A few days ago, one of my daughters shared an interesting story about a recent event that happened at her school. My daughter and a few of her friends had noticed that Peter*, the school’s custodian, wasn’t out in the hallway greeting the kids like he usually did every morning. They went to their teacher to ask her if she had seen Peter and she told them that he no longer worked at their school. As it turned out, Peter had quit his job following a meeting he had with the school’s administration regarding his work schedule.

Essentially, over the last few months, the school’s administration had been assigning Peter more and more tasks which he was expected to complete before the children arrived at school. Looking at the most recent additions to this work list, Peter realized that this workload was becoming increasing unfeasible and so he went to see the school’s administrator to discuss the situation. Peter pointed out that even though he arrived at school every morning at 6AM, he still wouldn’t have enough time to complete all the tasks that were being assigned to him.

The administrator responded to this by telling Peter that he’d just have to come to the school an hour earlier so that the work would be completed before the children arrived. Giving this perfunctory and rather dismissive response, Peter realized that the school’s administration wasn’t interested in working with him to find a more reasonable solution and so, he quit his position as the school’s custodian.

While the administrator’s handling of this situation deserves some scrutiny, what’s particularly interesting about this story is how Peter’s departure was felt by the children who attend this school. Considering that he was essentially the school’s janitor and not a beloved teacher, one wouldn’t necessarily expect his leaving the school would have mattered.

But this is where the administrator’s treatment of Peter and the reaction of the children to his leaving overlap to provide us with a valuable lesson on how leaders should view the various members of their organization and the unique contributions they make. Click here to continue reading »”A Lesson From School on Understanding Your Employee’s Value”

With the holiday celebrations now at an end, many of us are returning to our usual daily grind – refreshed, rejuvenated and ready to dive into the tasks at hand.  On the heels of celebrating the start of both a new year and decade, most of us have also been making plans or resolutions for what we’d like to accomplish over the next 365 days, and possibly beyond.

It’s only natural that we’d be motivated right now to create these lists of goals, as the start of a new year often inspires that feeling of a new start; of turning to a fresh page that’s filled with the promise of new opportunities and possibilities for our future.  Indeed, this sentiment is quite beneficial as it encourages us to take time for some personal self-reflection, of creating these aspirations of what we’d like to change in ourselves or what areas we’d like to further grow in.  The only point we need to remember though, is to include in this exercise the process of reviewing the events of the previous year, of taking note of what we endured, learned and gained from those past experiences so that we have a solid foundation on which to build upon as we move forward.

Of course, in developing these lists of goals, we should also consider Click here to continue reading »”How to Make Your Resolutions Have A Bigger Impact”