Avoiding generational stereotypes at work

We’ve all heard that Millennials aren’t loyal, they don’t like to work hard and they love innovation and change. We’ve heard they prefer technology to people and they can’t stand being told they aren’t perfect. Like with almost anything else, you can even probably find some surveys which state all of these things.

But what is actually true? Since Jennifer Deal wrote Retiring the Generation Gap: How Employees Young and Old Can Find Common Ground, the idea that the different ...

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Mindfulness as a way to mitigate implicit bias at work

Having implicit bias means we are not consciously aware of having limiting judgements and pre-conceived opinions about a certain segment of society — whether racial, gender, age or some other defining set of characteristics. Another way to understand implicit (or unconscious) bias is to think of your subconscious automatically, or involuntarily, processing a set of impressions about another person in a way that forms a negative judgement of said person, resulting in unintentional or even unconscious negative attitude.

This “automatic processing” ...

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Structuring critical feedback for positive results: Seven tips for managers

You’ve acknowledged to yourself that you recoil from giving critical feedback to employees. Whether this stems from a desire to avoid workplace conflict, a lack of confidence in your communication style or concerns over doubting your opinion post-feedback, you would like to improve for your own sake, and for the sake of your employees. After all, they are relying on you as their manager to guide their work performance in order to succeed at their career goals. How to proceed?

Try ...

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Avoiding giving critical feedback? Overcome the fear of conflict when managing people

When I have asked managers why they hesitate to give constructive feedback to their employees, I hear things like:

  • I’m worried she’ll get upset
  • I’m afraid to hurt our relationship
  • I don’t think he can take it and will argue
  • I don’t want to start a conflict

What do all of these excuses have in common? Fear.

We fear the other’s reaction. Notice how in each of these explanations, the burden is put on the other person. “She’ll get upset” or “she won’t be able to ...

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Could implicit bias be influencing your management style?

Previously,  I discussed why we might be reluctant to give others feedback and gave some ideas for approaching feedback in a positive way for positive results. This week, I’d like to talk about the downside of not giving feedback and why it’s such an imperative if you want to maintain effective working relationships.

What is implicit bias?

There is a lot of talk about implicit bias these days. We are grappling  to understand what it is and how it impacts our lives. ...

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Equal Employment Opportunity laws — a quick primer for your business*

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws define and prohibit “discrimination” at work. Discrimination is a term of art and it has required components in order to prove it exists. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the federal agency charged with seeing these laws are complied with. Employees can also hire private attorneys to advise them. EEO laws protect particular classes of people from discrimination. Sometimes people say EEO laws give these classes of people “superior” rights — not true. What ...

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Giving and receiving effective feedback

Giving and receiving effective feedback may mean giving up “Northwest Nice” to be present and authentic

I’m one of those people who can be a little smug about how awesome it is to live in the Northwest. We have gorgeous mountains, rivers, lakes, coastline, forests and great food. We place a premium on good relationships, which gives us strong communities. But just like everything has an upside, everything has a downside, too. Our preference for positive relationships can sometimes lead us ...

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