How to Promote Positive Mental Health in the Workplace
Here’s the truth: Our careers and mental well-being are closely related, with 58% of employees saying work has at least a moderate impact on their mental health. Yet, many workers feel like they need to be tight-lipped about this. In fact, that same survey found that nearly 40% of employees said they’re not at all comfortable discussing their mental health at work, and another 26.3% said they’re only slightly comfortable bringing this up. You wouldn’t expect employees to act like everything is “business as usual” if they recently had surgery or had a horrible case of the flu. Yet, mental health issues in the workplace still carry a stigma, which means they’re often swept under the rug. That’s not the right approach. Mental health in the workplace (and remote work mental health) is important, and it’s up to leaders and managers to promote a culture that prioritizes and supports the mental well-being of its employees. How? Let’s talk about it. Why is mental health important at work? Why should mental health issues be a core focus for your organization? Well, to put it simply, because you care about your employees and their wellbeing. Their physical, emotional, and mental health needs to be at the top of your priority list if you want to foster a positive culture and a thriving team. That human-to-human compassion should always rank above financial performance or productivity incentives. However, ensuring the mental health of your employees offers a number of other benefits for your employees and organization as well. As the World Health Organization explains, workplaces that actively promote mental health of employees and offer adequate support are far more likely to: Reduce absenteeism Increase productivity Experience economic gains Especially given recent pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic when 70% of workers admit they feel more stressed than at any other point in their entire career, employers need to follow managing remote employees best practices. How to spot mental health issues in the workplace The National Alliance on Mental Illness shares that mental health conditions run the gamut from anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and more. That’s why symptoms of mental health problems will vary depending on what an employee is specifically dealing with. However, when it comes to noticing employees who are struggling with their mental health, it can be helpful to look for: Decreased performance and productivity Reduced enthusiasm and engagement Difficulty concentrating on conversations and in meetings Irritability toward you and others Negativity toward their work and responsibilities Consistently low mood — measuring mood changes with an Agile Niko-Niko calendar can indicate this Keep in mind that this isn’t an exhaustive checklist. Indicators can vary from employee to employee, and it’s ultimately not your job to play doctor and diagnose employees. Rather, it’s smart to keep an eye out for these signs so that you know when you might need to offer more support, provide resources, and further promote mental health within your team and company. So, let’s talk about how you can go about making mental health a priority within your organization. Here are five tips to prove to your team that you’re invested in their mental well-being. 1. Offer benefits that support mental health You need to start with the basics. All of the candid conversations and team-building exercises won’t mean anything if the right foundation isn’t in place. But, unfortunately, 18.3% of respondents in one survey conducted by Paychex said their employer doesn’t offer mental health benefits. 28.8% of respondents rated their company’s health benefits and resources as “poor.” As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states, supporting employees starts with ensuring your company offers things like: Health insurance with no or low out-of-pocket costs for mental health counseling and medications Free or subsidized clinical screenings, counseling, or coaching programs Employee assistance programs (EAP) Employee support groups Flexible schedules or opportunities to take mental health days Assessment tools, apps, and other mental health resources By making these things available to your employees, you empower them to take control of their mental health — not just in the workplace, but outside of it too. 2. Adequately train supervisors and managers Your company’s supervisors and managers are the ones who are the most in touch with their teams, so they should have their antennae up for any red flags of burnout or other mental health issues so that they can offer support when necessary. Don’t expect them to know exactly what they should be looking for — it’s your organization’s responsibility to provide adequate training. This can include: Pamphlets, books, videos, and other learning materials Seminars or lectures from mental health professionals Roundtables where they can share advice and tips This equips them with the knowledge and information they need to keep their finger on the pulse of their team’s emotional and mental well-being, as well as their own. 3. Make resources available to your entire team Those mental health resources shouldn’t just be offered to your managers — they can be helpful for your entire team. Store them somewhere that’s organized and accessible to your entire staff, so that people can get those resources when they need them. Keep in mind that not everybody will be comfortable approaching a manager or HR representative when they want to get their hands on this information, so it’s best if all of your employees can access those resources on their own without help or intervention from someone else. 4. Remember work-life balance More than 40% of employees admit that they’re neglecting other aspects of their life because of work, which can increase their vulnerability to mental health issues. Yet, 55% of employees agreed with the statement, “I am afraid of getting punished for taking a day off to attend to my mental health.” Obviously, there’s a gap that needs to be bridged here, and offering mental health days is a great place to start in terms of ensuring better work-life balance. One way to do this is to simply offer enough “personal days” for your employees to use. Whether they need to go to the dentist, have a horrible cold, or need a day off to mentally decompress and reset, these days allow them the time they need (without having to give a thorough explanation of why they need time off). If and when an employee explains that they want some time to tend to their mental health, make your best effort to give them the time they need and avoid asking invasive questions or flooding their inbox with requests while they’re out. 5. Have candid conversations As long as people continue to keep their lips zipped about the importance of mental health, there will always be a stigma around it. So, one of the best ways to get your team more comfortable with talking about their mental state is to model that behavior. This will require that you and any other company leaders get vulnerable and open up about some of your own struggles and emotions. However, it’ll send the message that you have an open, honest, and supportive environment where people can bring their whole, imperfect selves to work. Additionally, as a leader, don’t neglect the importance of genuinely checking in with your employees — especially about their obligations and passions outside of the office. 23% of employees say that they think it’s a problem that their managers don’t ask about their lives outside of work. Mental health promotion strategies you can do remotely Maintaining positive mental health on your team is always a challenge, but it becomes extra tough when you’re all working remotely. You lose some connection and a sense of togetherness, which makes this sensitive topic trickier to address. The good news is that all of the strategies we outlined above can be used with a remote team. In addition to those, here are a few other things to keep in mind: Check in with employees frequently: When you aren’t co-located, it’s harder to pick up on emotions and nonverbal cues. Make sure you’re checking in with employees one-on-one more frequently than you would in a traditional office environment. Practice and model good boundaries: Work-life balance is a key part of positive mental health at work, and managers should lead by example when it comes to setting boundaries. They should honor set “shutdown” times, avoid emailing late at night or on weekends, and generally show employees what it looks like to maintain adequate balance. Find creative ways to connect: The sense of isolation that comes from working remotely can exacerbate some mental health problems. From virtual happy hours or trivia contests to Slack channels where employees can share tips and resources, find creative ways to keep your work bonds strong. Don’t be afraid to ask your team if they have any ideas for things you should implement! Creating policies for mental health engagement at work Mental health is crucial, but it can also be a somewhat awkward or sensitive topic for your company to address. You don’t want to turn a blind eye or sweep things under the rug, but you also don’t want to make employees feel like they aren’t valued or noticed. A documented mental health policy is helpful for demonstrating your commitment to employee well-being, while also giving everybody a single source of truth for the steps your company takes to address mental health. At the bare minimum, your mental health policy should include: Your policy’s goals, such as removing the stigma around mental health or fostering a supportive, inclusive culture Your company’s actions, such as what steps you’re taking to prioritize mental health or how you’ll address mental health risks like overwhelming workloads or a toxic work culture Your resources, including links and information about the different programs and options that are available to employees This policy will turn out best if you treat it as a collaborative process and source opinions and feedback from fellow leaders, employees, your HR department, and even mental health professionals you can connect with. Mental health matters at work and outside of work The conversation about mental health in the workplace has been gaining more attention in recent years. That’s for good reason: mental health has a big impact on our work, and our work has a big impact on our mental health. With that in mind, the mental health of employees isn’t something that employers can write off as a personal problem or not their responsibility. Use this as your guide to promote positive mental health in the workplace so you and your entire team can benefit from a more supportive and honest work environment.
