Latest news with #employeeEngagement
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Overcome Three Barriers to Successful Strategy
New research by Triumpha and Professor Maja Korica urges leaders to adapt as traditional culture strategies fall short LIVERPOOL, England, July 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A striking 71% of CEOs report that executing strategy is more difficult than ever before, according to new research led by Andrea Adams, Managing Director of Triumpha, in partnership with Professor Maja Korica of IESEG School of Management. The findings, published by Warwick Business School, shed light on the heavy burden facing senior leaders as workplace norms shift. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 27 CEOs in the UK and globally, the study identifies three core barriers undermining effective strategy execution: Shifting working models: The widespread adoption of hybrid and remote work has eroded traditional engagement and collaboration, with two thirds of CEOs struggling to maintain team cohesion and quickly spot emerging issues. Changing employee expectations: Leaders are finding it increasingly difficult to foster engagement and a shared sense of purpose, regardless of work location. Gallup data shows 62% of global employees are now disengaged. Talent attraction and retention: With engagement and ownership waning, 41% of CEOs are concerned about their ability to recruit and retain top talent in an ultra-competitive market. The research highlights that traditional, culture-focused approaches are no longer enough. Leaders themselves are feeling the strain, with 41% citing increased workloads and a sense of overwhelm. To overcome these challenges, Andrea Adams and Professor Maja Korica recommend three practical steps: Lay solid foundations: Build a clear people vision and invest in the relationships that sustain it to create stable, productive, and satisfying workplaces. Prioritise ruthlessly: Senior teams must align on what not to do, focusing resources on the most critical objectives to drive execution and inspire engagement. Build capability: Strengthen organisational structures and processes to support consistent, sustainable, and humane productivity. Andrea Adams comments: "Culture alone won't deliver results in today's environment. Organisations also need aligned leadership, clear priorities, and robust frameworks to generate the momentum required for real engagement and change." To read the full article, visit Warwick Business School's website. For deeper insights and to access the full CEO research findings, visit the dedicated webpage at About TriumphaTriumpha is a CEO and leadership advisory business founded and led by Andrea Adams. The firm partners with CEOs and C-suite leaders to accelerate strategy, make change stick, and develop high value-creating leadership teams and leaders, enabling sustainable, people-driven success. About Professor Maja Korica Maja Korica is Professor of Strategic Management at IESEG School of Management in Paris and a former Reader at Warwick Business School. She specialises in studying the work of senior managers and boards of directors, and the consequences of their actions on workplaces, neighbourhoods and societies. For more information contact:Andrea Adams, Managing Director Photo - - View original content to download multimedia: Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Fast Company
08-07-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
5 reasons why innovation fails—and what to do about it
Senior leaders at every company know that being able to innovate successfully is critical to their future. But too few of those leaders truly understand how to foster innovation across all segments of their organizations. Innovation is not just the purview of a few supersmart individuals walled off in an ivory tower isolated from the rest of the company. Every employee from the stockroom clerk to the senior design engineer can contribute to innovation if they believe it's valuable to do so. And not every innovative idea needs to be as disruptive as the iPhone or generative AI. Even incremental innovations can add meaningful value. Companies shouldn't limit their view of innovation only to projects targeting the next big breakthrough. Open it up to a broader swath of ideas from large to small. Here are five reasons why innovation initiatives fail (and what to do about it). 1. Lack of Commitment from Senior Leadership It takes more to inspire innovation than senior leaders who give speeches to employees or highlight it in annual reports. Employees need time, resources, and support to explore ideas outside their day-to-day responsibilities. During my tenure as general manager for a tech company's communication hardware, I targeted 5% of the overall organization's time for blue-sky innovation—the phase where ideas were being initially explored. I didn't expect this to be time employees could use in secret, but rather a plan agreed upon between employees and their manager to pursue an idea. I also knew that not every idea would be successful. Rather than penalizing employees when an idea didn't work out, I used it as a learning experience to improve our ability to innovate in the future. I knew that nothing would discourage innovation more rapidly than for employees to believe their careers would be damaged if their innovative idea was not successful. 