At a recent networking event I was standing near a couple of younger women who were deep in a conversation about challenges they were facing at work. After introducing ourselves I learned that they both work in large organizations, each in a position of power. One woman was talking about a staff member who seemed to have no idea as to what constituted appropriate workplace behaviour. Apparently this is a common problem because the other woman seemed to be experiencing a lot of the same issues at her workplace. A [...]

One of my most popular presentations is entitled Speak Up Speak Out: Personal Power and Respect at Work. As the title suggests, the goal of the workshop is to inspire, empower and educate people to speak up when they have concerns and conflicts at work, particularly when faced with power based behaviors like harassment and bullying. I developed this session as a direct response to what I experience repeatedly in my work as a Respectful Workplace Solutions Expert. The most common response that people have when on the receiving end [...]

I was talking to a client recently about a local HR conference she had attended. When I asked her for her thoughts she said that the main theme that emerged for her was a variation of how we are all going to have to work harder, smarter, better and faster if we want to be successful. Now I don’t know about you, but if I have to work any harder, smarter, better or particularly faster, I’ll need to break into light speed. The pace of change we are all dealing [...]

The main theme of my book Road to Respect: Path to Profit is that everyone succeeds when workplace practices are aligned with values, and in particular the ethical value of respect. The reason is simple; values are the glue that unite us in our humanity. I share a story in Road to Respect about an experience I had as a participant in a values exercise at a bullying symposium. In this exercise each individual was given a paper that listed 14 ethical values. The facilitator then divided us into groups. [...]

No one sets out to create a toxic environment. Yet when a workplace culture evolves on its own with little attention given to relationships and employees aren’t held accountable for rudeness or disrespect, the mood at any organization can turn poisonous. The results: loss of productivity, low morale, increased absenteeism and high turnover. Don’t miss the signs. Is your workplace in danger? Take this quiz and see. Do you agree or disagree with the following statements? 1. “Sure, we tell some off colour-jokes, but everyone laughs, so I know there’s [...]

Yesterday I spent a good deal of my day struggling with an article for my monthly client e-newsletter. I had what I thought was a good idea. However, as sometimes happens, the more I wrote, the less I wrote, and the less I progressed. By about 4 pm I was feeling quite frustrated and discouraged. Now I don’t know about you, but at times like those it is easy for that demon of doubt and negativity to capture my attention. Why am I struggling with this? I have so much [...]

I was watching CNN briefly this morning and saw a feature about the latest trend in campaign politics. It seems that the way to win votes these days is by catching your opponent doing or saying something potentially damaging or embarrassing, and then using the video as the basis for your own campaign ad. Kind of like political candid camera. Now I get the fact that this is politics and it is all about winning votes. However, my mind jumped almost immediately to the recent suicide of 18 year old [...]

I wrote this en route, flying home after delivering Speak Up: Speak Out – Personal Power and Respect in the Workplace, one of most popular presentations I developed after publishing Road to Respect last year. Speak Up: Speak out is intended to empower employees to speak up about disrespect at work. I make the case in Road to Respect that disrespect is a non-issue when workplace leaders make a strategic decision to build a values based culture where respect is a core value, where respect simply becomes “the way it [...]

Those of you that read this blog regularly may recall my July 2009 post, which focused on online retailer Zappos, whose bottom line sales grew from “almost nothing” in 1999 to over $1 billion in 2008. CEO Tony Hsieh is very clear about what has contributed to Zappos spectacular success – it’s their values based culture. Zappos’ story clearly supports the main theme of my book Road to Respect: Path to Profit – that developing and living  a strategic, values based workplace culture is a key ingredient to business success in [...]

Chapter 2 of my book Road to Respect is entitled “Do You Know Where Your Culture Is?” I have no doubt that knowing the answer to that question is critical for success in business today. Workplace culture is the personality of an organization. It is the answer you get when you ask an employee, “So what’s it like to work around here?” Think about that for a minute. What would you want your employees to say? How would you like them to describe your workplace? Think about how it might [...]