Seven reasons why it is still hard to know when you are being lied to
"You're next in line for a promotion." "Let's have lunch sometime." "I'd love to read your report." "No, those pants don't make you look fat." We get lied to all the time. People are dishonest out of politeness, to avoid punishment, to protect others, or to deliberately mislead for personal gain. Some years back, Tim…
Creative hiring strategies can be the big difference between success and failure
Hiring employees has been difficult for many employers in the current job market. This is a result of a number of factors, including an aging workforce, the "great resignation," and a booming economy. While this will change in time, here are five things you might consider that will improve your chances of success if you…
Short of standing behind them with a pitchfork, what can you do to get the best from others?
Motivating yourself can be difficult at times, but motivating other people offers a different kind of challenge. Short of standing behind them with a pitchfork and an evil grin or offering them a gazillion dollars, what can you do to get the best from others, be they employees, colleagues, or even family (although that’s a…
It only takes resiliency, persistence, focus, empathy and curiosity
According to a Computing Technology Industry Association analysis, nearly 240,000 new tech jobs were created in the U.S. in July of this year alone. Information technology (IT) has added 143,700 jobs so far in 2022, an increase of 55 per cent year-over-year. The CompTIA now estimates the tech jobs unemployment rate at just 1.7 per…
Employees are keen to learn new skills. That is a positive for business leaders
The importance of employee upskilling has been heightened since the pandemic. The world of work has changed faster and in more fundamental ways than any of us have experienced before. However, the speed at which digital transformation has taken place has not been matched by the supply of talent available for these roles. This is…
Your performance and the performance of those around you are often the results of conditions that are within your control
Unless you are a manager complaining about your employees' lack of performance, most of us don't consider our own performance on a regular basis. But we should. Our performance is typically defined as the level at which we can accomplish our tasks and goals as they relate to the expectations of our employers. If we…
Instead of asking which single attribute fosters leadership, we should be asking which patterns of human qualities create the best outcomes
Look up any list of bestselling books and chances are at least one title deals with leadership. People have pondered the topic for millennia but are still chasing a clear answer to the question: what makes a good leader? That may be because we’re asking the wrong question, says business professor Ian Gellatly. Human beings…
Collaboration begins by building on those positive qualities that already exist in your team
Several years ago, I was in Germany working with a group of high-potential employees worldwide. Their organization had identified them as valuable candidates for leadership development. It was quite an event – a week of various topics and speakers with dog sledding as the team-building event the afternoon before my program. (Which was quite a…
Not everyone is designed to thrive in the traditional workplace
Had the COVID-19 pandemic ended sooner, there’s every possibility that office life would have returned to ‘normal.’ In 2021, we were all hoping to go back to the office. Today, office workers are putting their foot down en masse and refusing to return. Having adapted to remote work and proving themselves capable of being productive,…
We are paying the price in degraded focus for constantly being on our devices
The pandemic has brought on new debates about the nature of work. We’ve seen fads over the decades – the predicted four-day workweek, sabbaticals, job sharing, full-time part-time, hotelling, working from home, and now hybrid work. All are euphemisms for not working 37.5 hours per week in an office. Seamless work really means you’re always…
The success of any organization or team hinges on the strength of the relationships of its employees
Xerox Corporation, in the 1980s, was looking for a way to boost the productivity of its field service staff. An anthropologist from the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) travelled with a group of tech reps to observe how they did their jobs – not how they described what they did, or what their managers…
Business administration, engineering, nursing, and biological and agricultural sciences ranked in top three in Canada and top 50 worldwide
University of Alberta programs in business, engineering, nursing and agricultural sciences rank among the top three in Canada, according to new global rankings. The U of A’s business administration program was ranked the best in Canada and 30th in the world, according to the 2022 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects, or GRAS, after climbing steadily in…
I've seen how ghosts can haunt organizations around the world. It wouldn't surprise me if your company was also haunted
I not only believe in ghosts, I've seen how they haunt organizations around the world. It wouldn't surprise me if your company were haunted. In fact, I'd be surprised if it weren't! I even wrote a (almost true) story about a young woman chasing a ghost through a parallel universe located in the ventilation system…
Student clubs offer a taste of what it means to work together on a multifaceted design project
Engineering clubs are created by students and for students. They provide a sandbox that lets future engineers make new things, sometimes starting with mistakes. COVID-19 jeopardized the clubs, but they’re coming back strong and punching above their weight. “It’s not something that you expect a group of students to take on because of the technical…
Hanna Daniel has made it her business to foster diversity by empowering others
Like an itch that needs scratching, when Hanna Daniel sees something that cries out to be done, she doesn’t regard it as optional. So when the business student arrived at the University of Alberta and realized there was no campus group for black students, she got down to the business of starting one. After a…