2. Employees Don't Understand Your Objectives Innovation thrives when employees understand their company's business—its mission, priorities, and core values—and believe they can make a difference. Without this context, any useful innovative ideas they come up with will be due to little more than blind luck. Some senior leaders hesitate to share this vision. They worry that if an employee leaves to join a competitor, they'll share what they have learned with their new employer. But you don't need to share trade secrets. Think of what might be shared in a public company's annual report: information that helps employees connect their work to the broader mission. This is especially important for those who are not involved in strategic planning. Manufacturing staff or clerical personnel can have valuable innovative ideas, but they will often only share them with their managers if they think they will be supported. For example, an assembly line worker might have ideas for how to improve the manufacturing process in ways the engineers supporting that same line don't have. A manager whose response is 'you just worry about building the product and let us worry about innovation' is killing innovation, just as surely as the senior executive who never supports it in the first place. 3. Innovation is Not Built into the Company's Plan Although this can be a problem at any company, it is especially prevalent in large, multinational corporations—the result of something I call the curse of the corporate business model. Investors expect the company to deliver continual, predictable growth and profits. Investing in new, untried ideas that take many months or years to produce results does not align with the need to deliver predictable results. Many managers in the corporate world are reluctant to take on this risk, especially since corporate culture often penalizes failure more than it rewards innovation. This doesn't mean large companies can't be innovative; it just means innovation has to be built into the plan. Even if specific innovation projects are not yet defined at the time of the company's annual budgeting process, a commitment to innovation must still be built into the plan. How much? It depends on the industry. For a company in a well-established mainstream market, adding 10% to the business's R&D budget for innovation projects should not draw undue attention from investors. For companies in newly emerging or high-growth markets, investors may even expect the number to be much higher. 4. Innovators Don't Understand Actual Market Needs Some people say that innovation should be done in isolation, away from the influence of customers. They point to Henry Ford's alleged quote, 'If I had asked customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.' But that misses the point. Innovation will only be successful if it fills a true customer need. Customers can tell you their problem, but don't expect them to tell you the solution. A 'faster horse' does not describe the customer's problem; it's only one idea for a solution. Instead of taking suggestions at face value, the innovator's job is to get past that to understand the true problem. If Ford had probed more deeply, he may have heard that the speed of the horse was fine when it was moving, but it had to stop to rest every few miles. And a horse needed food and water every day, even when the customer wasn't going anywhere. With this insight he would have understood the customer's true problem and been in a better position to be truly innovative. Ford's lack of attention to customer needs wasn't a problem when he introduced the Model T because there were few alternatives, but continuing to ignore the customer is what caused Ford to lose market leadership to General Motors in the 1920s (and never recover). 5. Innovation Projects are Managed Incorrectly Innovation projects can't be managed the same way as a revenue-producing business unit. Truly disruptive innovations may take many months or years to deliver financial returns. A better approach is to structure the innovation project as an 'in-house startup.' The project is measured not by monthly financial results, but by its ability to deliver to the metrics the team has committed to on the schedule they have promised. In the early stages, the focus should be on answering fundamental technical and market questions, so the metrics may only cover the next month or next quarter. As confidence grows and the probability of success improves, a longer-term plan can be established.
