Welcome back to the long-lost Month in a Minute blog series! It has been a long time and yes, we are still here. Our business activity is still impacted by the pandemic response and the subsequent changes to the professional development industry but we have learned to adjust and have seen some live events return this year (finally!).

 

We have been closely watching and reading about the work-from-home/return-to-the-office debate play out. Most of our clients have a hybrid setup letting employees decide if and when they want to be in the office. Because it’s not structured, many still spend a lot of office time meeting via Zoom or Teams with those who are not in the office, which seems to me to defeat the whole point of going in. But there are some people who definitely like the office environment, even with a skeleton crew. The extroverts need human interaction and some introverts have distractions at home making it easier to concentrate in a quiet office. Others are fighting hard to keep their full-time remote status, struggling to see any benefit of going back to the office at all, even a few days a week. What seems like a pretty common opinion across leaders everywhere is what we are doing now doesn’t seem to support maximum productivity or employee engagement. Gallup just released their State of the Global Workforce and after a spike in employee engagement in 2020, things have leveled back down to pre-pandemic levels. So it doesn’t seem that full-time remote or flexible hybrid options have made any difference. We at Penumbra have some theories about why that is the case, but that is for another article. I would love to hear your thoughts on why you think engagement isn’t higher.

 

What was very compelling about the Gallup study is the number of people who said they feel more stress and anger at work than ever before…thus making emotional intelligence a CRITICAL competency. Smart companies are realizing that skipping employee leadership learning events, onsite workshops, and in-person one-on-ones for three years has come at a cost, and are starting to get back to these important activities. Just a reminder that we offer EQ and change style assessments, executive coaching, webinars and workshops.

And since January I have had the pleasure of speaking to a CEO roundtable group in Gulf Shores AL, speaking at a leadership summit for a large healthcare staffing company in Salt Lake City UT, leading a succession planning offsite with the owners of a property management company in San Diego CA, keynote at a leadership event for a landscape architecture firm in Denver CO, presented at Texas Assisted Living Association in Austin TX, facilitated a workshop for a large Native American Nation in Washington DC, keynoted at the WBL annual conference on Amelia Island in FL, spoke at the Kansas Organization of Nurse Leaders in Wichita KS, and keynoted at a leadership meeting for a defense contractor in Grand Cayman. It has been a wonderful first half of the year for being with clients in person! I have trips booked for the last two quarters of 2023 but still have many open dates and would love to come to work with you at your organization, just drop me a note. I am also including a picture of me with Steve Friedlein, we were lucky enough to be in the same place at the same time once so far this year! Enjoy the rest of your summer. I promise to be back soon.