Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

How Can I Get Faster Responses From My Colleagues?

A reader recently contacted a few colleagues and me with the following problem:

How should I approach it when I need to chase down my fellow colleagues and manager about matters that require their prompt assistance and attention? For instance, my senior colleague, who is based in another state, usually emails me to follow-up on certain issues that require clearance on my end, that is, I need to obtain approval from my boss. But despite sending 1-2 email follow-up emails to my boss asking for his approval on the issue on hand, every time I check in with him (face-to-face) his reply is, “I haven’t seen it yet.” How do I go about asking him to please take a look at my email that contains some editorial feedback from him before I can forward it down to my senior colleague?

Honestly, I have been “complained” about once or twice by my colleagues to my direct supervisor that I had been too “fierce” when it comes to asking them to reply me on certain emails. Since then, I have toned down my way of asking them things, but it hasn’t brought much good to me either, since they’re not taking my requests seriously when I’m very nice about it. Please help me out here!”

If you're in this situation or a similar one, you might want to head over to this post for answers from four renowned HR and career experts.

 

Employee Disengagement is an Epidemic

There’s a reason why employee engagement is the new buzz phrase in HR circles. The epidemic is out of control.

Gallup has been in the employee engagement business for more than 10 years, but its latest research report shows that we have reached a crisis point. In American organizations, an astounding 71 percent of employees are either not engaged in their work or actively disengaged.

And it gets worse. Recent research from RogenSI and Maritz states that 91 percent of employees are experiencing unstable motivation, and 23 percent of employees are showing five or more symptoms of clinical depression. Only 14 percent of employees feel their companies’ values align with their own, and a mere 12 percent feel their company actually listens to them and cares about them.

What can we do to counteract the disease of disengagement?  Find out in my column at the AMEX OPEN Forum.

 

Is Your Office Totally Dysfunctional?

In times of stress and change, the business world is not an easy place to be. There are the usual challenges of longer hours and heavier workloads. However, when your culture is dysfunctional, your organization will not last long. Whether you're a concerned leader, an owner or an employee who’s questioning your own judgment, there are a multitude of signs to watch out for.

The most glaring?  Your internal competition is worse than your external competition. Although some competition is healthy, teams that constantly fight with one another over executive support and resources impede progress. A culture in which employees criticize and belittle those in other groups, or target one department as the source of all angst (“You have to work with finance on that? I’m so sorry!”) is also disastrous for morale.

For more, head over to my Culture Beat column at the AMEX OPEN Forum.

 

Managers: Do You Know How to Use Rewards & Recognition?

I have mixed feelings when I walk into a small business and see an “Employee of the Week” sign. On the one hand, I want to commend the owners for recognizing their stellar employees. But on the other, I’m hoping that the culture of appreciation goes a little deeper.

The one-on-one nature of many small businesses provides an excellent opportunity to build a culture in which employees are consistently and thoughtfully recognized. If done correctly, they’ll be more likely to outstay and outperform their counterparts in similar organizations.

Creating such an environment, however, requires a multi-pronged approach that touches many components of the employee experience.  For specifics on how to create a recognition-based culture, check out my column at the AMEX OPEN Forum.

 

Experts Talk Talent and Connectedness at Deloitte University

Today, I am attending a talent management thought-leadership summit at Deloitte University called The New Attraction: Talent, Technology and Connectedness in the Post-Digital Workplace. I am really looking forward to the discussions, which will address the relationship between the worker and organization; the changes being wrought by technology; and the rise of analytics as both unprecedented tool and cultural challenge.

Before we arrived on the Deloitte campus in Westlake, TX, I caught up with Dorie Clark, a fellow participant who is a branding expert and Forbes blogger.  Here are some of Dorie's thoughts as we both anticipated the event.

Dorie, if there was one message you would like to get across to senior HR leaders today, what would it be?

Even if you have made it to a certain rank, you need to think about and cultivate your personal brand over time.  You have to make an effort to reinvent yourself constantly, or else everyone's perception of you will be based only on what you've done or been in the past.  If you are expanding on your expertise, showcase that by writing for online publications so people begin to associate you with these issues.

What excites you most about today?

I love the idea of getting together with other experts who are on the front lines.  I'm especially looking forward to continuing my ongoing conversation with Tom Davenport, who helps organizations make better and more calculated decisions in a complex marketplace.

What do you feel is the relationship between talent and brand reputation?

It's a symbiotic one.  People will want to work for you if you are perceived as a company with A+ operations, and when employees are more satisfied and engaged, a company will have a better reputation  It's a virtuous cycle.

What impact does digital technology have on this relationship?

Digital technology allows companies to communicate to their audiences without any intermediaries.  For example, Best Buy's CEO just put together a YouTube video explaining some recent developments to employees, it was obviously available to everyone. I love that today's social tools draw people to your message and help you find and be found by people with similar interests.

For more of Dorie's ideas, check out her forthcoming book from Harvard Business Review, Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future. 

 

 

 

A Business Launched with Help from a Dead Grocer

I’ve been thinking about what small businesses can teach larger ones about establishing and sustaining a strong culture, both in front and back of the store. I found at least one answer: Invite conversation and connection.

No small business I’ve encountered demonstrates this as well as Katie McCaskey and Brian Wiedemann’s George Bowers Grocery in Staunton, Va.

Head over to my column at the AMEX OPEN Forum to see why you might want to drive a few hundred miles for the experience of shopping there!

 

How to Enact Change in a Bureaucracy

Have you ever tried to drive in Los Angeles?

For those of us who have, changes to the notoriously frustrating transportation infrastructure have been a long time coming, but how do you enact change in a government entity that seems like the very definition of bureaucracy?

Gayla Kraetsch Hartsough and her firm, KH Consulting Group, recently worked with Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greuel to review the city’s transportation structures and recommend reforms. The ultimate goal was to reduce congestion by building highways, promoting alternative transportation, implementing traffic management technology and facilitating the use of bicycles.

For all of the details on how Gayla's team navigated the bureaucratic waters of LADOT and how you can enact change in your own bureaucracy, check out my Culture Beat column at the AMEX OPEN Forum.