Forbes
05-07-2025
- General
- Forbes
Why People Feel Depressed At Work And What To Do About It
Why People Feel Depressed At Work And What To Do About It I keep hearing the same thing from people in completely different roles and industries. They say they go to work, answer emails, go to meetings, and do what's expected. But underneath all of that, they feel something is off. They say things like, "I feel like I am existing, but I'm not really living." Or, "I used to care more, but now I just want the day to end." They're not necessarily depressed. But they're not fully engaged either. It's like something vital is missing, and they're too tired to go looking for it. You might think this is about quiet quitting or burnout. For some people, it probably is. But there's something else going on. I hear it from people in situations where you'd expect them to be excited, like when they have a new job or a flexible schedule. There's something deeper, and it feels like it's about how people see their place in the world and at work. Many describe it as feeling depressed at work, even when nothing specific has gone wrong. Why Do I Feel Depressed At Work And Blah Even When I Should Feel Fine? Why Do I Feel Depressed At Work And Blah Even When I Should Feel Fine? There's a heaviness that a lot of people seem to be carrying into their workday. You might not even see it because they still hit deadlines and smile on Zoom. But if you ask them if they feel like they're doing meaningful work, they pause. Or they laugh in that way that people do when they don't know how to answer. I think a lot of people are just tired of pretending that things are fine. They're overwhelmed, overstimulated, and at the same time, incredibly bored. Everything seems urgent, but nothing really feels all that important. That kind of emotional contradiction drains people in ways that are hard to measure. Is This A New Kind Of Burnout, Or Something Else Entirely, Making People Depressed At Work? Is This A New Kind Of Burnout, Or Something Else Entirely, Making People Depressed At Work? Burnout used to be about overwork. Now, it's often about emotional disconnection. You can be working fewer hours and still feel burned out if you've lost your sense of purpose. During the pandemic, a lot of people had time to reflect on what mattered. For some, that created positive change. But for others, it created awareness without a path forward. They saw what was missing but didn't know how to fix it. I've had jobs where everything looked great on paper, with perks, promotions, and travel. But I dreaded Mondays. My skills were not well-aligned to my job responsibilities, and I wasn't challenged in a way that felt meaningful. I didn't feel like I could say that out loud without sounding ungrateful. What's Fueling People Feeling Depressed At Work Beneath The Surface? What's Fueling People Feeling Depressed At Work Beneath The Surface? People tell me several things have caused them to feel depressed at work, including the following. Where Do You Go When You're Depressed At Work And Just Drifting Through Your Days? Where Do You Go When You're Depressed At Work And Just Drifting Through Your Days? Where do you start when you feel like you're drifting? That feeling is a signal that something needs attention. It usually means there's a gap between what matters to you and what you're doing. That doesn't mean you need to make drastic changes overnight. But it might be time to ask questions you haven't asked in a while. When was the last time you felt excited about something at work? What small thing could you change this week that would make you feel more alive? It always comes back to curiosity. When people lose it, they start going through the motions. When they find it again, they start asking better questions, having better conversations, and noticing opportunities they didn't see before. Then their energy starts to come back. Technology can be part of the solution. Try asking ChatGPT or another tool to give you new ideas. Ask for projects, hobbies, or fun things to explore. You might be surprised at what you find. How Can Leaders Help People Who Feel Depressed At Work Without Making It Worse? How Can Leaders Help People Who Feel Depressed At Work Without Making It Worse? At work, leaders can start by listening to people, not with a survey, but with real conversations. Don't ask employees how satisfied they are. Ask what they wish they could spend more time doing. Ask what would make them feel like their work matters again. And then listen without interrupting or trying to fix it right away. The best leaders I've interviewed all had one thing in common. They didn't rush to solve everything. They made space for exploration. They knew that when people feel safe to be honest, they become more invested, more creative, and more motivated. If someone on your team is just getting by, don't assume they're disengaged. Ask what they're missing. Ask what they're curious about. That shift in how you lead could change everything. What Does It Take To Get Over Feeling Depressed At Work? What Does It Take To Get Over Feeling Depressed At Work? People want something real, something that connects to their values and gives their work meaning. You don't have to overhaul your entire life to find that again. But you do have to pay attention to what you've been ignoring. If something feels off, it probably is. That awareness might be the very thing that brings you back to life. If you've been feeling depressed at work, you're not alone. You're also not stuck.
