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How is your work life going? Are you and your colleagues dealing with unanticipated stresses, or is 2025 par for the course in your workplace?
If you’ve encountered new challenges, what categories do they fall into? I’d love to hear how your team is navigating these and where your current focus lies.
🚀 Stories to Help You Drive Change
Here are my shares for this week:
SPECIAL NOTE: If you hit a paywall, go to Google Search, enter the name of the publication and something about the story (author, title, subject) to get a link that may bypass the paywall. And hey, if you like the publication, consider subscribing!
- How do you increase the number of women entrepreneurs? You facilitate teen girls spending time with entrepreneurs so they can learn first-hand the benefits of starting and building a business. Want the data behind this? Jessica Stillman, writing for Inc., has more.
- Leading is tough, no doubt. That’s why I love this quote, “If you can’t bear a false opinion about you by a person you are legitimately trying to help, you’re not ready to lead.” There’s more, take 2 minutes with this.
- Struggling with a manager who won’t manage? Here are tips for addressing that problem. (Scroll down, post starts mid-page.)
- Want a guaranteed way to reduce arguments? If someone doesn’t react/respond the way you expect, don’t start with, “That’s not what I said.” Try this instead, “What did you hear?” It directs them to verbalize what they thought you said and gives you the opportunity to clarify what you meant for them to hear. More on this from Jefferson Fisher.
- How do you prepare your company culture for the years ahead? We’re all subject to economic pressures and workforce changes. Key trends for this year include breaking traditional role boundaries by focusing on flexibility and human skills, leveraging AI for people processes, and prioritizing holistic well-being. Addressing energy leaks and rethinking employee engagement are crucial for team productivity and satisfaction. This article from MSN.com includes practical tips for each trend.
- Want ideas to keep your intergenerational team thriving? Jennifer Moss shares POVs on LinkedIn.
- Here’s a new model for keeping employees engaged and productive: let them schedule their own workdays and produce work “on demand.” Intrigued? Ruth Stevens and Cyndi Greenglass have more in their podcast with Scott Gillum of Carbon Design.
- An ah-ha about what employees want from the co-founder of Netflix, Marc Randolph. Thanks for the share, Jeff Joss 😊.
✍️ Increase Workplace Kindness With Our Downloadable Planner
Here’s the prompt for Week 12 from A Better Paradigm’s compassionate workplace planner:
For week 12, we explain the difference between being “kind” and being “nice.” Kind is what we want in the workplace: it’s genuine, direct, and designed to move the ball forward. Nice just makes people feel good in the moment but it’s often indirect and frequently doesn’t bring the changes needed for progress.
Download the full, free planner/reflector, and let us know what you think.
🖋 Noteworthy: A Brooklyn School Teacher, Victor Taylor Perry, Borrows from Pro Wrestling
Victor Perry uses pro wrestling videos to help his English Language Arts students learn about storytelling, characters, and conflicts in ways that have meaning to them. It helps him engage them to develop skills they can then apply to traditional study materials. Brilliant! Now, can this concept be applied to something in your workplace that may be dry but necessary? I bet it can.
🌟 Do Good Spotlight: Project Sanctuary
What began as a retreat in the mountains of Colorado has since grown into a national organization serving thousands of at-risk military families. Project Sanctuary helps military families heal through therapeutic retreats held across the country. Learn more about their mission and how you can help: Project Sanctuary.
🎉 Just for Fun
Are you drinking your morning coffee at the wrong time? This article from Inc. talks about the neuroscience behind optimizing when you drink your first cup of coffee. The best time apparently is not right when you wake up, but a few hours later when your cortisol levels drop. BTW, I’m not changing a thing, but it’s good to know there’s a way to improve this habit’s effects.
⏳Until Next Time…
I hope you have a great weekend, a Happy Valentine’s Day, and a wonderful President’s Day too!
Niki