Try Wrike Free for 14 Days!
Improve your team's collaboration, enhance work visibility, and so much more.
The Secret to Being a Great Boss (Work Management Roundup)
We're back with the Work Management Roundup after last week's all-too-brief Thanksgiving break. Which means we've collected a number of links from the past week and a half — good reads which should get you back on the productivity track. Read on! Radical Candor — The Surprising Secret to Being a Good Boss (First Round): Over on the First Round blog, Kim Scott shares the single most important thing a boss can do: focus on guidance. Giving it, receiving it, and encouraging it. This guidance needs to be given with "radical candor", which just means criticizing their work honestly, but with personal care for your employee's growth. How to Survive 8 Straight Hours Of Meetings (Fast Company): Some smart strategies for getting through a day that is wall-to-wall meetings. Sample tip: schedule breaks between meetings so you can grab a bite to eat if needed. Sweden Experiments with Six-Hour Workday (The Guardian): Meanwhile, a Swedish retirement home is trialling shorter work hours. Result: better well-being of nurses, higher standard of care, lower turnover. Only drawback: having to hire more people to cover the increased number of shifts. 28 Ideas for Becoming 5 Times More Productive Every Week (Medium): Thomas Oppong puts together a massive collection of productivity tips to use throughout the day. 4 Reasons Your Project Board Isn't Working (Girl's Guide to PM): Just because your team has a project board doesn’t mean they'll use it or find it valuable. Here are four reasons why they fail. If I Knew Then... Julie Masino (Crain's SF): Sprinkles Cupcakes CEO Julie Felss Masino shares how one mistake shaped her business philosophy and taught her empathy because people are your greatest asset. More Work Management Reads Think About This: Tech Employers Bend Over Backward to Shower Their Workers with Unusual Perks (Mercury News) The Decline of the Office Holiday Party (Bloomberg) Email Won’t Be Used in 10 Years, Says Wrike CEO Andrew Filev [Video] (Silicon Republic) BYOA — Too Much of a Good Thing? (Digital Marketing Magazine) Go Try This: How to Deal With Jerks in the Workplace (Fast Company) 6 Tips for Working With Developers (Hubspot) 25 Top Tools for Maximizing Marketing Team Productivity (Wrike) How to Select the Best Business Collaboration Software – Advice from Experts (Mikogo) The Most Valuable Social Media Tool You are Overlooking (Forbes) 5 Lessons for Creating 'Viral' Content From BuzzFeed (Huffington Post) Browse Productivity Works on Flipboard If you use Flipboard on laptop or mobile, then you'll enjoy our magazine on productivity tips. Check out Productivity Works or click on the widget below: View my Flipboard Magazine.
Where’s the Rest of Your Marketing Revenue Hiding?
This is the final installment in our three-part series focused on CMO pain points. Part 1 discusses the technical challenges of leveraging your martech stack while Part 2 focuses on the unique human challenges marketers face in our “New Normal.” Here, we discuss the solution to overcoming these challenges.
6 Fatal Mistakes of Startup Founders
Adeo Ressi is Founder and CEO of the Founder Institute, where he and his team mentor hundreds of first-time founders. In addition, over the last 20 years he has founded several successful companies of his own. So when we asked him about the typical mistakes that first-time founders make that could prove fatal to their companies, we listened! Ressi emphasizes that the fatal mistakes are often made in those critical first few months in the founding of a new company. That's when every move can have a huge positive or negative impact on the fledgeling company. During this time the founder needs to make a lot of critical decisions in a short period of time. According to Ressi, there are at least six fatal mistakes that new founders often commit. Let us know other mistakes that you see founders make (or that you've made yourself) in the comments below the post! The 6 Fatal Startup Mistakes Selection of initial team and cofounder — Getting the wrong people involved in your company can lead to ineffectiveness, arguments, stalemates, power struggles, and worse: the death of the company. Add new people very carefully. Structuring of company, cofounder, and team deals — Managing compensation, stock, or options wrongly can set the company up for failure. Also, care must be taken with any initial investors and how their deals are structured. It's almost impossible to undo poorly structured deals. Adoption of technology — If you pick tech which is unpopular or unusable, your company won't grow as fast, you'll have trouble finding good developers, and your product won't be top-notch. Business and revenue models — Selecting a business model that allows the company to grow and (eventually) become profitable is critical. Go-to-market model — Determining how your company will reach customers is a decision that will make or break success. Consider your sales approach, partnerships, and distribution options carefully. Name of the company — Even something like the wrong name can be potentially fatal. If it doesn't communicate the benefits clearly, or is too silly or difficult to pronounce, type, or remember, tread carefully. Hear Adeo Ressi talk about the biggest founder mistakes — start at 20:34 In the genesis of a new business, every decision that the founder makes, large or small, can have fatal consequences. So take care with each of these six points raised by Ressi, and seek help during this important time period. To learn how the Founder Institute can help your startup, visit their website. Have your own story to share? Tell us about other fatal startup mistakes in the comments below.
Digital Transformation Is Contagious: Tips to Help Your Clients Catch On
Everyone is talking about digital transformation these days. But what if you have a client who hasn’t embraced the benefits? Engage them in your collaborative work management system and read on for more tips to make your working relationship productive and successful.