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
N‑able Recognized for Extraordinary Career Development, Outstanding Leadership, and Inspiring Workplace Culture
Company earns two Comparably awards and is named a 2025 Inspiring Workplace in North America BURLINGTON, Mass., July 01, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--N-able, Inc. (NYSE: NABL), a global software company delivering a unified cyber resiliency platform, has been recognized with three new accolades that highlight its commitment to building an environment where employees thrive: Best Companies for Career Growth (4-time winner) and Best Leadership Teams by Comparably 2025 Inspiring Workplace in North America by Inspiring Workplaces Group "We strive to ensure N-able is a place where people can grow their careers alongside a strong Leadership Team who champions them every step of the way," said Kathleen Pai, Chief People Officer at N‑able. "As a leading cybersecurity company, creating an environment where everyone can flourish and be fully engaged in our mission is truly a testament to the strength of our extraordinary culture." Comparably's annual list of Best Companies for Career Growth recognizes the top-rated companies for professional development opportunities, according to anonymous employee ratings over the past year. Additionally, the Best Leadership Teams list honors the highest-rated executive management teams, as determined by employee sentiment ratings gathered anonymously during the same period. Adding to the Comparably achievement, N‑able was also named an official 2025 Inspiring Workplace in North America, a recognition that celebrates organizations that excel in culture, leadership, well-being, inclusion, and employee experience. Inspiring Workplaces shines a light on those driving real, positive change – offering hope, inspiration, and a blueprint for others who aspire to build workplaces where people can truly be themselves and perform at their best. These honors continue a strong reputation of workplace recognition for N‑able, following three Q1 Comparably awards for Best Company Outlook, Best Company for Women, and Best Company for Diversity. To explore career opportunities at N‑able and learn more about its people-first culture, visit the N‑able Careers page. About N-able At N‑able, our mission is to protect businesses against evolving cyberthreats with a unified cyber resiliency platform to manage, secure, and recover. Our scalable technology infrastructure includes AI-powered capabilities, market-leading third-party integrations, and the flexibility to employ technologies of choice—to transform workflows and deliver critical security outcomes. Our partner-first approach combines our products with experts, training, and peer-led events that empower our customers to be secure, resilient, and successful. About Comparably Comparably (now a ZoomInfo company) is a leading workplace culture and corporate brand reputation platform with over 20 million anonymous employee ratings on 70,000 companies. With the most comprehensive data on large and SMB organizations in nearly 20 different workplace categories – based on gender, ethnicity, age, experience, industry, location, education – it is one of the most used SaaS platforms for employer branding and a trusted third party site for workplace culture and compensation. For more information on Comparably and its annual Best Places to Work Awards, visit About The Inspiring Workplaces Group – Change The World Inspiring Workplaces is headquartered in the UK and operates in North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Asia and Australasia. Inspiring Workplaces™ believes in recognizing and helping to shape the forward-thinking organizations of the future that put their people first. By shedding light on these innovative workplaces, Inspiring Workplaces helps to encourage positive change by providing a source of inspiration and education for others who seek it. © 2025 N-able Solutions ULC and N-able Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. The N-able trademarks, service marks, and logos are the exclusive property of N-able Solutions ULC and N-able Technologies Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Category: Award View source version on Contacts Mary Katherine Revels Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
27-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How McDonald's is inspiring workers
In today's competitive job market, finding, engaging, and retaining top talent is one of the main challenges keeping CEOs and business leaders awake at night. Ten years ago, recognizing that employees now look for jobs offering flexibility and personal growth along with competitive compensation, McDonald's and its independent franchisees (which own around 95% of McDonald's restaurants in the United States) introduced the Archways to Opportunity program. Restaurant employees can earn a high school diploma, work toward a college degree, enroll in degree, training, and certificate programs at accredited schools, or improve their English skills — all while earning a paycheck. And they get academic and career guidance whenever they need it. The program has been an unqualified success — both for McDonald's franchisees, which have used it to cultivate a skilled, loyal workforce, and for their employees, who appreciate the ability to earn and learn simultaneously. Among the longtime McDonald's franchise employees profiled below, a common word used to explain their passion and loyalty to their local franchisee is 'family.' In the case of Scarlett Morris, all four of her family