Great cultures don’t happen by accident.   As a leader, you need to be consistently, relentlessly intentional about your culture.   So, what does that look like?   1. You need to promote your culture to the world. If you’re going to attract fabulous employees who are a fit for your organization, then you can’t remain the world’s best kept secret – you need to shout your awesomeness from the rooftops! It’s astounding how most company websites don’t say anything substantial about their culture. Sure, they’ll list their benefits and maybe toss in a casual nod towards their culture ..read more

Let’s start with the end in mind: One day we’re all going to be dead. (How’s that for an uplifting opening?) Hopefully it’s not going to happen for a very long time, but – spoiler alert — it is going to happen. If we’re fortunate, most of us have been allotted, on average, about 4,000 weeks in this rollicking adventure called life. When you put it in those terms, 4,000 weeks doesn’t sound like a lot, does it? Your last week probably sailed by ridiculously fast. And look, here comes another one right after that! Another reality check: You’ve already used up a lot of those weeks. In fact, chance ..read more

When I was researching inspiring workplaces many moons ago in Copenhagen, Denmark, I had the pleasure of interviewing a “Chief Happiness Officer” and the author of Happy Hour is Nine to Five, Alexander Kjerulf. I love the concept of what Kjerulf calls a “Level Five” morning greeting at work. Given how important the start of the day is, and how important first impressions are, his good morning greeting scale serves as a great reminder for everyone to be more intentional about how they’re connecting with one another at work. Kjerulf breaks down the possible greeting levels as follows: Level 0 ..read more

So you want to shift your workplace culture, but you don’t know where to begin? The following is a checklist of workplace questions to help you generate some conversations at work around what you might need to do to shift your culture, weaved in with some concrete ideas on what you can do to make a shift. Following the workplace culture questions, there are 15 ideas to help you jump start a culture shift in your workplace. Jump Starting a Culture Shift in Your Workplace   How do we define our workplace culture?   What words or images will we use to capture our desired culture? Wha ..read more

AFA JCDecaux is the largest outdoor advertising company in the world, with offices in more than 59 countries. A huge success by many measures, the company had nevertheless lost its mojo a few years ago. When I met with CEO Kim Axelson in his Copenhagen, Denmark boardroom, the first thing I noticed was the welcoming plate of fresh food and delicious-looking danishes (Hey, I was hungry. And who wouldn’t want to eat a Danish danish?). The second thing I noticed was the bright yellow sign on the meeting room wall adorned with the text: “Blah blah blah… ACT NOW!”  Clearly, this was a place of ..read more

As artificial intelligence continues to grow, and as more and more people and companies leverage the power of tools such as ChatGPT to generate content, I think it’s going to become more important than ever to embrace our humanity, creativity and yes, our humor, if we want to connect with our audiences and customers and stand out from the herd to be heard. So, despite being extremely leery of AI, I did ask ChatGPT to generate an article on the complexities of AI generating humor. Here’s what he/she/it came up with, and although it’s not in my voice or how I would have expressed it, it does a n ..read more

There is a mountain of research that suggests that the most important thing you can do to engage your employees is to STOP de-motivating them! In other words, it’s not so much the things you do that motivate employees (if you hired and trained them well, they should already be highly motivated) it’s the things you need to stop doing that are getting in the way of their motivation. From too many rules, to micromanaging, to endless meetings, there are a of things we leaders can stop doing to be more effective. For more ideas, watch the video below and let me know what you think? Does this resona ..read more

A few years ago, the World Health Organization officially recognized the phenomenon of workplace burnout as a serious health concern. This recognition of workplace burnout has helped shift the conversation away from putting the entire onus on the individual to “fix themselves” and instead put the focus for solving workplace burnout where it most often belongs – on organizations, particularly their leadership and workplace culture. A recent survey by Gallup found that the top-5 reasons for workplace burnout are: 1. Unfair treatment at work 2. Unmanageable workload 3. Lack of role clarity 4. Lac ..read more

Isn’t Sarcasm at Work Just Great? Or Am I Being Sarcastic Right Now? A friend recently threatened to buy me a t-shirt emblazoned with the following: “Zero Days Without Sarcasm” So, evidently, I can be a just a wee bit sarcastic from time to time. Which is completely normal and fine when we’re chilling with our friends or family, but when it comes to using humor in the workplace or in any professional context, is sarcasm the best route to success? Given that the word ‘sarcasm’ is derived from the Greek word ‘sarkasmos,’ meaning to “tear at flesh like a dog,” the answer is probably, well, not so ..read more

Welcome to January 2023! Here is a by-no-means-complete list of some of the offbeat, fun, wacky and not-so-wacky theme days headed your way this January! Celebrating these theme days, even just by listing them on a whiteboard in the lunch room, or acknowledging them in your emails or voice mail messages, is a simple way to add a bit more fun into your workplace! January 1 New Year’s Day Commitment Day First Foot Day Polar Bear Plunge Day Z Day World Day of Peace January 2 Thank God It’s Monday Day! Buffet Day Happy Mew Year for Cats Cheese Lovers Day Motivation and Inspiration Day Personal Tra ..read more