Our apologies to our loyal readers for the lapse; however we will be taking a Blog break between December 22^nd to January 3^rd… In the meantime…

What is slowing your business down?  A Recent survey of 300 executives worldwide shows that ‘traditional’ thinking is the top barrier to strategic execution.  More than one-third of the respondents listed ‘past and habits’ as one of the top 15 barriers to strategy execution.  Other responses included economic climate, customers, technology and reputation.  It appears that in today’s business world, doing things the way they’ve always been has become a little passé.   

What are some of the ways you would suggest to break out of the “Traditional Thinking” box?

It seems that not all resigning employees are telling the truth.  In her new novel, The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave, Leigh Branham reveals the nearly 90% of employees quit over negative factors present in their workplace.  Most of them, however, explain to supervisors that their departure is a result of higher compensation or better job opportunities else where.  The solution?  Employers should start looking for the real reasons that employees leave and resolve these negative factors as soon as possible, or risk losing more key workers. 

What are some of the tools your organization uses to keep their rising stars?

Poor communication can result in unexpressed differences of opinion, which may be more damaging to teams than conflict. Harvard Business School professor Leslie A. Perlow, author of When You Say Yes but Mean No, says, "In many instances … people aren’t even aware that there’s a difference because they’ve been silencing others’ opinions and also their own."

This has been the down fall of many projects in every organization. What are your thoughts?  Can organized training help teams get over these issues? Or are humans simply humans, some of whom will never change?

Companies do little to maintain communications with retired employees, finds the Human Resource Institute’s 2005 Retiree Communications Practitioner Consensus Survey. According to the survey of 49 organizations, only 6.1% of respondents send e-mail to their retirees. A slightly higher percentage (14.0%) maintain a Web site for retirees. The most-used method of communication is mailing a newsletter or other publication to retirees’ homes, which 18.6% of respondents do. In some cases this mailing is geared especially to retirees, but in others it is simply the regular company newsletter.

With percentage of the total population reaching retiring age increasing, and the fear that they will leave with irreplaceable knowledge raising, do you feel maintaining communication with this group will help organizations gain a competitive edge?

Here are some very interesting statistics regarding Female Executives in Fortune 100 companies! 

The total percentage of female Fortune 100 executives

• 1980: 0%

• 2001: 11%

Average age at which top position achieved

• Women: 47

• Men: 52

Average working years before attaining top spot

• Women: 21
• Men: 25

What do you think?  Are these trends now flat-lined?  Or will they continue to change?

We want to hear from you!

It is our job to help ensure our clients are among the most productive professionals in

Canada

. (Since we’ve had those clients for over 40 years we must be doing something right)

However we also want to hear from you, our loyal blog readers, on the best ways you’ve found to boost your own, and organizations productivity.

Though it’s not a method we teach in our courses below is one technique that is fairly popular… What are some of yours?

The leaders of Fortune 100 companies are younger, more educated and reached the top more quickly than those of two decades ago, according to a study of each firm’s top 10 executives published in 2005. In comparing the executives of 1980 with those in 2001, researchers found:

• the average age declined from 56 to 52;

• the average years of education rose from 17.02 to 17.26;

• the length of time that transpired between the executive’s first job to current job decreased from 28.4 years to 24.1 years;

• the number of jobs held along the way fell from 5.8 to 5.0 jobs;

• the amount of time spent in each job declined from 4.3 years to 4.0 years;

• the amount of tenure with their current employers declined from 20.6 years to 15.2 years;

• the proportion who devoted their whole career to one firm fell from 53% to 45%;

• the proportion who were women rose from none to 11%

What are your thoughts on how these trends are effecting the overall performance of organizations?

(Cappelli & Hamori, 2005)

Where do you want to be one, two… five years from now? How do you plan to get there? Like each of your goals, success is a moving target. And in a world of constant change, “Past performance is no guarantee of future success.”

Success is always on the horizon. All you can do is keep moving toward it. Accept that there is no finish line, but act like there is.

How? As leaders in the field of professional development we always endorse incorporating ongoing training as part of your career development plan. It’s the only way to be sure you’re always a step ahead of change.

What actions are you taking to develop you career goals?

Ongoing training and development is one proven way to raise employee motivation…below is another.

Tell us about some of the things your organization is doing to motivate their employees?