Each week I’m going to provide a round up of what I consider to be important and interesting articles on the future of work (not authored by me). These will include a variety of sources and topics ranging from workplace practices to robots and automation to leadership and everything in between. There’s a lot of information out there so I’m hoping that these weekly round ups will help make life a bit easier for you by giving you just the good stuff. Let’s get into it!

3 Emotional Regulation Skills

There are a variety of skills that can increase your leadership abilities and strengths. Emotional regulation is one of those skills. People with strong emotional regulation can keep their feelings in check and stay focused on the goal at hand. Included in the article are tips to utilize not only personally but with your employees, as well.
In it, three common emotions experienced in the workplace are discussed. These are: anger, anxiety and frustration.
Anger – people feel their personal rights have been violated
• May be inclined to react without thinking
• Skill – before reacting, write done what you are thinking and then ask questions such as, ‘Am I entitled to this feeling?’ Consider suggesting this to an employee
who is experiencing anger
Anxiety – people are worried about future threats
• May want to run away from issue
• Skill – write down what you think will happen and assess the probability of this
occurring
Frustration – anger and anxiety hybrid, feel they lack resources
• Stops people from moving forward
• Skill – write down the problem and think of at least one resource that can be
utilized in the situation

What Are Key Trends In The Next Generation Of HR Design

Three key trends in HR design include moving away from HR business partners to account managers, focusing on employee experience and building capability. Each of these trends relate to what talent management will look like in the coming years. For example, processes that take months to complete will disappear and be replaced by regular discussions. Rather than having annual performance reviews, employees will have ‘career conversations’. Also included in the article is a discussion on the value of bonuses. The overall contention is that the use of base pay and discretionary reward does not achieve the desired effect to encourage top performers.

7 Tips for Keeping Your Sanity When You Work from Home

More and more options for working from home are now available. As an employee there are many benefits to this opportunity. This article looks at 7 tips to balance both work and home life when working from home.
1. Adopt physical boundaries- create a distraction-free area
2. Create electronic boundaries – if responding to work emails even when you aren’t working is an issue, consider turning off the email notifications
3. Lean on technology to stay in touch – reach out via chat to ‘pop into’ a colleagues’ offices to make connections, web cams can help bridge communication gaps
4. Be proactive in your communications – don’t wait for someone else to initiate a call or conference
5. Decide when to work after hours – discuss expectations for after-hours work with your colleagues – communicate
6. Treat work like work – focus during your work day. You won’t feel the need to keep working after – hours because you didn’t feel like you accomplished enough during the day.
7. Learn to say ‘no’ – work with the rest of your team to determine what ‘emergencies’ are and how they will be handled, rather than agree to take care of every after – hours issue

14 Simple Expectations Great Employees Have of Their Boss

Are you the type of boss that great employees want to work for? This article discusses 14 expectations that top employees have of their supervisors.
1. Meaningful, consistent communication
2. Give recognition and praise
3. Provide feedback, mentorship and training
4. Create an intentional, positive work culture
5. Create a safe space for failure
6. Provide strong leadership and clear vision
7. Hold yourself – and others – accountable
8. Demonstrate good problem solving
9. Avoid micromanaging
10. Be an effective decision maker
11. Put people first
12. Manage – up, down and sideways
13. Be honest
14. Be dedicated and balanced

My new book, The Employee Experience Advantage (Wiley, March 2017) analyzes over 250 global organizations to understand how to create a place where people genuinely want to show up to work. Subscribe to the newsletter here

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