Communication

Use judicious threats to propel talks

05/27/2021

When you’re working out a problem with employees, vendors, or customers, making threats can be risky. People resent them, and you may decrease the likelihood of cooperation and even risk inciting revenge. Yet, as negotiation experts Adam D. Galinsky and Katie A. Liljenquist point out, threats can be effective—if you follow these three principles.

Here, there, everywhere: Foster harmony and productivity with a hybrid workforce

04/22/2021

Flexible, hybrid arrangements allow for better safety precautions and relieve some of the chaos experienced by working parents with children e-learning at home. For managers, however, the set-up can prove a major headache. How can leaders improve the harmony of a hybrid workforce and perhaps save their own sanity?

Workplace unity: Keeping the peace amid strong opinions and emotions

02/12/2021

What can managers do to promote office peace and lessen the risk of threatening rhetoric occurring?

Using emojis in the workplace: A terrible idea?

01/28/2021

There’s a clear generational divide over whether it’s appropriate to use emojis in work communication.

It’s up to HR to foster workplace civility

12/03/2020

American society is as polarized as it has been in decades. We have just completed a bitterly divisive election. Public discourse and even private conversations are angry. That same coarseness can permeate the workplace unless employers intervene. But employers must be careful not to chill protected speech when they try to enforce civility.

Scuttlebutt may hold bits of truth

11/25/2020

Here’s a common situation: An employee informs you of a co-worker’s faults or misdeeds. Although most of the tale sounds like gossip, some details sound as though they could be true. Certainly you don’t want to support gossip, but you have to get at the truth. Try this approach.

Ensure remote work policy addresses tech

10/22/2020

About one in five employees works from home these days. Yet, too few employers have an effective telecommuting policy that addresses the technology issues that arise when employees use laptops and cell phones to work from home.

Managing pre- and post-election angst: 7 tips for HR

10/15/2020

Political discussions will happen among co-workers, just as they happen among families and friends. Thus, instead of trying to stop them, employers should be promoting ground rules that hold employees accountable for their behavior, focused around one key theme … civility.

How to manage grieving staff: Compassion, not silence

08/27/2020

It’s tempting for supervisors to take a hands-off approach to an employee’s grief. However, silently waiting for the employee’s emotional recovery and viewing grief as a “problem to be solved” isn’t the right strategy.

Get staff to own your plan

08/26/2020

You’ve probably found yourself in this predicament: You have what you think is a good plan to achieve a goal or solve a problem. How can you cross the ownership gap between “the boss’s idea” and “our plan”?