5 Ways Your Perfectionism is Killing Your Business
As a business owner, having perfectionist tendencies can push you to go the extra mile. Yet the desire to excel and the desire to be perfect are two separate outlooks that business owners and leaders often confuse. While having high standards and goals is a profitable business strategy, and a great way to motivate employees, perfectionism can actually be detrimental to your success. Here are six ways this mindset can hurt your business. You Never Take Risks Year after year, you’re in charge of making the decisions that impact the growth and productivity of your business. Innovative ideas and risky decisions may arise and if you’re a perfectionist, your first instinct may be to shoot them down. While it’s necessary to weigh the pros and cons of major decisions, creativity and evolution are critical to your business’ success—and that means accepting some element of risk. The willingness to adapt to changes across your industry is a must if you want to stay competitive. Run the numbers, get advice on the situation, and make an informed decision—don’t automatically say no. You’re Not Well Liked It’s no secret that perfectionists aren’t the easiest people to work with. If you strive for perfection each and every day, you’re likely also demanding perfection from your employees as well (or they perceive that you do). This could lead you to become controlling and critical, hyper-focused on your exact vision of what the project or final outcome should be. No one wants to work for a dictator, and if your team doesn’t respect you as their leader and don’t enjoy working for you, you risk losing great employees. Take a step back and consider how your perfectionist tendencies are projecting onto your employees. Make it clear that they have your trust and the freedom to do their jobs, and remember that their ideas and visions of success are likely just as good as yours. You’re Afraid to Fail Fear of inadequacy could be driving your perfectionism. In a poll of 1,000 American adults, fear of failure was the number one fear, and as a business owner, it’s easy to cover that up with perfectionism: If it’s perfect, then nothing can go wrong. If it’s perfect, I can be sure I’ve done the absolute best that I can. While it’s good to let fear push you, rather than control you, you run the risk of letting that mindset take over. When that happens, nothing is good enough, skewing your idea of what a job well done actually looks like. In the end, nothing is good enough, and you’re still not managing the fears that are hurting you and your business. You Hate Opposition Although you may strive to be perfect, your ideas, work and management skills aren’t. No one’s are! If you take extreme offense to feedback or are closed off to different ideas, you’re hindering the growth of your business. “In the modern workforce, true perfection is flexible—and is completed by working as a team to develop ground-breaking innovations. Even if your method is flawless, it can always be enhanced by the insight of others,” say small business experts at The Office Club. The most successful leaders across all industries adapt to new developments and changing circumstances—sometimes on a daily basis—and being a perfectionist can stop you from achieving that. You Can’t Meet Deadlines Perfectionists often feel the need to thoroughly review every single thing with a fine-tooth comb. While supervising and consistently reviewing the work of your employees is vital, micromanaging others keeps people from meeting deadlines and being productive—and it may even drive them to look for another job. Once you’ve approved a project, delegate it to the senior employee involved, and move on. Make a point to do this once a week so that one day it just comes naturally. You’ll slowly feel yourself start to unwind and loosen up, allowing the perfectionist tendencies to fade away—and your team and business to thrive. Author Bio: Jessica Thiefels has been writing for more than 10 years and has five years of experience in the marketing world. She is currently a professional blogger and has been featured on Ms. Career Girl, LifeHack, ThinDifference, Manta and StartupNation. Follow her on Twitter at @Jlsander07.
Are You a Plugged-in Manager? Find Out In Our Interview with Terri Griffith!
Terri describes a game-changing approach to management that is based on the concept of being plugged into each one of the organizational dimensions — people, technology and organizational processes — simultaneously. Oftentimes, managers underemphasize one of the components; say, they address the people and organizational processes, but overlook the technological dimension. Or conversely, some consider technology to be a lifesaver, and the only thing they need to focus on. The balance of people, technology, and processes is something that I think is really important for any organization. I refer to this triangle in my previous posts. So it was a pleasure for me to meet Terri and discuss this topic, as well as find out more about her new book. Naturally, our conversation went way beyond defining who exactly qualifies as a "plugged-in manager", as we proceeded to talk about the role technology plays in modern business. To learn more about the concept of a plugged-in manager, learn the best ways to leverage technology, and hear some interesting examples from Terri's experience (as well as my own) I invite you to read the transcript of our conversation in this blog post. And now we want to know: In your work, do you put more emphasis on people, processes or technology? Do you consider yourself a plugged-in manager? P.S. You can get your own copy of “The Plugged-in Manger: Get in Tune with Your People, Technology and Organization to Thrive” on Amazon. Transcript below: Andrew: Hi everyone, it’s great to hear you on our podcast today. And let me introduce our honored guest. Terri Griffith is a professor in Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business. Located in the heart of the Silicon Valley, she studies how we mix together the technology of work (everything from telepresence to the size and type of tools a crew would use to build a fence), the way we organize to do this work (virtual teams, collaborative leadership, innovation strategies), and the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the people we work with. Terri has just released a new book called “The Plugged-In Manager: Get in Tune with Your People, Technology, and Organization to Thrive.” The book addresses an important topic that’s very relevant to what I usually write about: how we become more productive, how we work together both in the same office and in virtual teams. Terri, it’s definitely an honor and pleasure to have you here today with us. Terri: Thank you very much! Andrew: Let me jump straight into the questions. And the first one, I think you can already guess what it is. Could you tell the listeners who exactly the plugged-in manager is and how he or she is different from most managers we see. Terri: First I’ll say that anybody can be a plugged-in manager because I think individual contributors, as well as managers, teams and even organizations, can be plugged in. They make sure that, as they think about an organizational practice, as they think about getting their work done, they think about the people — so what the skills are that the people have, how long they’ve been in the organization, the kinds of things they like to do. They think about the technology tools that they have available to them. So, like you said in the introduction, everything from telepresence to collaboration tools, to the kinds of tools we would use to build a fence, all those are the different kinds of technologies that we have at our disposal. And then what are the organizational process issues that we need to address as we think about the work that we’re trying to get done. A plugged-in manager is somebody who’s going to think about all three of those at the same time and going to understand that you have to mix them together. So if we’re going to use a particular technology tool, we may have to provide some training, and it may work out better if we have a certain kind of individual that we’ve already hired. On the other hand, if we have a bunch of expert employees, we may not have to provide so much training. So the people would reduce the amount of organizational processes we might have to deal with, even though we were choosing a pretty sophisticated technology. I think the big difference is plugged-in managers, plugged-in organizations, they don’t seem to think about there being a magic bullet — that if I just had that technology, or if just hired that one person, or if just changed this one organizational process. They know that’s never going to work, it’s always going to be some combination of the people, the technology and the organization that really make something work well. Andrew: I absolutely agree with you. This triangle of people, tools and processes is definitely crucial. And in my career, I’ve seen a lot of organization overemphasizing or underemphasizing part of that. My opinion is that people definitely are the cornerstone in that. Because, obviously, people make the choices on tools and processes, but other components, nevertheless, are also very important. Do you share the same view in terms of priorities between those three? Terri: I’d say those priorities are right, but I’m thinking about Andrew McAfee’s