Today, I’m celebrating the 5th anniversary of going out on my own to make a different impact on the world of work.  It’s been quite the journey of ups and downs, learning about myself, knowing what work I most enjoy doing, and continuing to evolve how I serve the communities around me.

For those of you new to following me, here’s a quick backstory of how I got here:

Though we haven’t officially started summer yet, many of us are already in that mode. Memorial Day has passed, college students are home for the summer, and school is out for the younger crew. And we’re almost halfway through the year.

It sounds like a good time to assess the health of your behaviors as a leader and your organization.

Do you believe in yourself? 

Do you believe that you can make your dreams come true? 

I spent Thursday at Luminary's 3rd Annual Women's History Month Summit listening to amazing women CEOs and senior leaders share their journeys, which required them to wholeheartedly believe in what they were trying to make real. 

‪Are you rethinking any of your strategies as you plan for 2024? As the CEO or leader of a small to mid-size organizations here are ten simple tips to improve the likelihood of success.

These issues aren't about problem employees; they are leadership issues. The vast majority of people I have encountered want to do good work and be respected for the value they add. They want to be part of an employee environment that is positive.

The challenge for leaders has never been more daunting yet exciting. The pace of change is accelerating; significant uncertainty reigns socially, politically, economically, and organizationally; employee expectations have evolved, and new ways of working have emerged for many employees.

I’m not suggesting you need to spend thousands or millions of dollars on training, but it’s time to reframe and invest in those roles because they are critical to the engagement and retention of your teams. And, if you can maintain or increase engagement and improve retention rates, it will impact your bottom line and customer satisfaction.

There is a need for businesses to balance what they need for success with an awareness of how employees want to work. Employers can be stubborn and push for a single answer of…I want people in the office because that’s the way it’s supposed to be. However, that unwillingness to explore how to balance key stakeholder needs and interests guarantees that they will not get the highest level of productivity and engagement.

If you’re building a business or growing an organization, you need to know the answers to these 5 questions related to your people strategy.

The challenge for leaders has never been more daunting yet exciting. The pace of change is accelerating; significant uncertainty reigns socially, politically, economically, and organizationally; employee expectations have evolved, and new ways of working have emerged for many employees. These circumstances make leading teams and organizations harder than ever before.

When I started my career, it was very common to see prescriptive career paths and not think about whether there were other options. You might start as a bank teller, move to CSR, to assistant branch manager and then to branch manager or start as a consulting analyst and move to consultant to manager to associate partner to partner for instance. Those paths still exist today, but I think the opportunities to leverage skills from one role into something different is much more common than when I was starting out.