Fear is the primary motivator for one-third of corporate leaders, resulting in psychologically unsafe and less efficient workplaces that lose $36 billion each year in productivity, according to research by Love Leadership and First & First consulting. The unconscious fear-based emotions driving such leaders include blame, suspicion, aggression and avoidance and 90% of them confessed to a decrease in productivity from their employees.
Our model drives clinical outcomes to deliver financial outcomes. It's why 30% of the Fortune 100 trust us to deliver better outcomes for their people and their bottom line. Learn more.
The labor market is cooling, while unemployment remains low, and the ratio of job openings to unemployed people has decreased in the past few months, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller says. "We're looking at the labor market, we're seeing it normalized" and getting into "better balance between supply and demand," Waller says.
Infuse AI and HI (Human Intelligence) at Work Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the next wave of technological advancement that will change the course of human events. However, AI is inseparable from human intelligence (HI). SHRM is uniting these potent elements in our upcoming event, The AI+HI Project this March. Learn More.
Federal student loan payments have resumed after a three-year break, and about 43.5 million Americans currently carry student debt totaling about $1.7 trillion. Incurring high debt can be financially and psychologically challenging for employees, but companies and organizations can help by focusing on skills-based hiring, employer-backed education, debt mitigation support and clarity in career pathways so individuals do not get stuck in study programs that will not help them advance.
Lockheed Martin, an aerospace manufacturer, requires a variety of employees. (Orjan F. Ellingvag/Getty Images)
Fort Worth, Texas-area business leaders -- from real estate developers to Lockheed Martin to hospital systems -- plus a city program and a nonprofit agency are working to energize and improve career and technical education for public school students. Business leaders "have to be more broad-minded about the entire education ecosystem, from elementary to post-graduation, because too many children are not provided equitable access to opportunities and unfortunately become engaged in nonproductive roles," Hillwood Executive Vice President Tom Harris says.
Dismantling misperceptions and beliefs about race should be a task shared by everyone -- especially business leaders, asserts professor and author Omekongo Dibinga, who recently sat down for an interview with executive coach John Baldoni. Dibinga, whose latest book is "Lies About Black People," describes his recipe for achieving change, which involves LEAD: learning, educating, advocating and deciding.
"Lady Chatterley's Lover" author D.H. Lawrence also wrote "The Rocking-Horse Winner," a short story about a boy who uses his prescient capabilities to help his family. Spoiler alert: What's the name of the last horse he picks?
I just finished a book called Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement & Political Manipulation at America’s Largest Charitable Trust. The book is based on an essay of the same title that was published in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in August 1997. The essay and book tell the true-life story of a scandal involving the five trustees who managed Kamehameha Schools and the Bishop Estate, and a system of corruption they perpetuated that reached the highest levels of power in Hawai’i. Those of you who live in Hawaii certainly remember this situation. It was a riveting, fascinating, heart-breaking tale.
One of the trustees was a woman named Lokelani Lindsey. She was the first female appointed to the role of trustee for the Bishop Estate. Her annual salary was more than $800,000. Lindsey’s professional background included teaching physical education and serving as a vice principal and principal at different schools and then as district superintendent for the Maui district.
Lindsey’s leadership was poisonous. People who worked with her when she was an educator called her “volatile,” “self-seeking,” and unable to motivate and work well with others. Staffers at Kamehameha Schools and the Bishop Estate described her as a bully who abused and micromanaged students, teachers and faculty. (She reduced a high school student to tears during a 2 ½ hour meeting, without his parents, at an off-campus site.) She was eventually ousted as a trustee in May 1999.
Leaders like Lindsey who use fear and micromanagement to hold their teams in line hurt productivity and create toxic work cultures, as we see in today’s stories from WorkLife and Entrepreneur. Good workers won’t stay at organizations like this. Lindsey dismantled employee morale and caused the school and the Bishop Estate to lose scores of quality educators and staff members. All these people -- and many more -- cheered when she was removed from her post.
Poisonous management is something every organization has to address. Even today, employees are reluctant to report managers who intimidate and abuse. How are you ferreting out bullies and harmful practices? How are you protecting your company and workforce from the Lokelani Lindseys of the world? Let me know! And if you enjoy this brief, tell others so they can benefit also.
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