This better be good Kate………….

This better be good Kate was once upon a time feedback from an underwhelming manager. No pressure.  Clearly my intention was never to do a good job, and certainly my enthusiasm and ideas should be curbed, dare it be different or contagious.  Culminating in a piece of well-intentioned but marvellously unhelpful work weary advice from a more established team player; don’t be yourself Kate!

Sound familiar?  Leave yourself at the door and get on with more, just do more, don’t really stop to think and those deep connections with colleagues can actually harm rather than help. And emails, plenty of them telling you what to do, what not to do, what you should do, what you shouldn’t do and please can you do. It seemingly never stops and the list goes on.

And what about initiative fatigue, lots of people across different functions in silos developing, redeveloping, reengineering and updating processes and programs, when simplification and less, would go a long way to improving the experience at work. Heck HR is the worst offender in many instances yet can add value in so many other ways; enabling implementation of strategy in engaging ways, a champion for ideas and a cultural daredevil daring organisations to permit their people to think and be themselves.

The good news is that the world of work did get better but the everyday experience of corporate life in my 20 years of working has left me with a quest to help others create better experiences for their people at work.

Ever heard the phrase see everything, ignore some of it and focus on one? It can happen and it can contribute to achieving things you wouldn’t think possible. What made one of my bosses really great was his humility but it was also his stunning ability to be focused on what’s important, an obsession with measurement to improve for his customers, moving at pace and creating excitement with his people. A real person in a real world, always out and about, helping us all to make real differences in our work and outperforming targets along the way.

The good news is that a better way does exist and every business can make experiences at work better than today.