Improving Communication with a Work Levels, Attractive Leadership Framework

By Michelle Malay Carter on August 20, 2008 

In my last post I talked about the elusive holy grail of leadership - effective communication.  I plan to throw a new iron into the fire on this one by discussing how an understanding of work levels can improve communication within organization.
Employee’s Want RELEVANT Communication
Since each work level of an organization contributes a specific kind of [...]

Filed Under Employee Engagement, Executive Leadership, Managerial Leadership, Organization Design, Requisite Organization, Work Levels | 2 Comments

I AM Communicating, Now What?

By Michelle Malay Carter on August 18, 2008 

Blog after leadership blog.  Book after leadership book claims to have found the Holy Grail of Leadership and Followership (engagement).  In case you’ve missed it, I will reveal it here.
Are you ready?  Communication!  My Invoice is in the mail.
Now, go ask 100 managers if they do a proper job of communicating at work.  I suspect [...]

Filed Under Employee Engagement, Managerial Leadership, Requisite Organization, Work Levels | 11 Comments

Organization Structure is a Business Initiative Not an HR Initiative

By Michelle Malay Carter on August 14, 2008 

Playing off a line from my last post, organization structure is a business initiative, not an HR initiative. 
A Missing Collective Understanding
I think executives underestimate the connection between organization design as well as all of an organization’s “people” systems, i.e. compensation, performance management, talent management, and organizational sustainability.
When executives push down the accountability and decision making [...]

Filed Under Accountability, Executive Leadership, Organization Design, Requisite Organization, Strategy, Talent Management, Work Levels | 4 Comments

Web 2.0 is a Business Initiative, Not an IT Initiative

By Michelle Malay Carter on August 12, 2008 

I often find myself underwhelmed by survey results, responding to survey result reports with the thought, well duh!, rather than ah-ha!  You?
McKinsey’s latest, Building the Web 2.0 Enterprise: McKinsey Global Survey Results, had a few well duh’s for me as well.  I thought I’d share.
“A higher level of usage is found at companies that encourage it by [...]

Filed Under Corporate Values, Organization Design, Requisite Organization, Strategy | 1 Comment

Distracted from the Mission - A Friday Funny

By Michelle Malay Carter on August 1, 2008 

How much time do you spend a work negotiating and renegotiating with peers and colleagues in order to get your work done?  What if we systematized specifying role relationship accountabilities and authorities into job descriptions, leaving the people free to do their work without the constant relationship strategizing?
Defining Role Relationships
For example:  A human resource manager has [...]

Filed Under Accountability, Employee Engagement, Executive Leadership, Requisite Organization, Strategy | 2 Comments

Executives are Spiritual Stewards - Help Me Build a Collective Understanding

By Michelle Malay Carter on July 28, 2008 

Do executives understand their role as spiritual stewards?  I would love to build a collective understanding around this idea, and I invite you to pass this idea along.
Work is a psychological imperative for humans, and all work is creative as it requires discretion and judgment.
Therefore, work has the potential to be a noble, highly-gratifying expression [...]

Filed Under Accountability, Corporate Values, Executive Leadership, Requisite Organization, Strategy, Talent Management | 12 Comments

Work Signs - A Friday Funny

By Michelle Malay Carter on July 25, 2008 

Thanks to NoolMusic.com for their list of funny signs.
On a plumbers truck: ‘We repair what your husband fixed.’
On the trucks of a local plumbing company: ‘Don’t sleep with a drip. Call your plumber.’
Pizza shop slogan: ‘7 days without pizza makes one weak.’
At a tire shop in Milwaukee: ‘Invite us to your next blowout.’
Door of a [...]

Filed Under Employee Engagement, Requisite Organization, Strategy | 2 Comments

Are You Making Your Employees Choose? I’m OK. You’re OK. Let’s Fix the System

By Michelle Malay Carter on July 21, 2008 

The best thing we could do for employees to build engagement is simply get out of their way.  We have lived with conflicts of interest in the system for so long, they have disappeared into the landscape.  We simpy accept them, and no longer question their effects on our employees’ psyche or our business’ effectiveness.
Moving [...]

Filed Under Corporate Values, Employee Engagement, Managerial Leadership, Organization Design, Requisite Organization, Strategy, Talent Management | 8 Comments

Clueless Candidates - A Friday Funny

By Michelle Malay Carter on July 18, 2008 

Thanks goes to InBox Humor for its list of things not to say or do during an interview - as gathered from the real life experiences of hiring managers. I don’t like labels, but clueless just seems to fit here.  I’ve done interview preparation training, and I naively thought that some things just go without saying.  After reading this, I’ll have [...]

Filed Under Employee Engagement, Requisite Organization, Talent Management | Leave a Comment

Titles Are Useless for Benchmarking or Measurement Purposes

By Michelle Malay Carter on July 16, 2008 

From the Mailbag
I received an inquiry at the PeopleFit site asking about whether we had a database of role mandates by title - CEO, CFO, CIO, HR manager - available for subscription.  And the inquiry was coming from someone inside a global business consulting group.
Specifically, the request was for:  “Role mandates, describing individual and shared accountabilities, decision [...]

Filed Under Corporate Values, Employee Engagement, Executive Leadership, Felt Fair Compensation, Managerial Leadership, Requisite Organization, Succession Planning, Talent Management, Work Levels | 4 Comments

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