How often have you heard that organizational culture is critical? Probably too often to count! Some mainstream assertions include “culture is king” and “culture eats strategy”. However, in a tight labour market, culture may be one of your strongest tools in attracting and retaining top talent.
According to a Learning and Development Roundtable study from Gartner, 60% of new managers underperform during their first two years, driving performance gaps and employee turnover across the entire frontline. This is dismal news for organizations. The good news, however, is that when your frontline managers are equipped with the leadership tools, training, and development needed to succeed this risk can be avoided.
Transformation or cultural change calls on the energy, focus and commitment of everyone in the organization. It’s less a matter of managing change than it is a matter of leading.
There comes a time in every leader's career when they must let an employee go. It could be the result of restructuring or that the individual is no longer the right fit for the business needs. Whatever the reason, planning for a termination meeting can cause anxiety and loss of sleep for even the most experienced leaders. What should you say, or not say? How will the employee receiving the news react? How will you handle the transition of the employee’s responsibilities? What security precautions do you need to take?
Hiring a university president is the most important decision a board of governors will make. It is a challenging journey marked with interviews, months of discussion, selection committee meetings and tough deliberations. Once the ideal candidate has been identified, it may seem like the difficult part is over. But, in fact, the most important work of the board lies ahead.
Enhancing Atlantic Canada’s economy through the strengthening of our workforce
Anna Stuart interviewed Karen Oldfield, President and CEO of the Halifax Port Authority, in fall 2019 to gain insights as to how Atlantic Canada can become more globally competitive and strengthen our economic outlook.
Beverley Evans interviews Kendra MacDonald, who became CEO of Canada’s Ocean Supercluster (OSC) in fall 2018, to gain insights on how high-impact Atlantic Canadian organizations are optimizing the potential of people to contribute to the region’s growth and prosperity, and to discuss how strengthening our workforce can enhance our economic outlook.
As the CEO of the organization that manages Halifax Stanfield International Airport, Carter is drawing on nearly 20 years of experience with HIAA to generate economic growth by connecting the region to the world. She speaks about how geopolitical shifts are opening new export opportunities for our organizations, how technology will eventually make security checks seamless and nearly invisible for travellers, and how more diversity in our workforce will help address demographic shifts in our region.
Drawing on two decades of industry experience, Johnston is leading a rapidly growing team in the development and deployment of innovative mobile, web, gaming, and video solutions for an impressive array of clients that include Turner, NBCUniversal, Viacom, and IBM. It is an impressive success story, one that Johnston says has been possible thanks to the advantages of being located in Atlantic Canada. He shares his thoughts on our region’s strengths, how we can build on them, and how we can compete on a global stage so that our tech companies attract top talent and achieve the kind of success that we typically associate with companies based in Silicon Valley.
To authentically invite diverse candidates to academic leadership roles requires a change in the status quo. It is time to reimagine how we attract and retain diverse leaders.
