How does it feel to be excluded?

Have you ever felt excluded? I’m not just talking about race, gender, age, religion and sexual orientation. Let’s think through some scenarios. Have you ever been in a P.E. (Physical Education) lesson where there is a team sport (e.g. basketball)?…

Why invite people to the party and not invite them to dance?

In the last two Leadership Memos, we explored what diversity is, what inclusion is, and how diversity relates to inclusion. We learnt that they are not the same thing. We also mentioned that diversity and inclusion are part of what…

Inviting and asking people to dance: Diversity and inclusion at work

Leadership Memo 2021-5 What comes to your mind when you hear the term “diversity and inclusion”? Do you think that it’s a bunch of mumbo jumbo? Are you annoyed that you have more boxes to tick? Do you think that…

Asking people to dance: Creating better spaces to be more inclusive at work

Leadership Memo 2021-4 We hear the term “diversity and inclusion” quite a bit recently, but do we really know what that means? Do we know how that applies to our work, regardless of whether it is remote? “Psychological safety” is…

Do you dare to overhaul performance management?

“Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts.” - Albert Einstein In the past couple months, I’ve been writing and talking about performance management and reward & recognition. We even explore whether we…

Do we need HR professionals in an agile world?

You may have noticed that in the past couple months, I have been writing about how to bring performance management and reward & recognition more aligned with agile values and principles. You may also notice that in many of my…

Hiring Reimagined

Leadership Memo 2020-2 Being a manager is hard. You are no longer working in the domain you are an expert in. There are additional responsibilities that you need to do. Most likely, you don’t like those responsibilities. Being a good…

How to level up your reward and recognition system

In “How to make reward and recognition fun and relevant”, I outlined what fun incentives look like in one of the companies I helped. We tailored the awards and incentives to the team. When the team likes the awards and…

Culture and its effect on reward & recognition

In an earlier post, we explored why we need an adaptable reward and recognition system. I also pointed out that it's not only about the generations. Today, we'll consider one of the cultural contexts. In Asian culture, parents expect their…