members work for McDonald's restaurants. For Michael Shackleford, McDonald's restaurants were a port in the storm during some of his darkest days. And for Jennifer Carter — who grew up in foster care — her McDonald's coworkers became her surrogate family. In the second installment of a three-part series, here are the stories of how Archways to Opportunity helped these individuals unleash their full potential and inspired them to encourage their McDonald's teammates to do the same. Turning Golden Arches into golden opportunities For Scarlett Morris and her family, earning and learning with McDonald's has become a way of life. Scarlett hopes she and her husband Chris, shown here with their Colorado Technical University diplomas, will be role models for their kids. Living on her own since 17, Scarlett Morris started with her local McDonald's in 2003 as a crew member to support herself and her daughter, Emma. 'McDonald's is a good first job, because we tune into your strengths,' Scarlett said. In her case, those include strong people skills and an interest in empowering her fellow employees. She rapidly progressed into management roles, eventually becoming the people and development lead for 10 restaurants. Along the way, Scarlett met an ambitious coworker, Chris, and they've now been married for over 20 years. Together, they had busy full-time jobs — Chris is director of operations for 10 franchises — while raising Emma, now 20, and their son, Jackson, 15, in College Station, Texas. Their goal is to own their own McDonald's franchise one day. But because of their work and family demands, they had neither the time nor money to return to school and pursue their passions. For Scarlett, that was human resources. For Chris, it was technology. When Emma was a high school junior in 2022, Scarlett decided to take advantage of McDonald's Archways to Opportunity program and pursue a bachelor's degree in business administration, with a focus in HR management — her courses were online and fully paid for by Archways — from Colorado Technical University. For the Morris family (from left: Emma, Scarlett, Chris, and Jackson), working at their local McDonald's is more than just a job; it has become a way of life. Two years later, her dream became a reality — times three. In a trio of Archways-inspired milestones, Scarlett and Chris both graduated from CTU in May 2024 (Chris also got a bachelor's in business administration, with a focus on information technology), just as Emma was completing her freshman year at nearby Texas A&M University. Thanks to tuition assistance, Emma — who is now the restaurant people department leader at her local McDonald's — can afford to work 30 hours a week instead of 40, so her grades don't suffer. 'Her work experience, paired with that degree — she's going to be leaps and bounds ahead of many of her classmates,' Scarlett said. Scarlett immediately put the knowledge and skills developed while pursuing her degree to use. 'I was able to take what they were teaching me and turn it into a real-life scenario at work,' Scarlett said. 'We want to make this franchise the best it can be for as long as possible.' Looking to the future, Scarlett and Chris dream of having their own franchise, or 'our own little 'McFamily,'' as they call it. 'We want to use Archways to help our people, encourage them, and propel them on their journey,' Scarlett said. 'The Archways program is a blessing, and I'm grateful for it.' Finding hope at the end of the road 'Archways to Opportunity brought out the good in me I couldn't find for myself,' Michael Shackleford said. Michael Shackleford (pictured with his wife Nicole) receiving his associate degree in Colorado. 'I was able to walk the stage for the first time in my life.' At Michael Shackleford's lowest point in life, he was homeless, foraging through trash cans for food, and eating snow. 'I was at a bus stop and noticed the clean snow beneath dirty footprints,' said Shackleford, who was expelled from school in seventh grade and later struggled with addiction. 'It hit me at a moment in my dirty life that below the muck I will find a clean slate.' Today, Shackleford is the safety and security manager in charge of loss prevention and risk management for the 22 McDonald's locations in South Carolina and Georgia that are owned and operated by his boss, John Ritchey Jr. What led to such a remarkable transformation? McDonald's. It's been an incredible journey, starting with Shackleford's first job sweeping bathrooms and taking out trash 33 years ago. (His older brother Robert was the general manager of a local McDonald's franchise who hired him to keep him out of trouble.) Fast-forward to July 2024, when — with financial and emotional support from McDonald's and its franchisees' Archways to Opportunity program and the skills he honed as a McDonald's employee — Shackleford, then 47, received an associate degree in business administration, with highest honors, from Colorado Technical University. 'I would tell my younger self, 'Thank you for not dying and for not giving up.'' He came close to doing both. In a quest to figure out where he belonged, Shackleford spent most of the 1990s traveling from state to state on a Greyhound bus. At each stop — Delaware, Virginia, New York — he'd get a job at a McDonald's restaurant, just to be able to eat. He hit bottom in March 1999, after eight months of sleeping in a church every night. On April 1, the date he'll always remember as his turning point, he decided it was time to go home. What happened after is the stuff of made-for-TV movies. At a family gathering the week after his return to Andrews, South Carolina, Shackleford met and fell for a woman named Nicole, who was visiting from Delaware. It turned out she lived in one of the towns he'd stopped at during his Greyhound days. A three-day trip to Delaware in June sealed the deal. 