The way we work is changing so significantly that our minds can’t keep up. Constant change is widespread, and workers are tasked with high demand while having low control over their environment. What’s the effect on the organization? A workforce with anxiety, burnout, sky-high stress, turnover and people checking out.
In today’s competitive environment, there seems to be a notion that when a negotiation takes place, there is a winner and a loser — and no in-between. Often in business, there seems to be an idea that talks are a zero-sum game.
At some point, every leader has dealt with a person — or, worse, a group of people — who has lost motivation. It’s frustrating, isn’t it? As much as we’ve been there ourselves, sometimes it’s hard to sympathize with others who are disengaged from work and unproductive as a result. Sometimes, we view their unhappiness as a bug in their mental makeup — and, therefore, we think they should be able to suck it up and snap out of it.
One of the most common questions I get asked by senior managers is “How can we find more innovative people?” I know the type they have in mind — someone energetic and dynamic, full of ideas and able to present them powerfully. It seems like everybody these days is looking for an early version of Steve Jobs.
When it comes to sales, there is a lot of on-the-job training that needs to get done. In addition to book knowledge, sales is like being an athlete: No matter how good you are, you need to practice a lot if you hope to improve. That means there is no way to learn everything you need to know without getting out there and actually doing the job. But it does not mean that there is nothing to be learned in advance of your first sales conversation.
“People picked on my generation. People picked on my fathers’ generation. People are picking on this generation, and I think it’s wrong,” says Scott McGohan, CEO at McGohan Brabender, a company that provides employee benefit consulting, compliance, and health risk management.
“We have to understand technology and communication paths that are going to be attractive [across generations], but to pretend that they’re going to think differently than a lot of us—I think it’s immature,” says Scott.
“ Stop trying to figure out generations. If you just care about people, you’ll be fine ,” he says. “When we just lead with our heart, in my opinion, we win every time.”
A conversation about leadership with author Kimberly Davis.
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