new book “Race Against the Machine” or even Jonathan Zittrain’s book, where they talk about how a lot of our work is being taken over by the technology itself. You know, an algorithm might be choosing what articles are going to get presented on a newspaper, rather than an editor. And so, at the tail end of the whole distribution of how we might think about how the choices get made. I’m going to say people play the biggest piece because they are generally the ones doing the work. But I think as we move into the future, we’re going to have to keep a pretty open mind. Is it a technology that’s making this choice for us? And it may be the case that, originally, it was people who wrote the code that is making that choice, but it’s going to become more of an open question as we move forward. Andrew: Yes, that’s definitely an interesting view. I’m a big fan of AI (artificial intelligence), so definitely one thing that I see on the market today is the concept of the big data, right? That we accumulate more and more data, and we come up with more and more sophisticated algorithms to process that data and build intelligence out of that data. So that’s an interesting angle. And one other insight that popped in my mind is that, obviously, some people are key to the success. But then processes and tools actually help them influence other people on the team. It’s kind of an interesting flow where you may have a champion, somebody who is either creative or smart or experienced or versatile in change management. And then, through the use of tools and technologies, they actually multiply that knowledge or culture power. Going back to the plugged-in manager and to your definition, do you see many managers right now who you could say are really plugged-in, or is there still a way to go for all of us? Terri: I’m not sure about you because the technology your company is putting out is pretty plugged-in, in my perspective. But I’m a little bit sad to say that it’s more rare than it is common for me to get into a conversation with someone and to immediately be able to say: “Wow, that person gets it, that person’s completely plugged-in.” We collect a lot of data about this, and we continue to collect it because we want to make sure we have a tool that will help us assess different levels of how plugged-in you are, and then hopefully we’ll be able to change the kind of training and workshops to be based on the kinds of results that we’re getting. While a lot of people think they are plugged-in, when we actually put them in situations where we want them to make choices, often they are biased toward taking the shiny technology. And they’ll go rank a technology solution higher than a solution that includes the technology, the organization and the people. We’re doing whatever we can to make that change, and we would like it to be really common for somebody to sit down and say: “All right, we have a new team project we need to do. What are the technology tools we are going to use, who are the people that we need to have on this team, and what’s our process going to be? Is it going to be a very face-to-face kind of process? Is it going to be more virtual? How are we going to approach the problem? And just have it be super common that everybody goes through that kind of three-point checklist of people, technology and organizational process. But I’m not seeing that yet. Andrew: I like Gartner’s hype curve. They do an aggregate, but even when we look at the particular person or organization, oftentimes what happens is they get excited about a shiny tool, but they hope that the tool will solve their problems by itself, and they don’t make their organizational challenge, and then it drops, and they become naysayers. They become the other part, and they develop a culture of “everything is already invented.” Then I talk to those people and ask them: “Do you remember the time when we didn’t have mobile phones, Skype, e-mails, so it makes them think. If you put it in perspective, technology does change our life. You can’t delegate everything to the technology. You have to control the process, but technology does change our life in a big way. Starting from something that we consider everyday, like giving a phone call and air travel and obviously e-mail and everything else. As we look at it, more and more work becomes informational work. And that actually goes hand-in-hand with that trend of the big data that we’ve just touched because it reinforces it. There’s more and more informational work, the information systems become more and more sophisticated, and there are more and more helpful tools. Back again to the plugged-in managers, I think this concept is very important. But why do you personally consider this is a game-changing approach to management? Terri: I think it goes to the number of organizational changes, either technology changes or organizational process changes that fail. And the number hasn’t changed in decades! We’ve been collecting data about organizational change failure for a long time. The number hangs around 50%. So 50% of all organizational changes, either technology or process changes, don’t do what the people who set out to implement them think they are going to do. And generally it’s because they don’t manage the implementation process very well. Oftentimes, what they’ve done is they thought: “Well, if I just make this one silver bullet adjustment, and I parachute this change in, everything is going to be different.” And it just doesn’t work that way. As a result, that’s just painful as a professor of organizations to stand up in front of a class and say, “Here are all these ideas about great things you can do to improve your organization, but by the way, 50% of the time they are not going to work for you,” I would like to see that change. It’s almost painful, too. I was giving a talk on this issue last night, and they asked, “Why would you spend two years writing a book? And I said, “Because it’s painful for me to see the situation where someone’s only focused on one of those three issues.” I thought about the United States TSA, our transportation safety authority that brings us all that fine effort that we go through, as we come to the airport. And for the most part, that was a technology change. That was: “We’re going to run this technology, and the technology demands that you take off your clothes, and the technology demands that you take off shoes. And we’re going to focus on that technology.” I think all the fighting and unhappiness that goes along with going to the airport now didn’t have to happen if they had thought about their stakeholders a little bit more and thought about how they could integrate stakeholder needs into the process that they need to make airport security good. But they didn’t think about it that way, as far as I can tell from reading the external reports. Andrew: Yes, I think that’s a great point. Now, in your book, you speak about three key practices for the plugged-in managers. Can you please briefly describe them for the listeners? Terri: Absolutely. The way I like to describe it is that here we’ve been talking about 3 dimensions: the people, the technology and the organization, and then we also have these 3 practices. So if we just keep in mind the number 3, maybe it’ll all help to stick a little bit. So the first one is “Stop, Look, Listen,” and even though it has three words in it, it’s still just one practice. But the idea is that you stop and you look. Can you say who are the people who are going to be impacted by this? What is the technology that we’re talking about? What do I have available to me already, or what might I need to go buy, and then what’s the organizational setting that this thing has to go into? By stopping for just a moment to reflect on what the current status is, and what the opportunities are that are out there, what the different choices are. And I think that keeps us from grabbing for that shiny thing and forgetting about all the rest. So if we just say to ourselves: “I’m going to go into this process. I’m going to think about a new way of doing things.” First thing I’m going to do it, I’m going to stop and look, and then after I take that first step, I’m going to start to listen. Well, I took the first step. What was the feedback from that? And is it going well, or do I need to make some adjustments? So “Stop, Look, Listen” is the first practice. The second practice is really the most powerful one, and this is the issue of mixing, mixing together those 3 ingredients: the people, the technology and the organization, in a way that makes sense. And I’ve shown this a couple times, as putting out on a table all the different ingredients for a chocolate chip cookie, and if you look at those ingredients, some of them are pretty tasty on their own, but for the most part, we’re going to have a better outcome once we mix it together. We’ve got to mix it together in the appropriate proportions for what we’re trying to achieve. And so mixing becomes the key. I like food a lot, so mixing and thinking about mixing a great meal or mixing a great dish is the way I kind of keep that one in my head. And then the 3rd practice is — really, you were talking about it a little bit — how do you multiply or leverage your advantage? And it’s through sharing. Sharing is the 3rd practice, and I’m going to kind of think aloud as I work in a team setting or think aloud as I talk to a group of executives and say, “Always look how every