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Kids Matter. We Can Help. Let’s Do It!
Remember when you were a kid and you thought anything was possible? You know, before all the well-intended grownups in your life taught you to be realistic? Well, we at Switch and Shift think that “realists” are what pessimists call themselves to obscure their true identity, and pessimism means you’ve given up before you’ve even started. Giving up is for losers. If you’re reading this post, especially if you’re a regular subscriber and a member of our community, chances are you don’t buy into all that self-limiting garbage. Chances are you...
read moreGrow by Fearlessly Listening to Customers – Case Study: CustomInk
In this era of social media, companies that embrace customer feedback and “believe” the words of their customers earn the right to growth. They realize customers turn to each other more than to advertising and campaigns. Here’s how one “beloved company,” CustomInk, fearlessly listens to customers and how this fuels their growth. Earn New Customers Through Past Performance CustomInk prints T-shirts for well over 100,000 groups and families per year. Orders are assigned a designer who personally reviews and inspects each shirt – there’s...
read moreWagging the Finger at Finger Waggers
I have a friend who always seems to wag his finger, metaphorically, in people’s faces. When you tell him about some mistake you made, or admit to some human failing, instead of empathizing, he’ll say things like, “You shouldn’t have done that” and, more self-righteously, “What I would have done is…” He reminds me of Gladys Kravitz, the overbearing neighbor on Bewitched, the television situation comedy from the 1960s. Mrs. Kravitz is forever peeking through her neighbor, Samantha Stevens’, window in search of proof that Stevens is up to no...
read moreReality Check – Are You Ready For Your Future?
Moving out of the endless search for the familiar past and bellying-up to meeting the challenges of the new workplace is as much a mind-shift as it is a reality-check for all workers – young, old and in-between. For the past 10 years, I have studied changing demographics, economics and societal shifts as they particularly apply to the revolutionary U.S. workforce. A few of the realities of the emergent U.S. workplace are shared here with you today. Here are a few of the realities of the emergent U.S. workplace. No private sector organization...
read moreIt’s Not Just Generation Y Experiencing Feedback Deprivation
I am a Boomer. Like me, you’ve probably read articles, books and news reports about the differences between Generation Y – the Millennials – from all the rest of us. Suggestions, tips, and advice are bantered around as if this younger generation is so “special” we have to handle them with kid gloves. Well, I recently read yet another survey that just came out flagging the differences. This time it was the 2013 Pulse of Talent Survey by Ceridian Canada which targeted over 800 employees across Boomers and Generations X and Y. Seems only 54...
read moreUse Non-Stick Labels in the Workplace
Like it or not, we all get labeled. We are the early one in, or the last to leave. We are the most organized, or most messy. We always get our work done on time, or a few days late. Although we don’t want to be labeled or even label someone else, it happens. We are human after all. The essential element to labeling though is to use the non-stick kind. People change. It can be positive or negative change, but we change. Labels, however, have a way of, well, sticking around. When positive change happens and negative labels stick, this...
read moreSincere Appreciation Stems from a Genuine Feeling of Gratitude
Think of the last time someone expressed appreciation for a quality or characteristic you have, or an action you took. Many people feel a sense of well-being, fulfillment, or elation when they are appreciated. There are tremendous benefits to giving appreciation. Employees tend to become more engaged, productive, and committed to the organization’s success when they receive appreciation in the workplace. Individuals who are valued tend to carry to other relationships the positive feelings they get from being acknowledged. Our relationships...
read moreUndoing the Shame of Management
Management is the bully on the playground. At least it is for too many managers in too many workplaces. Management has become captive to its disciplines of monitoring, evaluating, planning and controlling. Consequently, too many managers cannot see a different way to manage. More specifically, managers have grown blind to regarding their employees as people. Instead, employees have become mere resources to be controlled, directed, scheduled and monitored. The disciplines of running a business have mistakenly been attributed to what’s needed...
read moreMeaningful Mentoring: 4 Tips on Taking Advice
“Don’t follow any advice, no matter how good, until you feel as deeply in your mind that the counsel is wise”- Joan Rivers Making decisions can be daunting. Decisions we make can have an immediate and lasting impact on ourselves and people around us. Those same people can influence these decisions. Throughout our lives, during times of uncertainty we seek guidance and wisdom from those we are close to. How do we utilize their insights with our intuition? How we adopt advice should improve as we become more self-aware. Our reason for seeking...
read moreThose Who CAN Do, Teach
Two years ago, I left the for-profit sector to teach business full-time at a university. Since making that shift, I’ve heard a certain cliché more times than I can remember: “those who can’t do, teach.” This phrase puzzles me every time I hear it. I think that on some level, it’s puzzled society ever since George Bernard Shaw penned it in 1903. (Shaw’s actual quote was, “He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.”) The problem I have with this phrase is that it assumes that doing has more value than teaching—that those who can perform a...
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