One very practical way to move forward is to review past successes and expand on them. So I checked to see which Workplace Wisdom blog posts attracted the most attention in 2016 to learn which topics would be most useful to readers and worth revisiting from a variety of angles in 2017.
The Three Top Picks
- 7 Surprisingly Simple Secrets to Managing Millennials
This post covered some of the challenges that senior execs perceive when working with Millennials. It’s tough to manage and interact with people who don’t respond quite the same way you think you would, so readers really wanted help on this topic.Millennials are like anyone else in today’s overly complicated, flattened-hierarchy, tech-driven workplaces, but they just happen to be simultaneously the youngest and least experienced cadre. In fact, all of the traditional aspects of sound leadership and good management are highly relevant to Millennials, like “knowing your people well, communicating context, ensuring accountability, providing growth.”
Working these angles will make you a better leader of anyone, and help you with Millennials too — so much so that others will want to find out what you know!
- How to End Meeting Madness and Get Better Results
I was inspired to write this post after hearing impassioned complaints from almost every single one of my clients about the number of meetings, gatherings, standups, conference calls, etc., that people are required or feel obligated to attend — while they still have to get their “real work” done.Wouldn’t it be great to experience less of this kind of timewasting stress in 2017? By making some straightforward structural and process adjustments, it truly is possible to streamline the meetings you attend. The adjustments will take extra time and effort upfront, but once they become standard practice, meetings will run better, plus you and your team will accomplish more overall.
The bottom line is that “poorly-run meetings are an extraordinary waste of organizational time and talent, and people should be held responsible for the productive use of energy and capability.”
- Advice on How to Make a Case to Senior Leaders
Figuring out how to manage your boss never goes out of style, according to many readers. The overriding point is to formulate your communications after evaluating circumstances from your senior managers’ perspective — and also to pay attention to what’s going on in their day.Then, instead of taking years to learn how to get your points across, try the five suggested techniques. While it’s important to share your views, to keep your boss open to your perspectives and data, it’s also crucial to “rock the boat gently, so you don’t swamp it.”
Why These Three?
It turns out that each of 2016’s most popular posts offered practical advice for surviving and thriving in today’s complex workplaces:
- They discuss problems that everyone experiences at some point in their careers.
- They provide support in areas where individuals have direct control only over their own behavior rather than over their situations.
- In all cases, the right changes were better both for the organization and the individuals involved.
A Funny Side Note
After reviewing these pieces, I consulted Google Analytics to identify the specific topic that brought the most unprompted visitors to my website. Turns out it wasn’t anything I wrote about in 2016. Fascinatingly, it was a post I wrote in 2012 on how to deal with a workplace tattler! I was surprised to find that so many people felt wronged or harmed by someone else in the workplace and needed help dealing with tattling. If you’re in the same boat, you may also want to try Reframing a Tattler’s Tale.
Onward and upward,
LK