time I assess a situation, I’m always looking at the people, the technology and the organization. And always see how I’m trying to figure out what the blend is. I’m not going to try and change everything all at once, but I’m going to change a few things as I go along, and then gather up the feedback. But as I talk aloud about that process, I share the process, I’m doing 2 things. The 1st is that I’m spreading the idea of how to be a plugged-in manager, but the other one is, as I teach that idea through sharing, it means that the next time we go to make an adjustment, they are already going to know what we have in mind. I won’t have to implement the idea of being plugged-in, as well as implementing whatever the changes are that we’re looking at. Instead, they are already going to be aware of that part. So sharing is an important one, if we want to expand or leverage the impact that we can have in our organization. The 3 practices are “Stop, Look, Listen,” the reflective piece; then mixing, which is really where the heavy part of the process takes place, to really find out what a good combination is going to be; and then sharing, just to make it easier down the road. Andrew: Those are indeed great practices. There was the PMI Global Congress in Dallas, and I was invited to speak on virtual teams, and I brought out the topic that in virtual and distributed teams, a lot of communications are asynchronous, compared to the team that is co-located in one office. And in that environment, sharing is really crucial because you not only want to tell people what to do, but you also want them to understand your thinking. Exactly what you said, thinking out loud, so they know your reason, and even though the communication is asynchronous, and you are not necessarily there to make the decision for them, when they need to make, it they know your reasons, so they can make a similar decision, so it’s very aligned with what you’ve just described. So in your opinion, this approach, does it differ between SMBs and enterprises? And if so, how? And if we’re speaking about enterprise, will it work for all levels, or does it differ as we start speaking about enterprise-wide changes and things like that? Terri: I think it’s just an issue of scale. So in a small or medium-sized business, it will be easier to demonstrate the process. Even if it’s a small organization that is virtual, it’s just easier because you’re talking to fewer people. You have more opportunity to clarify what your meaning is and clarify the approach. But even at an enterprise level, some of the top executives have the skills that they’ve learned to be plugged-in through experience, they’ve learned over time, and they are already practicing these approaches. They may not be calling it plugged-in management, but they’re certainly doing it. And as I think about executives at Microsoft that I got to talk to for the book, that would be a big organization looking at how to manage a virtual team between Washington and China. Then if I look at some of the startups that I was able to talk to in the book, they’re all doing the same practices, it’s just the matter of scale. In the larger organizations, and I’m thinking about Nucor Steel — as I say, Nucor Steel, the largest steel company in the U.S., and I think the largest recycler in the world (metal recycler). And for them the process that I would describe as being plugged-in, to them it’s just the new core way of doing things. They’ve been building that approach since the 1960s, and it actually came from the top, which I think may be a little bit rare. Often what I see is people in the middle of the organization find that these are good approaches, and then as other people see their success, they learn from that. So it’s almost a top or bottom-down of that process in larger organizations. If you are a big enterprise, and people are practicing plugged-in management, that’s a lot of leverage, very successful. Andrew: Now I only have a couple questions left, one would be, could you share with us some interesting anecdotes that might illustrate concept of your book or your research? Terri: Certainly. I often think about sailing, as a process that helps people learn about being plugged-in. I have a sailboat, and I have a crew of other people on their boats. A sailboat itself is a technology, and so if you think about the size of the sails, the size of the mast, the size of the boat, everything has to scale appropriately. Also because I’m a woman, I’m not as strong as some of these big football-player-looking guys who might be on the America’s Cup boat or something like that, and because of that I have to use more pulleys. I have a lot of pulleys on my boat because I don’t have that much strength, but I can use the technology to increase the strength and increase the benefit of the strength that I do have. Sometimes in class I’ll draw a picture of a sailboat that has 2 sails, and then I’ll draw a picture of a sailboat that has 3 sails, and we’ll talk about the difference. As for someone who isn’t a football-player-strong person, it’s harder to pull up one really large sail. Maybe I’d be better off pulling up two smaller ones. How do you make those choices, and how do you keep those choices top of mind? And it really does back to this idea of reflection. If we’re just charging ahead, we’re not going to be thoughtful and think about the different options we might have. So if we do that “Stop, Look, Listen” practice, we’re going to think of a few more options and maybe make a slightly better choice. Then the other example I have is probably a little more standard. Here at the university, we haven’t been all that modern about our own collaborative practice. As you can imagine, as somebody who writes about collaborative practice all the time, it’s been a frustration for me. But we’re finally moving ahead and looking at our communication and collaboration and even workflow. And I’m getting to practice these very things myself. I’m the chair of this university task force on communication and collaboration. And I can see why some people are drawn to simply make a decision and move ahead quickly. We keep pulling ourselves back and saying, “No, let’s not focus on the technology, let’s focus on the work to be done. Keep those examples top of mind. And then we’ll bring in the technology as we need to.” Both of those, both the sailing and this collaboration task force have been great learning experiences for me. Andrew: Yes, I think that sailing was a great metaphor because oftentimes people just go with the flow, especially if the user of technology and the decision-maker are not the same people. If their CIO chooses the software for business users, they are not necessarily going to be the most happy and productive with the defect or the most marketed choice, or the most feature-heavy choice, or the most complex choice. So that’s an interesting metaphor because they are not those football players oftentimes; they just want to get the work done. So applying your ideas about plugged-in managers, I know you already gave a lot of good advice. Before the closing, what would be the final advice that you’d give to project managers and business managers for getting their work done more efficiently. Terri: It’s all going to come back to the “Stop, Look, Listen” idea, but once you’ve done that “Stop, Look, Listen,” and you’ve moved into mixing together what your choices are, the simplest way I have of describing that is you don’t have to be an expert, you don’t have to be a technology expert, you don’t have to be a management expert, you don’t have to be a people expert, but what you have to do is have an appreciation for all three of those being important, and then to be able to put yourself in the shoes or in the minds of the other stakeholders and really think about the work design as a negotiation. We all negotiate. We either negotiate well or we don’t, but we all at least know how to do that. And think about the organizational change. The thing that you’re looking at, as you’re trying to be a plugged-in manager, think of it as a negotiation and have the different issues of the negotiation that you have on the table be all those different options. So is it going to be a big team or a small team? Is it going to be a team that has core members, or is everyone going to be equal? Are we going to use this kind of collaboration tool or that kind of collaboration tool? Are we’re going to have experts on the team, or is everybody coming from the lower levels of the organization, and they’re going to have to learn on the job? And what’s the negotiation that I might go through that’s going to come up with the solution, that’s going to be best for us? I like to take a practice that we already understand at least a little bit, and so if everybody’s done a negotiation, then everybody has done a little bit of this mixing that I’m talking about. Andrew: I think that’s great advice to wrap up, and I welcome all listeners of the podcast and readers of the blog to go to amazon.com and check out Terri’s new book “The Plugged-in Manager.” There are both hard cover and Kindle versions available, and if you like the book, feel free to leave a great review on Terri’s work. Terri, thanks a lot for your time today. I hope the readers will enjoy it, and I hope the rest of you day will be great! Terri: Thank you so much. I’m going to go tweet about the conversation because you made me think about some new ideas!
