Staying optimistic, looking on the bright side, holding on to hope: these are all wonderful mindsets, and I expect you have experienced, as have I, how elusive they are to hold on to in trying times. Some days, it seems as if there is more bad news than good, and it comes at us relentlessly, and from countless sources.  My friends and colleagues tell me that they have simply stopped looking at the news. While I don’t do that, I can understand it. Avoidance---and the genuine phenomenon of contagion---make it not an unreasonable response. Upon further reflection, I have realized that I’ve been influenced by the idea of a stop -staring-at-the-problem strategy, and am even willing to consider denial which, as a bonus, results in almost immediate gratification!  

Most of us know that, in the vast percentage of major enterprise transformation efforts, stockholders, the Board, the CEO and senior management care about the desired organizational change succeeding. Lower-level employees know, in particular, that their boss (if the boss is on the right side of the issue as assessed by those in the layers above her/him/them) cares, as well. They know all these people care because, (1) they hear them trumpeting about it all the time and (2) they know (and don't need to be told this part) that in most cases, these change promoters have a lot of skin (read $$$’s) in this game of change.

In fact, many employees are well aware that their superiors and the board members above them, care about the success of the organizational change that is afoot.  But what about those who are not typically in the know when an organization merging with another, shifts its focus or is taken over by another firm? And what is the impact of organizational change on employees?

Many responsibilities fall under the job title manager. For an array of reasons, the demands on those holding this position have expanded considerably in recent years.  As a result, managers are telling us that performing their job well is getting tougher. This is a trend that deserves serious attention.

The bottom line is that good employee management is a key lever in producing good employee performance. But in recent years expectations for the people in charge have escalated and the degree of difficulty for achieving effective people management has increased. It is only through an understanding of the components of this enhanced demand that effective strategies for preparing and supporting managers in our organizations can be generated.

Learning is at the center of my universe. I believe deeply in the value of education, and I wake up in the morning excited to learn what’s happened during my sleeping hours. I regularly absorb curated sources: blogs, on-line publications of all sorts, podcasts; you name it, I take it in. I’m a learning junkie. So, even questioning the value of learning tears at my heart.

But I have many coaching and organizational clients who want my advice on learning and development issues. Individuals seek my input on whether or not, for example, they should go back to school to further their careers. Organizations too are often looking for counsel on training curricula and employee development programs. As discomfiting as it may feel to question a value I hold so personally dear, in my professional role I want to assess the benefit of all kinds of learning in today’s work world.

Examples of women, who are at the height of their careers and those on the fast track to getting there, offer support for the notion that indeed other women should be following this path. From Beyoncé to Oprah to Taylor Swift, women entertainers are taking names and taking charge. No longer simply the pretty faces of success, these women are smart business people who followed their insight and their guts as they saw inside their industry and ensured that they reinvented what it could be for themselves. Oprah became a mega-performer and international figure; Beyoncé became a Harvard Business School case study and Taylor Swift has not shied away from taking on the behemoths of the music industry, from Spotify to Live Nation. Each has stuck her neck out to go a different way, straying from the path most taken, and carved out the way that brought her the time, clout and, yes, financial reward, she was seeking. They are each reinventing what it means to be living their own high-powered career by redefining what that is, and by taking on established power as they do so.  By seeking to control the narrative and be in control of their actions and approach, their courage and smarts are setting the bar high and at a new level for all.

In all situations, organizations devote time and energy to selecting board members for a very good reason: the quality of the outcomes of the board’s efforts will, of course, be greatly influenced by the quality of the individuals it selects. By ensuring that a structure of orientation, on-boarding and time for input and reflection is in place, the potential of each board member chosen can shine. For both the new trustee and the board their mutual effort and forethought might actually mean the fulfillment of the promise that made the match in the first place. 

How an enterprise identifies what it needs in its board members may be tightly defined by its rules of governance or by the match between open board assignments and candidates’ areas of competence, but in many smaller, newer or less formal settings, driving forces include less well-documented considerations including its priorities at a given point in time, an individual’s visibility and degree of influence and access, who else is already serving and the preferences of the organization’s chief executive. In some boards, particularly not-for-profits, the ability to contribute financially and help the enterprise raise funds from others is also a key qualification.