. If your employees are breaking up with you, the first step is to understand why. In a recent McKinsey

I consider myself to be an innovator. I face challenges head-on, I think creatively, and I listen to my team’s ideas. But it wasn’t until the pandemic that I realized my company was innovating within a pre-established “box.” Leaders often rely on tried-and-true practices to be successful, such as strategic planning, annual objectives, and budgeting

If you are reading this, you are likely among the most influential people in the world. I don’t know whether to say “Congratulations!” or “I’m Sorry.” As the adage goes, “with great power comes great responsibility,” and that is certainly true in these times of leading our organizations out of the pandemic. As you are

Recently, I learned about two very different approaches to managing work-life balance in a work-from-home (WFH) reality. One was by giant German conglomerate Siemens, which has about 380,000 employees. Their philosophy on gauging individual success and effectiveness in WFH is based entirely on outcomes. They don’t care how you get the results, just that you

If you keep up with the news—and frankly, even if you don’t—you’ve heard plenty about “the great resignation.” New research by Microsoft predicts that more than 40 percent of the global workforce are considering leaving their employers this year. This is an alarming statistic. I’ve spoken with many leaders and we are all grappling with

Workers with disabilities often face everyday obstacles in the workplace. It’s no coincidence that in the U.S., the unemployment rate for people with disabilities (10.9%) is significantly higher than it is for people without disabilities (5.9%). The number of workers with disabilities is also higher than many people realize; 25% of American adults suffer from

Sharing very bad news with employees—e.g., layoffs, department eliminations, benefit cutbacks, etc.—is among the most difficult and stressful communications a leader can make. But that burden comes with the job. Delivering highly consequential news to staff isn’t the role of human resources or internal communications executives; it’s the role of the chief executive. At the

Many business leaders talk about the value of diversity, claiming that they view the individual differences between their employees as a source of tremendous strength. These same leaders might even back it up by broadening their recruitment strategies, looking beyond top MBA programs for job candidates, seeking hires from other industries, and/or prioritizing minority applicants.

We see countless examples every day of CEOs who enforce one set of rules for their company, while operating under a completely different set of rules for themselves. This hypocrisy is more obvious to your people than you might think, and can have devastating repercussions for company performance. In my corporate career, I was astounded

When my client Brian Gaffney stepped into the role of CEO of Allianz Global Distributors, a financial services company with over $90 billion in assets, the company was losing $30 million a year. “My team is made up of incredibly talented people,” Brian told me a short while after assuming the role. “But most of

Headlines are touting 2021 as a banner year for women’s leadership in corporate America. CVS Health is now the highest-ranking business ever run by a woman CEO, Karen Lynch, and Jane Fraser of Citigroup is the very first woman to run a major Wall Street bank. For the first time in history, two Fortune 500

If they did not before, everyone now knows what uncertainty feels like. As businesses continue to navigate through Covid-19, it has become increasingly clear that the way we work has been redefined—and digitally transformed for the future. One thing is for certain: Current and future generations of leaders must be nimble and adapt accordingly to

Turnover is costly. The Society for Human Resource Management estimates the average replacement cost of a salaried employee to be six to nine months’ salary. For an employee earning $60,000 per year, that totals approximately $30,000 to $45,000 in recruiting, training, onboarding, and lost productivity costs. Your company does not have to bleed talent, or

It may seem 2019 was not that long ago, but in a short time the pandemic has transformed cultural shifts and company values to make much of the business landscape unrecognizable. Organizations have gone through a transformation CEOs expect to see over the course of a decade. Some senior managers have been slow to allow

Last year, in the midst of the pandemic, Chief Executive surveyed more than 1,400 private U.S. organizations on their compensation strategies and the actions they were taking, if any, to navigate the crisis. Our research found that by late June, two companies out of five had cut or planned to cut their CEO’s base salary

The health damage is sadly, easy to spot: nearly 630,000 new cases a day worldwide on average, and more than 9,500 daily deaths since Covid’s delta variant arrived. The toll on organizations is also relatively easy to quantify: ships unable to unload cargo because of a global shortage of healthy workers; firms forced to push