How to Build a Killer Growth Engine (Work Management Roundup)
It's Friday, November 20th. That means Hunger Games: The Mockingjay Part 2 is being released in theaters across the US — which is more relevant to work than you may think. After all, your company is competing against others in your industry for customers and capital — you're Katniss in your own right! Here is our roundup of links that will give you and your organization an edge over the other "tributes." May the odds be ever in your favor. How to Build a Killer Startup Growth Engine (Dan Martell): Entrepreneur Dan Martell shares the formula for creating a killer growth engine: it's a great marketing strategy + product story + product marketing. Study Links Daily Coffee Habit To Longevity (NPR): Rejoice, coffee addicts! A new study by the Harvard School of Public Health says that people who drink 3 to 5 cups of coffee a day have a 15% lower risk of premature death compared to non-coffee drinkers. And even decaf drinkers see benefits. You Have 70,000 Thoughts a Day. This is How to Organize Them for Maximum Productivity (Quartz): With so much going on in your head, how do you manage it all? Here are five steps to organize and declutter your mind so you're on track for a productive day. How to Be Good at Managing Both Introverts and Extroverts (HBR): Some excellent tips on balancing the needs of different personality types in your team. Best tips: promote privacy, and rethink the workday (eg: no meetings before 12:30 PM). What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Steve Jobs About Silicon Valley (Fortune): Wrike CEO Andrew Filev answers the question "How important is it for startups to be in Silicon Valley?” More Work Management Reads Think About This: The Cult of Productivity is Preventing You From Being Productive (Quartz) Retailers Failing When Using Social Media to Answer Complaints (Forbes) Don't Believe These 5 Leadership Myths That Undermine Your Confidence (Entrepreneur) How to Run 4 Miles When You Really Don't Want To (Jon Acuff) Go Try This: How to Be Confident and Reduce Stress in 2 Minutes Per Day (James Clear) 10 Marketing Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs (Slideshare) The Simple Technique to Fit a 40-Hour Workweek Into 16.7 Hours (Fast Company) Browse The Work Management Roundup on Flipboard If you use Flipboard on your mobile device, then you can choose to read these links via The Work Management Roundup magazine. View my Flipboard Magazine.
How to Effectively Manage Remote Teams
Ubiquitous high-speed internet connectivity, free wifi, and secure access to your company’s network allow today's organizations to employ workers from all corners of the globe. As a result, over the past 10 years, remote work has grown by 103% in the US alone, and the trend doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Fueled by increased worker satisfaction, and an average cost savings of over $11,000 per worker yearly, the ability to effectively manage a remote team is a must-have skill in today’s world. Benefits of Remote Teams Finances: The financial savings are the most obvious advantage remote teams offer your company. As a matter of fact, according to McKinsey, some organizations manage to cut their labor costs by as much as 70%. Now, nobody is claiming that outsourcing is perfect, and it definitely isn’t for everyone, but the fact is it can save you a lot of money. Convenience: In addition, organizations with remote teams don’t have to worry about renting large office spaces. Telecommuting allows employees to jump right into assignments no matter where they're located, which speeds up the workflow, increases productivity, and according to PGI, even lowers worker stress. Focus: Finally, employing a remote team allows you to focus on improving the core of your business. Outsourcing peripheral services and projects such as coding and content creation enables you to work on the big picture and concentrate on acquiring and nurturing customers. Tips on Managing Remote Teams While it’s not difficult to see why remote work has been steadily gaining popularity among workers and employers over the last several years, managing workers who don’t report in person comes with a unique set of challenges. Overcoming these obstacles should be your top priority, so let’s see how you can solve some of the biggest problems and learn how to manage remote teams. Tracking & Improving Productivity For starters, when you’re not physically able to see your team members on a daily basis, it can be quite difficult to track the amount of work they complete and help them overcome roadblocks. Tools like Wrike can track team productivity, clarify team priorities, and provide a central workspace for your team to collaborate. And if a member of your team experiences technical difficulties and needs vendor support to resolve the issue, a tool like Securelink can help you manage remote vendor access and provide your employees with peace of mind. Hosting for Video Conferences Treat remote meetings exactly as you would face-to-face gatherings. That means dedicating enough time to preparing and sending out agendas, creating slides, and familiarizing yourself with your video conferencing app so you can head off any technical difficulties. To keep your team engaged, use media and visual aids to keep the meeting moving, stick to the agenda as much as possible, and keep meetings short and focused. Consideration of Time Zone Differences If you have team members spread across different states, or even continents, be prepared to work non-traditional hours. Project managers have to accommodate their remote workers by being available during the hours when most of the team is awake and working. Depending on time zones, this means some members will have to log in earlier in the morning or later in the evening to connect with the rest of the team. If this is the case, you need to know your employees’ personal commitments before you schedule them off-hours. Additional Reading: Helpful Books on Remote Management As more organizations embark on new ways of working, a new culture of knowledge sharing has developed to help professionals make more informed, educated decisions. Ebooks like Wrike's The Art of Staying Productive Across Distance and Zapier’s The Ultimate Guide to Remote Work give you comprehensive, practical advice for managing remote teams. Author Bio: Oscar Waterworth is a writer from Sydney, Australia and a senior editor at Bizzmarkblog. He enjoys reading about the latest in the tech, marketing and business industries. Oscar writes a lot, so stay updated with his latest posts by following him on Twitter.
