Did this happen to you or your organization? 
“This finding is more about employee dissatisfaction and discontent than projected turnover,” said Douglas Matthews, president of career-management agency Right Management, which conducted the poll. “Clearly, if the job market picks up a lot next year many employees are going to take advantage of it, and organizations stand to lose some of their top contributors,” Matthews said. “So this is a wake-up call to management.”
Even if dissatisfied employees do not leave an organization, they are a liability. Dissatisfied workers tend to complain more than carry out their share of the workload. They may be highly skilled at their trade or provide excellent customer service, but how they interact and work (or don’t) with other employees, can create an unhealthy, negative environment. An unhealthy, negative environment ripples through an organization and affects the performance of others, which ultimately cuts the bottom line.
Questions to Ponder
Does your organization value, appreciate and advance multiculturalism and diversity?
Are different personalities, work and communication styles appreciated and respected?
Even during these times of “doing more with less”, do you recommend solutions, take initiative or complete tasks before being asked?
When work is delegated, do you embrace or resist requests?
What is the tone around your workplace or home?
Four Areas to Measure
How much do you produce and respond to challenges?
How do you communicate with others and show a positive attitude?
How do you respond to change and conflict?
How do you respond to rules and how accurate is your work?
A well-balanced, high-performance team empowers and develops all four areas within each individual. If each area is not developed, employees will not excel; moreover, frustration, mistakes and turnover will occur. Everyone has the potential to grow in each area if they are willing to learn new skills and are held accountable for applying them. All of these areas require changing behaviors that can be evolved with effective goal setting, feedback and training.
Leadership is about directing, empowering and bringing change. Leaders create a vision and develop strategies. Management is about planning, controlling and reacting. Managers produce plans and complete tasks. Leaders produce changes in behavior. Leaders are not born; they are made. You can develop the skills and ability to lead others, yourself and the directions you want your work and life to take. You must want to be a leader to be a leader. If you want to be a leader, you must create your vision and define how you expect yourself and your team to perform.
While there are extenuating circumstances that can keep you from working your ideal job or living the life you always dreamed, you do have choices about how you react to any person or situation. Teams can be empowered. Jobs can be fulfilling. Lives can be happy. You will need to be both a leader and a manager of your team, your career and your life. It’s up to you. Take the lead!
Nancy Stampahar’s energetic, engaging personality and work initiatives are packed with real-life how to’s and solutions that help you succeed at both work and home. A skilled consultant and the award-winning author of Peace, Love, and Lemonade: A recipe to Make Your Life Sweeter, Nancy’s heartfelt words and enthusiasm will ignite your power within to succeed, and her famed “Silver Lining Solutions” will have you making lemonade out of lemons in no time at all!
The SCA Green Cities Corps is a ten month Sustainability Fellowship program in Pittsburgh, PA from Feb-Dec that includes intensive training in sustainability and hands-on projects in local sustainability issues and solutions.
The SCA Green Cities Sustainability Fellowship aims to build capacity in the Pittsburgh region to mitigate climate change and increase sustainability, while providing meaningful professional experience to its Fellows.
The SCA is looking for applicants with a passion for sustainability, strong project management experience, and skills specific to our placement needs.
Even though Facebook is not commonly used for the professional purposes, it’s important to be smart about it. During your internship search, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that a potential employer will check out your Facebook page, after you applied for an internship position at his/her company. For this reason, your Facebook page privacy settings should be checked. To ensure it won’t jeopardize your internship search, no bikini pictures, no wild parties, or embarrassing moments should be available for posterity. Remember, employers are not hiring just the “professional” version of you – they are hiring YOU as a package and it’s important to present yourself as a mature and responsible individual.