'I remember sitting on the bus crying all the way back home,' Shackleford said. 'In that moment, it felt like a new beginning.' By August, he had moved to Delaware, and by November, he and Nicole were married. (They celebrated 25 years of marriage last year.) Because of his prior experience, Shackleford was hired as a swing manager at a local McDonald's franchise and has been working his way through the ranks ever since. After graduating at the top of his class from Hamburger University — McDonald's' training program for high-potential managers and owner-operators — Shackleford contemplated going to college. He did so in 2021 after learning about Archways to Opportunity, which allowed him to attend CTU online, while still working, and earn his degree — for free. According to Ritchey, his organization's investment in Shackleford has paid off many times. 'His confidence went up tenfold, and his determination towards a result has also increased,' Ritchey said. 'He's a man on a mission now, and it shows in his results. He is having a great time positively impacting our whole company.' Shackleford doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon. He's now just 40 credits shy of earning a bachelor's degree in business administration from CTU, with a current GPA of 3.71. He devotes equal energy to inspiring his coworkers to fully develop their potential. That mindset benefits everybody. 'Not only does he lead by example,' Ritchey said, 'he is the most fantastic cheerleader we have for everyone who wants to achieve anything in the organization.' 'It's hard to beat someone who won't give up.' The odds of success are stacked against former foster youth like Jennifer Carter. But she found the secret to beating the odds. Jennifer Carter uses her master's degree training in social work to help her colleagues thrive. At just 19 years old, Jennifer Carter aged out of the foster care system she'd grown up in since age 3 and was awarded temporary custody of her two younger siblings. In her words, Carter described that transition to adulthood as 'challenging.' She didn't have the support or guidance she needed to accomplish basic tasks like filling out her taxes or paying the bills, much less continuing her education. So, after a semester of community college, Carter took a break to focus on work — she'd been a crew member at a local McDonald's restaurant since she was 16 — and complete the steps necessary to care for her brother and sister. 'I had to move and buy all kinds of furniture to show they had a place to stay,' Carter said. 'And since it was a boy and a girl, they had to have separate rooms.' The silver lining through all the rough times? Her innate tenacity — and her work family at her local McDonald's. 'They helped me when I was struggling,' Carter said. 'Even if my problem wasn't work related, they'd say, 'This is what you need to do.'' That came in handy when Carter — who'd become a restaurant manager before she turned 20 — decided to continue her lifelong learning journey after finding out about Archways to Opportunity. Hopeful that the skills she'd learned at work would equip her to do better at college the second time around, Carter started by taking a couple classes to get her feet wet. As it turned out, Carter said, 'All the things I learned at McDonald's — how to be organized, how to take great notes, how to deal with people — had prepared me better than all the high school I'd attended and workshops I'd had in foster care.' Archways to Opportunity enabled Carter to complete college with associate and bachelor's degrees in sociology at Cal State Fullerton and a master's degree in social work, with a focus on social change and innovation, at the University of Southern California. She achieved this, with honors, while juggling her job and taking care of her growing family: In 2023, she got married (her husband, Nathan, is an independent McDonald's franchisee with seven restaurants) and the couple now has three young children: Jayden, Jaxtyn, and Juliana. Nathan and Jennifer Carter brought sons Jayden (left) and Jaxtyn to a work event in Spain, before daughter Juliana was born. Now, she wants to put all that learning back into the Southern California community where she lives and works. For instance, she's trying to develop a program that helps connect foster care youth with job opportunities at her restaurants. 'The thing I love about McDonald's versus social work is that I can walk in a community and offer people a job,' Carter explained. 'A lot of people come in with challenges I had when I was younger. And I get to say, 'Hey, it's OK to get help. Here are some places you can go that have programs.' I assist firsthand with those resources.' This is why, after all her education, Carter — who is now an operations supervisor — has chosen to stay at her local McDonald's, rather than become a social worker. 'I don't hand off cases to different people and move on,' she said. 'I try to reflect on the challenges I had when I first started, and what kind of support I can provide. I love that I can be part of somebody's story and make a difference.' McDonald's and Stand Together are working to advance principles that help people unlock their potential in the workplace. Learn more about Stand Together's efforts to transform the future of work and explore ways you can partner with us.