A Definitive Guide to Managing Different Generations in The Workplace
Having different generations in the workplace is common these days. In most cases, team members of varying ages work together on the same project or task. Others may even manage multiple generations of workers at the same time. This article aims to help people who work with and manage different generations in the workplace by developing a fair strategy that takes their unique qualities into account. We’ll also explain how to avoid making mistakes and dealing with multi-generational issues that may be new to you so that your entire team can feel comfortable at work. How generational diversity looks in the workplace The generational gap occurs when people are born at different times. It can affect how people behave and think at work. For example, members of the silent generation are typically portrayed as being very conservative, while baby boomers are likely to have more liberal fiscal tendencies. Although everyone is an individual with a unique personality type regardless of age, you may see common traits associated with each generation play out right in front of you. There is a lot of common ground between different generations in the workplace. Most of us like to feel valued at work. We also enjoy feeling as if we're making a difference and doing something meaningful for ourselves and others. And yet, teams with generation gaps can face challenges that relate to their ages while collaborating. Why? Having different generations in the workplace means that company culture and communication is not one size fits all across the board. Don’t force people to fit in the same work environment. Instead, set up guidelines that will allow everyone to feel comfortable. Another solution is to consider what values and habits each generation has to offer in a team setting. That’s not to be confused with stereotyping. Putting each generation into a box often encourages counterproductive assumptions. While it's true that working with different age groups can be challenging, it can also teach employees about differences in their abilities and attitudes. Here are the generations you may see in the workplace today and what defines them: Generation Z Gen Z is focused on core values of being smart, funny, and witty. They may also consider diversity to be an important consideration for hiring, especially at the management level. Gen Zers want to work with like-minded individuals who share similar goals and values. This generation's managers should help them develop and grow by providing them with the right support and resources. Millennials Performance is very important to millennials. They are more concerned with the quality of their work than the number of hours they put in. To ensure that they are being treated fairly, managers should communicate honestly with their employees. The idea of an “always-on” work culture is not acceptable to most. Generation X Gen Xers are known to be individualistic, having been former latchkey kids. They may also prefer to manage their work and physical and psychological space in a more flexible manner. As a result, they often prefer to work with less supervision and are more comfortable communicating with others through various forms of media such as email and Facebook. Flexibility and a solid work/life balance are non-negotiable for this generation. Baby boomers Baby boomers are known for their work ethic and goal-oriented processes. They value face-to-face interaction and traditional recruitment methods. Structure, reliability, and flexible work policies are all ideal for this group. Acknowledgment for their skills and hard work will go a long way with this generation, although most employees would likely be grateful for that too. While we’ve mentioned some tips for each already, it's important to listen to the different work styles of multi-generational employees and communicate with them through various channels regardless of their age. Even the smallest details can make a significant impact on their work experience. Take onboarding for example. While some generations may prefer to receive information via email, others may ask to see printed copies of pamphlets and manuals. How do you manage a generation gap in the workplace? There are many differences between generations. While many people can agree that working together is beneficial, others believe it can be problematic. Managers must ask themselves: with the rise of multi-generational work environments, how do we work together seamlessly? Regardless of our age or experience, everyone wants respect. In order to succeed, older generations need to respect their younger colleagues and vice versa. While it may seem like a challenge at first, managing different generations in the workplace has its benefits. Generational diversity can help people develop new ideas and improve their work. It can also make managing other types of diversity and inclusion an action step rather than an idea. As you begin to develop your strategy, it’s wise to work with the group on issues that affect everyone. For example, creating stress-relieving fundamentals can help businesses retain employees and attract new ones companywide regardless of age. What are the challenges of working with different generations? Intergenerational conflict has been a growing issue over recent years. Concerns over climate change and political unrest have, in some cases, made conversations between different age groups a bit standoffish at best and downright hostile at worst. When there are many different generations in the workplace, there is a real risk of conflict and misunderstanding. Make sure you have a clear communication plan with everyone’s preferences laid out ahead of time. You’ll also need a documented and fair system for how you’ll address missteps between team members. Another one of the challenges of working with different generations is compensation. Different phases of an employee's life may affect their compensation and benefits package. Younger employees may also be focused on training opportunities or flexible work days since their entry-level wages are assumed to be low. On the flip side, older generations may expect and take pride in handling more complex or senior-level tasks. This is because their compensation packages tend to be higher and would match the workload. Understanding how compensation levels also affect how different generations think and feel about each other in the workplace will help managers better understand their teams. How should you handle generational issues in the workplace? If you’re of a younger generation and you are placed in a management position, there’s a chance that you’ll be overseeing older, more experienced (and sometimes more qualified) colleagues. To navigate this, you’ll need to establish trust in yourself and in others. This is especially true for anyone working under you who already has experience in leadership. If you’re of an older generation and you are placed in a management position, understand that there may be younger employees who have a different way of problem-solving or communicating than you do. Speaking of communication, how team members communicate is different for different generations. For instance, younger team members tend to use more slang and abbreviations in their messages. Older team members are more likely to use emojis in their communications. These seem innocent at first but can create rifts between members if not acknowledged upfront. For example, an older team member sending a thumbs-up emoji may seem like a friendly confirmation that they’ve received a message. But to a younger team member, it may come off as condescending or even angry. Getting everyone on the same page about communication style will go a long way towards resolving and even preventing issues like this. The same applies to your communication with the rest of the team. Sticking rigidly to your own preferred means and style of communication can alienate others, even as a team leader. Try to modify your message to suit the needs of whichever generation you’re speaking to in that moment. But no matter how much you prepare, you may find that you make a mistake here and there. When that happens, simply remember to be understanding and graceful with how you handle the situation. How to create a strategy for motivating different generations in the workplace 1. Do your research Understanding what makes other generations tick can help avoid division and conflict. There are many different ways to work and each generation has its own needs and wants. For example, many Generation Xers are known for being devoted to helping older adults and their children. So incentives revolving around health insurance benefits or anything else that directly supports the goals they have for their loved ones is a major plus. On the other hand, members of Generation Y enjoy being sociable outside of work and believe it is important for their careers. Opportunities for networking are more often than not a success with this group. 2. Consider the viewpoints of each team member Despite best intentions, there are many ways that ageism and cognitive bias toward different generations can show up in the workplace, such as stereotyping co-workers based on how they dress or their social media usage. If you notice or hear about intergenerational stereotyping among your colleagues, don’t be afraid to start a dialogue about it. Emphasize the idea that, instead of assuming that everyone is the same, employees should try accepting others based on their merits and contribution to shared projects. 3. Strategically place different generations on projects together so that their work complements one another For example, baby boomers can pass on their knowledge and experiences to Generation Y with digital tools and systems that Generation Z sets up for them. Remember that successful multi-generational teams are built on the strength of their individual performers. One way you can manage this step is by using a project management tool such as Wrike. In Wrike, users can signify which employees possess what skills and assign them to projects accordingly. This can also be used to view individual employee workloads across all active projects. 4. Never assume that an employee will have certain skills or abilities just because of their age This assumption most often shows up when technology is involved. Give everyone the opportunity to demonstrate what they are capable of and go from there. 5. Go out of your way to help employees bond with teammates of different generations Monthly mentoring sessions are a great example of this. This will encourage employees to share knowledge and be more open to learning from one another. By the way, mentoring doesn’t necessarily have to be one older person coaching a younger person. You can throw out conventions and offer mentorships led by the younger generations in the office too. If mentoring doesn’t apply to your field, try building up a social calendar. Plan team-building activities and happy hours so people can get to know each other. Team members will get the opportunity to appreciate each other more outside of email and Slack. Finally, find the similarities and preferences the different generations do share and use them to form the basis of your managerial choices. For example, if both your millennial and your Generation X employees prefer one-on-one performance feedback, adding that to your strategy will help. In conclusion At the end of the day, the key to understanding and respecting other generations is to accept that they are different from you. It’s always important to acknowledge individual strengths, weaknesses, and skills, regardless of how old a team member is. With the right strategy, you can reap the benefits of a multi-generational workforce and build a stronger foundation for long-term success.
