Leadership Development Blog

Resources for Managers

Want to Give Better Feedback? Make It Specific, Empathetic, and Actionable

“Hey, do you have time for a quick chat?” your manager asks.

Oh no. Knees weak, heart heavy, you saunter into your boss’s office, your entire corporate life flashing before your eyes. There was that project last week that could have gone better. You did book an Airbnb the other day during work hours.

What could this possible be about?

We have a visceral reaction even to the thought of maybe, possibly, sort of receiving feedback. And yet, paradoxically, we also place a high value in knowing where we stand and how we could improve. We want more feedback, not less.

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People Operations

Quartz on Building a Culture of Innovation & Using Slack to Do It

Imagine a news outlet that’s run like a Silicon Valley startup. Slack replaces the traditional editorial calendar. Teams convene and collaborate online from around the globe. Headlines come to your phone via chatbot, complete with sassy quips and gifs.

It’s called Quartz, and they’ve been innovating on how people cover and consume the news since their inception in 2012. Since then, they’ve grown rapidly but haven’t lost the scrappy startup attitude that buoyed them in their early days in a New York City loft.

They continue to push the envelope and expectations of an audience and industry steeped in — and, perhaps, shackled by — tradition.

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People Operations

Three Conversations to Have Today to Improve Employee Retention

Did you know: the average company loses 20-50% of its employee base each year, according to research from Bain & Company. And, based on data from Columbia University, it costs 150% of a lost employee’s yearly salary to replace them.

Retaining employees is a massive priority, but more often than not, our strategies to reduce turnover miss the mark.

Why are so many qualified employees leaving companies, and what steps can HR at fast-growing companies take to solve this problem?

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