From all the news reports, it sounds like many companies are experiencing a mass exodus of workers. People are even referring to this as The Great Resignation of 2021. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a record-high 4.3 million U.S. employees quit their jobs in August. Why? Maybe the pandemic was a real wake-up call. (“Life [...]
Today is National Online Learning Day—a celebration of virtual education for school-aged children. When this was established in 2016, no one could have imagined the dramatic surge in online learning for both kids and adults. Fast forward to 2021 and the pressures of an ongoing pandemic. Leaders have discovered that a good majority of professional development opportunities are [...]
June 24 is National Work-From-Home Day—a celebration of the cultural and technological advancements that allow us to be productive working from anywhere outside the office. After 2020, I’m guessing there will be millions more people metaphorically toasting to that capability! While remote workers weren’t uncommon before, the pandemic accelerated the proliferation of tools and services [...]
If you want to play a bigger role in the evolution of your company’s growth and success, there’s a mandatory step in the process: shake up your own thinking! Steve Miller, former CEO of Shell Oil Co., was well known for shaking things up. As Shell was rebranding in Europe, he invited a group of employees [...]
How to influence and impact others virtually. In the past year, I’ve shared plenty of content about how to lead remote teams. It was an important topic before 2020, but the pandemic made it mandatory. What I haven’t talked much about is how remote team members can stand out from their counterparts and become more [...]
I’ve always believed that challenging experiences help us to grow. From that perspective, 2020 offered us a learning opportunity like no other. I don’t know about you, but I really hope 2021 involves a little less learning. So now what? While it’s tempting to block out the whole year and focus on the future, I [...]
Please join me in welcoming two guest bloggers, Kevin Eikenberry and Wayne Turmel. Kevin is a leading authority on leadership and has twice been named by Inc.com as one of the top 100 Leadership/Management Experts in the World. Wayne is the co-founder of the Remote Leadership Institute and author of several books that demystify communicating [...]
It happens all the time. I introduce myself in a social setting and share my name. Seems pretty straightforward, right? Unfortunately, no. Here’s how the exchange usually goes: "Hi, I’m Sara Canaday.” “Sara Kennedy?” “It’s Canaday with a C.” “Are you from Canada?” (usually accompanied by a chuckle and a wink) “Well, no. But it’s [...]
We can make every effort to be objective, rational, and open-minded when making decisions or contemplating new ideas, but there are several roadblocks that may get in the way. The first one is cognitive bias. We simply can’t escape its effects. I’ll give you an example. You’re presented with a new business opportunity. Naturally, you’ll [...]
Every day we generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. This information has led to some tremendous breakthroughs with the potential to improve thousands of lives. As leaders, we also have mountains of data available to us—honestly, more than we can assimilate or make sense of. Yet huge decisions are made every day based solely on [...]