Author: Seniye Groff

How to Boost Employee Career Satisfaction

Posted on by Seniye Groff

An article is this month’s Talent Management caught my eye.  Probably because employee satisfaction is at the top of my mind right now since someone I recently sat down with to do some career coaching asked me, “I am 60% satisfied with my job.  Is that enough?”  First of all, being able to distill it to such an exact percentage was impressive to me.  But more importantly, was the fact that he was willing to settle…in other words being 40% dissatisfied is okay.  But is it really?  And how much can we change or put up with depending on what is truly important to us?  Granted, humans are adaptable creatures, but the ever elusive “happiness” can really make or break the experience, as well as, what we are willing to do to get it.

Taylor’s article states that “employees want to be informed about goals and expectations and how their roles fit within them.”  Obviously if employees feel like they know what they are “shooting for” and feel that the work they are required to get there uses their skills and abilities and is truly interesting to them, you bet they will help leadership get to the end goal!  Taylor suggests there are nine ways companies can boost career satisfaction:

  • “Place people in the right roles according to strengths, skills and interests.
  • Tap into talent in the cloud.
  • Use a pool of pre-screened, reliable talent.
  • Create an employee loan initiative.
  • Cross-skill people so they can use different skills on demand.
  • Create a dedicated pool of flexible, just-in-time talent.
  • Create a demand-driven talent marketplace.
  • Restructure work in terms of smaller, discrete, skill-based projects.
  • Define jobs more broadly.”

Read the full article to get more detail on the bullet points and then drop me a line and tell me what you think.  I am pretty sure you will agree, if companies tried some of these strategies, 40% dissatisfaction wouldn’t even be in the picture!

Purely Portland

Posted on by Seniye Groff

Today we did the Providence Bridge Pedal.  Although we have biked it before, this was the first time with both kids.  There was the 6, 8 or 10 bridge option.  I opted for sure-thing (given the kids) and went with the six bridge option.  It is amazing that a city  of Portland’s size can figure out how to move thousands of people over its 10 beautiful bridges!

We biked to the start of the race from our home, as well as, back at the end so we guessed we did about 15-16 miles.  With the kids, 16 miles is awesome!  And the kids even agreed that it was a beautiful way to begin a Sunday morning.  We did see one bicycle accident but in pure Portland style, people stopped and helped.  At another spot, caution tape came loose and started to tangle in people’s bikes and once again, people got off their bikes to help out.  I know we have serious bicyclists in this city, but it is nice to see people willing to interrupt their ride to help others.  In other words…purely Portland!

Who Should Choose What Employees Learn?

Posted on by Seniye Groff

The August 2012 Chief Learning Officer has an article near and dear to my heart.  I have mentioned before that learning is moving away from the centralized, corporate dictatorship to a more learner-driven model.  Randy Emelo’s article reinforces that “internal drivers, such as your own personal desire to learn, rather than external drivers, such as someone telling you what to learn” are taking precedence.  People are taking their experience and “applying new insights immediately to solve problems.”

And guess what?  As a learning leader your job is to help people exchange their knowledge!  Instead of learning folks holding all the knowledge, they are facilitators of making sure employees that know find others that know or need to know.  In other words, “people come together to solve problems.”  In the past (and even the present in many organizations) there is a focus on information management but instead, we need to focus on knowledge management.

The article’s closing thought could not be better said:  “It has been said that many companies hire the smartest people they find and then they treat them like idiots but if we simply give them the opportunity to guide their own learning and their careers, they will produce amazing results.”  Check out the complete article.

Cheese Making Part Deux

Posted on by Seniye Groff

Because I refuse to be beaten by a little citric acid and rennet, I attempted to make mozzarella cheese again today.  I am happy to report that I mastered it by not over heating the cheese this time.  I have a ball of ooey, gooey mozzarella goodness to eat tonight with fresh tomatoes and basil!  Cheers to persistence!

Making Mozzarella Part Two

Posted on by Seniye Groff

Not sure why my words did not show up on my last post, but here goes again…

I have always wanted to learn to make mozzarella cheese since it is one of my favorites…all you need is olive oil and basil and prefection has been reached.  I purchased a cheese kit from Urban Cheese Craft .  It is a straight forward and simple process and the kit contains everything you need except the gallon of milk.  The kit contains enough supplies to make 10 batches, which means I will be in cheese heaven for a while!

My cheese progressed exactly as the directions said until the end when I needed to stretch it.  I think I overheated it during the last heating session because it was really difficult to stretch.  Of course, the true test comes tomorrow when I taste it…I am keeping my fingers crossed!

Summer Spirit

Posted on by Seniye Groff

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Life as a working mom is busy.  So when my mother-in-law offered to take the girls for the week, I was part disbelief and part “how can I maximize my time without the kids?”  We dropped of the kids Sunday night and proceeded to go out for sushi.  On Monday, my husband and I both went to work but I was amazed at how quickly I got ready.  So quickly, in fact, that I was able to stop somewhere for coffee before arriving at work (early, at that!).

On Tuesday we both worked again but decided to take Wednesday and Thursday off.  Well, on Monday evening I had ten women over for wine and cheese.  On Tuesday, when my husband arrived home I asked, “Where are you taking me to dinner?”  We meandered through the Pearl and finally ate at a shocking 8 p.m.!  We casually strolled the city streets with no where in mind and no schedule to watch.  It was quite freeing!

On Wednesday, we woke up and went for a run, quickly showered and went to breakfast at Compote (http://compotepdx.com/).  The poached egg stack was delicious.  I noticed these articoke flowers (pictured above) as we left the restaurant.  They were simply amazing and the bees were happily diving into their centers looking for nectar.  We then went to the garden store to pick up a few plants for our new backyard.  We ate lunch and decided to ride bikes down the Esplanade.  We are off to a friend’s Happy Hour later this evening.  All in all, a fun and productive “vacation” day enjoying my husband’s company!

Moms’ Night

Posted on by Seniye Groff

I live on a very active and involved block in our neighborhood.  There are 29 kids on the block ranging from 18 months to 13 years old.  There is a lot of free-spirited, spontaneous play.  The moms get together regularly and so I decided to host last night’s affair.  It was a perfect evening to enjoy our new backyard.  I had a wine and cheese theme, so I asked everyone to bring a wine and cheese pairing that they liked.  All the cheeses were good but there was a lavender gouda that was exceptional; especially since those are not typical combined flavors.  I also made a lemon tart and another neighbor brought brownies and a quinoa salad.  There was lots of chatter and laughter.  It was the perfect way to spend a summer evening!

Managing Difficult People

Posted on by Seniye Groff

It is a fact of corporate life-you will probably have to manage or interact with a difficult person at some time or another.  I love Talent Management Magazine and always seem to find informative articles on a variety of topics.  In this month’s issue, Pelan’s article titled, “Managing Difficult People” has some sound advice.

There is no question that effective communication skills are mandatory when working on teams-especially given that most teams are diverse, global and even virtual, at times.  Pelan argues, “When employees understand their communication style, they can modify and adjust to improve their situational effectiveness.”  There is no doubt in my mind, though, that without the awareness of one’s style and how to adjust the style based on the situation and personality, it is pretty difficult to navigate the slippery slope of a difficult personality.  I highly recommend taking an assessment such as Myers-Briggs or DISC to help you determine your communication style.

Some tips for handling problem personalities:

  • “Recognize the situation and clarify in writing.
  • Define action steps.
  • Use assertive and objective language and use ‘I’ statements.
  • Be prepared to disagree assertively or to state an opinion.
  • Use appropriate body language.”

Check out the entire article to learn more.