"We needed to find a way to turn the page. We set about defining the company culture: who we are and how we show up for one another. Unsurprisingly, since we’re a tech company that makes it easy to conduct surveys, we sent a survey to ask what our employees thought. The result was a list of five employee values: Be accountable. Trust the team. Prioritize health. Listen to customers. Celebrate the journey. These are aspirational, but it was important that they align with how people at SurveyMonkey actually work together. They had to be more than just slogans we painted on the wall."
The Secret to Succeeding at Work Without Burning Out, According to a Management Expert
". . . In my study, many top performers were able to maintain a healthy work-life balance and not burn out on the job. That's because they embraced smarter ways of working, practices that allowed them to extract more value out of every hour on the job. They got more done, yet had more time outside of work to rest and recharge."
Author bio – "Morten T. Hansen is a professor in the school of information at the University of California – Berkeley. His latest book, Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More is out now."
How to Overcome Distraction & Do Work That Matters
"The first rule of doing work that matters is this: show up. Get to work so you can start making a difference. Of course, this is a no-brainer, so why do we not do it? We get distracted."
You Don’t Need to Be on Every Social Media Platform
"Getting on to every single social media platform (and there are a lot these days!) can distract and disengage your followers," writes Kara Perez (photo, left).
"Social media is free marketing, but only if done well. If you’re creating bad content, or irrelevant content just to have something for a specific platform, you’ll isolate readers."
How to Avoid a Culture War in Business
"As with weekend warriors, when a clash happens in business it can go one of two ways. We can go tribal and think the worst of one another, or we can give each other the benefit of the doubt, presume each other has good intentions and focus on the fix," writes Steve McKee (photo, left) in a SmartBrief.com article.
Author bio – Steve McKee is President of McKee Wallwork & Co. He is the author of When Growth Stalls and Power Branding.
A Blinding Flash of the Obvious
"Tom Peters reflects on a half-century spent studying management."
Suze Orman: Pay Off Debt ASAP, and Not Because It Costs You Money
"Don't wait to start paying off what you owe, because otherwise what you owe will hold you back, Suze Orman, personal finance expert and best-selling author of "Women & Money," tells CNBC Make It. "Debt is bondage," she says. 'You will never, ever, ever have financial freedom if you have debt.'"
24 Brands You Probably Didn’t Know Were Owned by Amazon
"Some of these private labels are obviously owned by Amazon, like AmazonBasics, but others show very little indication that they're owned by the e-commerce giant."
Jessica Tyler (photo, left) reports at BusinessInsider.com.
These Stores Have the Best Return Policies in Retail
"Costco has one of the most generous return policies of any store. It says that any product can be returned to Costco warehouses for any reason. The only restrictions are on electronics, which must be returned within 90 days."
Mary Hanbury (photo, left) reports on the other generous retailers at BusinessInsider.com.
Stop Blaming the Help. How Companies Stymie Great CX
"As my friend and colleague Bassam Salem likes to say (and I will paraphrase), it’s always the hapless call center representative that is scapegoated for corporations’ failings. The people who are paid the least and are usually the least to blame but are almost always the targets," writes Dave Fish (photo, left) in an article at CustomerThink.com.
"If we peel it back a bit we can see that in many circumstances it is not the employee, it is the communication, technology, policies, procedures, educational, and selection practice of the company that is at fault. Here are a few of the most frequent culprits. . . ."