Excerpt from The Culture Question: At ACHIEVE, we have discovered that ensuring employees find meaning in their work begins at the point of first contact: during the interview process. We have dramatically changed our hiring processes over the years. Through trial and error, and observations in our own personal journeys, we have come to appreciate that a person’s innate talent … Read More
In Sickness and in Health – At Work Too
A friend of mine was recently fired because he had to take time off for a medical procedure. He originally thought he would be off for three days, but after the procedure the doctor advised him that he shouldn’t work for two weeks. When he explained this to his boss, he was fired. Aside from whether his boss’s response was … Read More
A Leader’s Job: Finding Meaning in Helping Others Find Meaning
Do you find your work meaningful? There are undoubtedly many factors that influence whether you find meaning in your work – the balance between time spent alone vs. time spent with people, your stress level, and even the degree of novelty, creativity, and physical activity all seem to play a role. It’s important that the job fits with who you … Read More
Why Alignment with Purpose Yields Great Results
I recently rented a car and got a powerful lesson in alignment as part of the deal. Not wheel alignment, but alignment with purpose – at least that’s the way I interpreted it. The person who served me did several things incredibly well: she greeted me in a friendly and genuine way, and then went straight into business. She had … Read More
Leadership Lessons from Unlikely Places
The Paper Chase is a 1973 film that sets a great example of how not to build a team. The movie is based on the 1971 novel of the same name; it shows a group of students who are completely overwhelmed with the workload of their classes at Harvard. They are humiliated by their professor, Charles W. Kingsfield Jr., who … Read More
8 Key Questions for a Better Performance Review
As I’ve written about previously, I’m not a fan of the annual performance review. There are so many ways to get it wrong, and very few ways for it to be useful. So, I have been searching for an alternative. Through trial and error over the last number of years at ACHIEVE, we’ve come up with an alternative approach that … Read More
3 Leadership Choices for Creating a Culture of Safety
At ACHIEVE, we believe that everyone should be able to like where they work. People can only enjoy their work when they feel welcomed, included, and safe in the presence of leadership. We know that leadership impacts every aspect of an employee’s experience. We hear over and over again that people don’t quit organizations, they quit their bosses. If we … Read More
Communicate Your Organization’s Purpose
Developing an organizational mission statement will only help so much. Organizations must also communicate that purpose in meaningful ways to the people they wish to engage with, both internally and externally. In the last few years at ACHIEVE, we have become much more intentional about regularly communicating our purpose. When we’re having individual conversations at the start of meetings and … Read More
How to Make Your Mission Meaningful
Your organization’s mission and values should provide clarity for workers, helping everyone “row in the same direction.” But sometimes they don’t. I once worked in a human resources office with a multi-national corporation of 3,500 employees. I’ll call the company “Big International.” While Big was built on a foundation of hard work and had some good products that were prominent … Read More
Change Management as a Partnership
One of the most important and overlooked aspects of change management is the people-side of change. This is the most challenging and critical component of organizational transformation. New structures and approaches can be planned, policies may be created and policed, but these things do not guarantee success. Employees are an organization’s greatest asset. By engaging with them from the very … Read More
