WONDERING THOUGHTS

There has never been a more important year to celebrate your team. Here are some celebration ideas to get you started.

Summer is rapidly drawing to a close and Labor Day is approaching without our typical end-of-summer rituals. As a result, you and your team approach September feeling fatigued and unrefreshed. Here are some recommendations to keep your staff engaged and motivated and your Board committed and inspired.

Since mid-March, your board chair and your CEO/ED have provided invaluable leadership. While we wait for a vaccine, how can the board keep up this pace, and stay focused on the issues related to Covid; its regular oversight work; and long-term planning and projects like strategic planning, campaigns and exploring collaboration?

After months of leaks and rumors about misconduct, it is now being reported that The Ellen DeGeneres Show is under internal investigation by WarnerMedia. This follows a series of allegations of racism, workplace intimidation and other mistreatment made by employees. As a leader in your organization, watching this situation unfold should serve as a reminder of these five takeaways.

We miss the casual exchanges with our dry cleaners, the parents we see at school drop-off, and the Dunkin’ Donuts employee who remembers our coffee order….Not surprisingly, this isolation is not only impacting our health and well-being, but also our effectiveness and productivity at work.

We’re four months into our new work from home reality, with no clear end in sight. Our employees are exhausted, distracted, overwhelmed by uncertainty and anxiety about what the future holds. Management skills have been

A few months into my first job after graduate school, I realized that my worst professional fear was that I would never work anywhere else. No joke. I loved my job so much that I thought I’d never leave. We didn’t have a foosball table or free beer on Fridays, but the company culture was so amazing that my co-workers and I developed a deep commitment to the company.

During these unprecedented times of uncertainty, providing hope is your most valuable leadership asset. But in the midst of staff reductions and deep budget cuts, how do we support our employees and offer messages of hope about a brighter organizational future?

The curtain shielding the more personal side of our colleagues’ lives was ripped open these last few months. However, we also had a peek into the real lives of our colleagues, and if we do this right, we can leverage what we’ve learned into becoming better managers.

In our new remote work world, should we still plan a summer retreat or simply take a pass this summer? We believe there’s never been a more important time to bring your teams together to reflect on the past few months, to share concerns in a relaxed and supportive setting, to celebrate what you have accomplished, and to look ahead together.

A key measure of professional success is communication. Email is a primary mode that professionals today use to communicate. Make sure that you adopt proper email practices early on.