Wrike's CEO Analyzes the Lessons to Learn from Facebook in Business Collaboration
In this article, Andrew highlights the lessons that the business collaboration space can learn from Facebook and discusses why the “work graph,” our own unique concept, has the potential to turn us all into project management and collaboration rock stars. We built Wrike with this vision - to connect work for thousands of people - and now we came up with this special name for our model. You can get a feel of it right now by using Wrike! Source:
Turning Employees Into Entrepreneurs: Interview with Adeo Ressi
You're a hard-working individual. You work long hours everyday, so you can breathe easy on the weekends. You also have a passion to start your own company, but you don't have the time or tools to do it. How do you fulfill your passion and find enough time to start a company without quitting your full-time job? We're excited to release our video interview with Adeo Ressi, CEO & Founder of The Founder Institute, who helps passionate individuals start their own companies. After founding nine companies himself, Ressi built The Founder Institute as a way to help people achieve their dreams while balancing their day jobs. During the interview, he shares tips on entrepreneurial best practices, how to deal with investors, and what qualities make a good founder. Check out the full video interview with Ressi: [inlinetweet prefix="" tweeter="" suffix="via @Wrike"]"A company dies when a founder gives up." —Adeo Ressi @adeoressi[/inlinetweet] Some key takeaways from the interview: Lessons learned from being an entrepreneur Differences between good and bad investors Qualities of successful founders Deadliest mistakes commonly made by founders The current state of the startup industry Why there are so many "Unicorns" (and if that's good or bad news) Are you an thriving entrepreneur? Share some of your founder tips and advice in the comments.
How to Set Up a Freelance Agency
When you have more clients than you can possibly handle within a 40-hour workweek, it may be time to delegate work to freelancers like yourself, and turn what was once a humble solopreneur business into a full-fledged freelance agency, managed by you. But only if it makes sense.
Creative Leaders: Be Consultants Not Just Service Providers
An interview with Jason Resch, Vice President and Creative Services Director at Umpqua Bank.(This is part of a series on managing and creating world-class internal creative teams.) With the increased pressure to deliver more output faster, creative teams — and especially their creative directors — must find ways to manage work and teammates efficiently. Creative leaders must find ways to behave as a marketing project manager, and offer themselves as professional services experts. But what is a professional services consultant? This interview series seeks to learn how creative leaders can succeed even under these circumstances and what advice they have for others in the field. Here, we talk with Jason Resch, Vice President and Creative Services Director at Umpqua Bank as well as assistant professor at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. At PNCA, Jason established and now serves as Director of the Center4Design, where students can work on real client projects under his supervision. His diverse experience includes music licensing with Rumblefish, experiential marketing for Red Bull, event marketing for NAU, award-winning multi-touch design project management for Citrix, Johnson Controls, and McAfee, award-winning work for both Nike and Target at Wieden+Kennedy, and he recently led a team of creatives to secretly build the brand identity for Xbox ONE. Jason was also an influencer in the making of our eBook, The Definitive Guide to Building a World-Class Internal Creative Agency. You created the Center4Design at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Can you tell us about the program and what inspired you to start it? I first joined PNCA as the guy teaching marketing to a group of artists. Initially, the topic was not met with much enthusiasm. However, shifting the topic towards being more informed about your audience ultimately led to the evolution of the program from fine art to commercial art. This paved the way for the creation of the Center4Design, which acts as a design agency within an art school. The goal: create opportunities for the students to connect with the community in order to develop actual deliverables rather than just “class work.” How do you get your students and your team at Umpqua to think of themselves as leaders as well as designers? Upon discussing the power of marketing as a discipline, a student recently said something that made us chuckle a bit: "So we have superpowers? Like in Spiderman — with great power comes great responsibility?’ It opened up a deep conversation around what we do as creatives and how we do it. The majority of us left feeling like we could better serve the industry if we acted as consultants. Not just service providers, but strategic partners who can contribute to the big picture. That conclusion continues to drive me as a manager/educator to this day. [inlinetweet prefix="" tweeter="" suffix="via @Wrike"]"We could better serve the industry if we acted as consultants." —Jason Resch, Vice President & Creative Services Director, Umpqua Bank[/inlinetweet] What are the biggest challenges in marketing that you see right now ? Social media has opened up a medium for anyone interested in having a very vocal and honest opinion about goods/services. Marketing attempts to differentiate, but I believe it has to try harder than ever to find a balance between being authentic while simultaneously pushing its message. What blogs, podcasts, websites, or other great design resources do you regularly follow or reference? This is a great question. On a typical day, I often find myself at Design Milk, Cabin Porn, Core77, Draplin.com, Fast Company, LinkedIn, Remodelista, Gardenista, I am also oddly fascinated by TheFancy. I definitely look forward to every issue of Communication Arts. And a new issue of Plazm always makes my day. Build Your Internal Creative Team We hope you got some insight from our interview with Jason. For a comprehensive guide to building your creative agency, download our free eBook: The Definitive Guide to Building a World-Class Internal Creative Agency. Author Bio:Kate Thome is a writer and consultant. In over 15 years in banking and payments in various marketing, analytics and risk-related roles, Kate developed a keen understanding of the internal workings of marketing and creative organizations. She's worked for Visa, HSBC, and Capital One, leading marketing teams to success. Her writing appears on LinkedIn, Mutha Magazine and Talking Soup. She blogs about her memoir in process at http://irememberthatnight.blogspot.com. Follow Kate on Twitter @kthome219.
The Past, Present, & Future of Performance Reviews (Infographic)
Performance reviews: dreaded morale-crusher or welcome opportunity for recognition (and a possible raise)? Whichever side you come down on, you can probably agree that there's room for improvement when it comes to employee evaluations. How did this standard practice become so common? Do they really work? The beginnings of performance reviews stretch all the way back to the Industrial Revolution of the 1700s. The 1920s saw a huge shift in employee treatment with the birth of Human Resources, pensions, and minimum wage. Between 1992 and 1997, employee satisfaction with the review process plummeted from 20% to 5%. [inlinetweet prefix="" tweeter="" suffix="via @Wrike"]4 out of 5 workers feel performance reviews don’t accurately reflect the work they’ve done[/inlinetweet]. Take a look at the full infographic below to learn exactly how performance reviews came to be common practice, and how technology will make them more social in the coming years. Source: Walton Illustration Ace Your Next Performance Review Use our collection of productivity tips to stand out as a top performer on your team and wow your boss.
