The Magic Bullet For Retention Isn’t Higher Wages
My latest article in Forbes is about letting go of the false notion that we can keep good people just by paying them more. In January, MIT Sloan School of Business released the results of an exhaustive study of the reasons why a record number of people quit their jobs in 2021, a time often referred to as the Great Resignation—or as I like to call it, the Great Reconsideration. Despite the...
Wait, You’ve Done What?
Recently, the same week I turned 62, a colleague of mine commented on an article I’d published saying, “I had no idea you had such a fun background!”. The birthday, and that comment, caused me to reminisce a bit. Yup, I feel like I’ve led one heck of a life! So, I decided to try to sum it up briefly, in a nutshell. (OK, sorry, it’s a little bit bigger than a nutshell): 1. I grew up the...
On “Curmudgeons” and “Sweeties”
By Cynthia Burnham, MBA You’re watching an old movie. The white actors have put on blackface with white, painted, oversized lips, and eyes wide. They dance around in a goofy way, wear strange clothes, and tell bad jokes in an exaggerated “uneducated” accent. The audience in the movie laugh hysterically throughout. Bad, right? I hear many of you saying, “Absolutely! I hope we have gone way...
The Main Reason For The Great Resignation Isn’t What You Think
Last week, MIT/Sloan Management Review published the results of a massive research effort by the university and its partners studying the root causes of the so-called “Great Resignation of 2021,” which we at the Center for Respectful Leadership call the “Great Reconsideration.” To us, the #1 reason people quit their jobs last year – a “Toxic Culture” – is no surprise. For nearly two decades,...
Upset? Angry? Try to Be Kind & Respectful.
A few years back I wrote on this subject, and since going out into the world with more people being less patient I think it’s important to share a time I made a mistake and had to own up to it. Right before Christmas a few years ago, we discovered we had been lied to by a sales rep at our cell phone store and, furious, we went back in January to return some unwanted merchandise we’d been...
5 Ways Disrespect in Your Company is Costing You
Conflict in the workplace has far-reaching consequences that go far beyond transient misunderstandings. My 20+ years of counseling executives from some of the world’s largest organizations on how respect affects the bottom line informed a lot of our work at The Center for Respectful Leadership. I work in the business ecosystem using two very distinct models – fix it or build it. I...
Practicing Regular Respect Is Easy Until It Isn’t
For the most part, while entering or exiting a public location such as an office building, coffee shop, or retailer, you’ll keep the door open for someone you don’t know. You’ll also say “excuse me” when you run into someone in public, if you’re like the vast majority of people. When someone sneezes, you’ll greet them with a “bless you.”...
The Politics of Respect: Pandemic Edition
Last year, shortly after the pandemic began and the US became politically divided on how to respond, we began hearing from fearful, angry, and upset people who were asking – and, in some cases, demanding – that their opinions on the virus, it’s causes, and the steps that individuals and the country should take in response, be “respected.” This trend of people wanting their opinions to be...
The Respectful High Performance Virtual Organization Can Be Yours if….
It was February of 2020 and we were on a roll. I had just founded my latest organization, The Center for Respectful Leadership, a few months before and we were in high energy, rapid growth mode. I was huddling daily with my team of part-time marketing/biz dev folks in our leased offices in downtown San Diego; breaking bread with and enrolling major coaches and thought leaders into our Advisory...