“Better, faster, cheaper”. This is the old “All 3”, a timeless desire unlikely to ever change.

There’s a lot coming at us in terms of technology, consolidation, and business model evolution – and all this on the heels of profound workplace, marketplace, and recruiting space change.

As I work directly with dozens of executive leaders and speak at conferences and events around the country, I continue to hear a lot of concern about employee productivity and workplace culture and whether to remain hybrid or work flexible.

Growth is good, healthy, and essential for life. It is also essential for business.

Like most large-scale systemic events, March 2020 gave ‘official birth’ to a new era of work and life – one with new rules, new ways of thinking, and lots of big change.

“Work from home” became a necessity with COVID. Then evolved the idea of “work from anywhere” – whether that be home, a local café, or other workspace.

Managing our time and energy has – and always will – be critical to our success in almost all aspects of our lives. Leaders and managers especially need to proactively “change the game” and establish a new model for better time management.

There’s no question that strategic planning is essential for firm success. Yet despite this, the vast majority of strategic plans fail or fail to be fully or successfully implemented. Why is this the case and, more importantly, what can we do to ensure that our team and firm are on the winning side?

Being a leader is about constantly looking for problems to solve and opportunities to realize… but which ones are the right ones, which ones have the greatest return on investment, and in what order should we pursue them?

Playing to win requires a real investment in organizational redesign, and the creation of both a vision and a culture that’s worth the work.

“Grow just means more work for me and more rewards for you.” That’s an increasing lament from practitioners to principals across our industry. What went wrong and, more importantly, how can we fix this?

There is no doubt that we have been going through a season of much higher fear, anxiety, and trauma with the COVID-19 crisis and the very visual revealing of social and racial injustice and inequities.

There’s currently a “new normal” that is helping accelerate the wide-spread acceptance of the “new era”, both of which work in contrast to past practices.

We have a mission as an organization. It is our purpose. It’s why we exist. The best ones attract, inspire, and guide our actions.

Most engineering and architecture firms leave a lot of money on the table with our lack of focus and effectiveness in talent training and development.

Greed is not “good”. It never was, and it never will be. For almost 50 years, this false equivalency has eroded trust and loyalty… and seeded much of the disengagement and unfulfillment we see throughout the workplace today.

“Literally nothing a CEO or CHRO does will authentically, structurally, and sustainably change the value of your organization more.”

Are you motivated to give more, grow, and prosper, but instead find yourself dreading Monday? What about your team? Neither of you are alone.

Effective and sustainable employee engagement and growth is critical to success in the workplace, marketplace and recruiting space. This is especially true for competitive and talent-starved industries, including most of professional services.

Most leaders agree that employee recruitment and retention is the #1 issue facing us today. At the same time, employee growth and development is our talents’ top priority – especially in professional services.

How to Survive the Next Year, the Next Recession, and the Ongoing Reset of the Workplace, Marketplace and Recruiting Space – Part 3: Building Your Brand

How to Survive the Next Year, the Next Recession, and the Ongoing Reset of the Workplace, Marketplace and Recruiting Space – Part 2: Building Your People

Scale Your Business, Not Your People: How to Survive the Next Year, the Next Recession, and the Ongoing Reset of the Workplace, Marketplace and Recruiting Space – Part 1: Building Your Business

We know leaders, managers, and organizations need to work harder and do things differently to create conditions for more effective employee engagement – especially today, but it’s not only about them. As employees, we play an equally vital role.

We generally know and accept that managers have the greatest day-to-day impact on employee engagement. Yet, even our best managers are increasingly pressed and finding it harder to navigate and do right by their clients, their people, their organizations, and themselves.

Whether in an executive or management role, most of what we do today as leaders is not leadership. In a world of always urgent and constant busy, it can seem necessary to rely on our skills to win quarters and rescue projects, but that’s not the only thing needed.

Employee engagement is a powerful determinant of an organization’s success. Employee engagement is also central to the #1 issue facing many industries and organizations today: employee recruitment and retention.

Looking for the perfect “win-win” in terms of work and life balance for high-performing individuals and sustained growth and profits for your organization?

Imagine being your best self. Imagine how much more contented and less stressful life would be if you could “do you” really well and effectively… and do so all the time? The first step is to imagine it.

Many of us have a sense that something may be off, that we may be tracking off-course, or that we may not even be on the right track anymore. As a result, many of us are considering whether we need to pivot.

In our busyness, we can easily lose sight of the “big picture”. Just as easily, however, we can gain perspective of the momentum and trajectory of our life and career by connecting the dots of our past and present.

High-achieving professionals and business owners are focused on the future. Even after significant “wins”, the focus for many of us quickly shifts to “what’s next”. Over the long-term, this can lead to burnout, discontent, and feeling trapped; even isolated.

