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Posted by Donna Flagg on February 7, 2010
 I realized after my book was published that having to tell a direct report that he or she “smells drunk” would have been a great “difficult conversation” to include, and I was also surprised that no one wrote in with it as an example. Oh well, no biggie. Nothing wasted. It makes for perfect blogging fodder now.It has happened to me several times and also to lots of managers I know – an employee comes into work reeking of booze and has no idea. Admittedly, it can be awkward to tell someone that he smells as if he’s been drinking at 9 o'clock in the morning (or earlier). It’s a tricky one because discussing it could sound as though you are judging your employee for ...Read More Industries: Human Resources
Posted by Donna Flagg on February 5, 2010
 Here I am doling out all of this advice on how to survive the dreaded conversations that haunt us in the workplace, only to find myself stumped in the middle of a conversation at a party when someone asked me what she should have done during a situation when she broke into tears while being chided by her boss. The problem is that I get stuck somewhere between what I really think someone should do when that happens and what is actually feasible within a work setting when a boss is involved. See power, and the misuse thereof, is the biggest, most inherent obstacle at work that keeps people from functioning normally, healthily, openly and honestly. So while my gut advice is always to want the boss to hear the truth… “You can...Read More
Industries: Human Resources
Posted by Donna Flagg on January 31, 2010
 I appreciate articles like this one written by Laura Casey in the Contra Costa Times because they call out the issue of negativity in the workplace and acknowledge the detrimental effects that bad energy has on work environments, people’s attitudes and the business itself. I agree with her overall message that suggests the best way to stay balanced, healthy and happy is to disengage from the people around us who seem determined to color everything in black. In my book, we call those people “Buzzkills,” and find them problematic enough to place on our trusty “Ego Patrol.” But what if it is not possible to eliminate contact with thes...Read More Industries: Human Resources
Posted by Donna Flagg on January 27, 2010
 I am breaking from tradition this week and substituting my peeve (slash treat) with a question, because I am fascinated by a pattern that has emerged in the comments of an older post...Read More
Industries: Human Resources
Posted by Donna Flagg on January 24, 2010
 I have a vision. I’ve written several times about the role that dance has played in my life and how it has also shaped my understanding of business and the way people learn and work. At the same time, years training has netted me a strong mind/body connection and as a result, I am a big believer that healthy bodies, make healthy workers, make healthy organizations. So naturally, I was interested when I saw ...Read More
Posted by Donna Flagg on January 21, 2010
 Very weird. Very disturbing. A friend of mine tried to post a link on Facebook to this article, How American Health Care Killed My Father, and was denied the ability to do so because apparently Facebook users “deemed it offensive.” I don’t get it.  What makes it offensive and why would Facebook filter a mainstream media article?
Posted by Donna Flagg on January 17, 2010
 It’s a persistent topic and one that ranks high on organizational initiatives – how to motivate employees? Personally, I think it’s hard to know in tangible terms. People are all so different. Beyond being nice, including them, respecting them and believing in their potential, I’m at a loss when it comes to executable steps one can take. I’m much better at identifying the behaviors that don’t motivate employees and knowing how to embed mechanisms into the organizational infrastructure to make them stop. It seems so much more clear-cut a task to eliminate behaviors than to try and create inspiration, even though logically, it shouldn’t be. Motivating should simply be t...Read More
Industries: Human Resources
Posted by Donna Flagg on January 15, 2010
 It happens a lot - too much I think, in fact. Questions abound about the “best” way to do things in business. Then of course, an abundance of answers circulate because we have no shortage of commentary out there offering opinions, mine included. But what I always find amazing is how the search for answers starts with questions that assume there is one “right” way to do things. The problem with that approach however, is that it typically means borrowing and recycling what worked for someone else, and potentially rejecting something that didn’t. But in doing that, companies bypass an important opportunity to be original, fortify their identity and make choices that reflect what is best for th...Read More
Posted by Donna Flagg on January 10, 2010
 I finally saw Up In The Air with George Clooney after being urged to go by all of the people who saw it and who know I wrote the book, Surviving Dreaded Conversations. They wanted to know what I thought about how the movie handled the topic of firing people, which is commonly the most dreaded workplace conversation of all. Well, that and the issue of body odor, body parts and bodily functions, which I would say tie for first place with having to let people go.With respect to the conversation as they portrayed it in the movie though, I think they did a fine job. The directness, the focus and the clarity of the message were all g...Read More Industries: Human Resources
Posted by Donna Flagg on January 8, 2010
 I wrote about this debacle awhile back in my entry about hypocritical brands and venture to say that this is perhaps my biggest peeve of all time. I was mad that my health insurance company was sending me correspondence feigning interest in my health and wellbeing, while in truth and in fact they were stalling on several surgical claims. Well, I have an update. The good news is that they stopped stalling. The bad news is that they came up with a reason to deny the claims. Now? I'm really mad.They said that they were not reimbursing us for the surgical removal of tumors because I did not ...Read More Industries: Human Resources
Posted by Donna Flagg on January 3, 2010
  The issue of training and its implicit value always seems to be under debate one way or another. The biggest criticism is that training drains resources and produces hard-to-measure results, at best. But on the other hand, it hardly seems reasonable to not provide employees with opportunities to learn and develop new skills. What business can grow if the talent isn’t growing with it? So you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. We've heard all of this before. Everyone says, "Evaluate!" But evaluate what?Unfortunately, evaluation doesn’t really help either because there is a mental...Read More
Posted by Donna Flagg on January 1, 2010
 Is it just me or does everyone have a million profiles floating around the Internet? As I watch more and more businesses jump into the game of creating online communities for people to join, the more it feels like we splinter ourselves off into lots of little pieces.For example, I have a business, and for that part of my life I have a website, a profile on LinkedIn, videos on YouTube, a blog here, and a Twitter account. Then I am an author. For that I have a profile on Filedby because I’m told I “should,” and another one on Amazon’s Author Central because, well it’s Amazon, and then another one on Facebook because, well, it’s Facebook. Oh, and t...Read More Industries: Operations
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