Personal Time Off is great. It’s a chance to get away, to disconnect from work, and even have some rest and relaxation. Taken routinely, PTO is an effective strategy to reduce work stress… but it will not cure or help you avoid burnout by itself. For that, we need to design ourselves a more frequent form of PTO, a daily “Personal Time-Out”.

Choice is “an act of making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities.” In order to make a choice, we need to recognize those possibilities… and then have the courage to act. Winning at work and life and as an organization is a choice.

Money can’t buy love, fame can’t buy happiness, and experiences can’t buy engagement.
“Employee experiences” in terms of workplace perks don’t create employee engagement, at least not the type that drives results over the long-term by themselves…

Employee engagement is essential for success today. Yet, creating and sustaining the kind that matters most and drives growth remains elusive for too many leaders and organizations…

Whether newer to the workforce or with 20 or more years’ experience, so many of us are: Feeling the weight of burnout and disengagement, Yearning for more…

Whether we are a forward-thinking Boomer, Gen-Xer, or Millennial searching for a way to make a difference, knowing what we’re up against and seeing what’s around the corner is essential for…

Whether we play to a crowd or to an audience of one, we all have a platform. In fact, most of us have multiple platforms – although we may not readily think of them as such. We have platforms at home, with our friends, in our community…

What do you want to be? The rules and the opportunity: You can be what you want, but you can’t be something you’re not. We can only be ourselves, but that doesn’t mean we can’t become…

How do others view you? What is their experience, and how do they wish to interact moving forward? Do we attract and inspire… or is it something else?
Our brand is our distinctive identity…

Despite needing to learn more about digital security than I wanted to, I was reminded about so much good. I am so thankful for my team, new and old friends, clients, prospects, advisors, and so many good people…

Business leaders and owners have traditionally enjoyed a firmly-cemented corporate hierarchy that clearly skewed power dynamics in favor of the organization. However, in the modern workplace, professionals are more emboldened to pivot away from organizations or careers as a result of burnout and disengagement and a desire for greater meaning, purpose, and…

Discontent starts with a feeling and can end one of two ways. If acted upon, our discontent can lead us toward a life with greater meaning, purpose, and impact. If not, it can be the beginning of looking back on our lives with…

A full life can be different for each of us and can change from season to season. At different times, our achievements at work, spending time with a spouse and family, connecting with friends, traveling, having opportunities to…

An organization is formed for the purpose of providing specific goods and services to meet the needs and desires of others – that is its “Why” and that is its end-game. This is not the case for people. There is something deeper…

Our passion is our “Why”, a driving force that helps explain our motivations. Our passions attach meaning to our interests, and the meaning we attach dictates the priority, the energy, and the emotion we place on and commit to that interest. For many good reasons, many of us had a passion for mastering our craft and making a name early in our careers. To this end, we…

Exploring our interests, pursuing our passions, and discovering our purpose is a universal desire. I have yet to meet a fellow human who doesn’t have this desire. However, there is a disconnect. Despite our ability to present very logical and emphatic cases that justify our present state…

Jenny has given her notice. She has been part of the practice for about 15 years. She joined as a “high-potential” from a competitor in what seems like just a few years ago and didn’t disappoint. She continually exceeded expectations and was given recognition… and there was still more room to run. She surely would have been a big part of the future…

Employee engagement is the subject of much buzz and attention today – and for good reason – it is a powerful determinant to an organization’s success.

This may sound familiar… top employees want to have it all… but there’s a difference today. Whether we figured it out the hard way or were able to discover it through others, many top employees are shooting higher than mere financial success.

In terms of living, are you feeling trapped between FOTS – fear of the same – the same good you have achieved to date and FOMO – fear of missing out – on the full life you have dreamed of?

When I first took the time to layout and try to align my work and life seasons, I found it pretty fascinating. I was trying to figure out why I was feeling so burned-out and disengaged at what would otherwise be considered the “peak of my career”.

Winning never happens by accident. Winning demands excellence and commitment. Winning over the long-term demands even more. It’s not more work, it’s more strategy and…

I am so very grateful to the many fellow professionals and business owners who took the time to review and offer feedback and testimonials for my new book…

The most successful relationships – business or otherwise – require participants to ‘like, know and trust’ each other. Having people ‘like’ or ‘trust’ you is outside of your control, however, we can control sharing appropriate information about ourselves to help…

This is the third of a four-part article series looking at Measuring Your ROi – The Return on Your Individual Impact Investment. This series is developed by ActionsProve, LLC.

This is the second of a four-part article series looking at Measuring Your ROi – The Return on Your Individual Impact Investment. This series is developed by ActionsProve, LLC.

This is the first of a four-part article series looking at Measuring Your ROi–The Return on Your Individual Impact Investment. This series is developed by ActionsProve, LLC.