When management theorist Peter Drucker coined the term knowledge workers in 1959, most people had no idea what he was talking about. Since then, knowledge workers have come to rule the world. Today, seven of the world's 10 most valuable companies are tech com­panies, the ultimate workplace for knowledge workers. But now, 65 years after the knowledge economy was born, we're about to be ushered into the wisdom economy.

BambooHR recently released its quarterly Employee Happiness Index report, showing employee happiness is down 5% year over year, hitting a four-year low. The survey revealed some bright spots, with construction remaining the happiest industry and education achieving the highest June scores the sector has seen in four years. Still, the results raise concerns, given the steady decline in employee satisfaction since 2020.

“Most people feel meetings are not as effective as they could be,” says Abrahams, a lecturer in organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and host of Think Fast Talk Smart: The Podcast. “However, it is possible to have well-run meetings that are productive, that you look forward to, and that good things come from.”

If we reward people for speaking their truth, we can create better and more productive workplaces. When people are afraid that something bad will happen to them because of their decision to speak up, in most cases, they won’t do it. And can we really blame them? This is, seemingly, leadership’s failure to foster the type of culture that encourages and rewards people for speaking up.

In today’s rapidly changing business landscape, defined by unprecedented technological advancements, shifting climates, geopolitical changes, and evolving work models, there’s one quality that stands out as a make-or-break asset: psychological resilience. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or a newcomer to the workforce, resilience—the ability to bounce back from setbacks, adapt to change, and transform adversity into opportunity—is crucial for thriving in our complex and unpredictable job market.

Sooner or later, almost all of us will find ourselves trying to cope with how to manage conflict at work. At the office, we may struggle to work through high-pressure situations with people with whom we have little in common. We need a special set of strategies to calm tempers, restore order, and meet each side’s interests.

Mental health is a topic of critical importance and front of mind for so many of us. My series on mental health has generated comments, ideas and recommendations—and it’s worth considering all the ways the collective thinking about mental health will shape responses from leaders and organizations.

Hundreds of readers shared in comments on LinkedIn and other social media about the pressures they feel as leaders, the risk of burnout, and how best to support themselves and their teams during difficult times.

Mindfulness meditation practices can be an effective way to reduce stress and improve well-being in certain contexts. But as more and more employers offer some form of mindfulness training to their employees, it isn’t always clear whether these programs are actually paying off. To explore the impact of mindfulness in the workplace, the authors conducted a series of field studies in real-world work environments — and they found that while mindfulness can in fact be beneficial in some situations, it can be less effective (or even counterproductive) in others.

One of the most telling signs that the U.S. is experiencing a burnout crisis may be the fact that Google searches for “burnout symptoms” hit an all-time high in May 2022, as we weathered the third year of the pandemic while facing the prospect of a faltering economy.

Sooner or later, everyone fails at something. But does everyone learn from their failures? In fact, the evidence suggests that most people struggle to grow from mistakes and defeats. When researchers Lauren Eskreis-Winkler and Ayelet Fishbach developed the “Facing Failure” game, they wanted to test how well people learn from failure.

Want to make yourself indispensable to future employers?

It’s not just technical skills you need to cultivate. As we move into the new industrial revolution and the pace of change continues to accelerate, the skills you need to thrive in the workplace are shifting, as well.

Many years before I fully understood extrovert and neurotypical privileges, I took part in a variety of experiential learning sessions. The ostensible goal of one of the sessions was to solve a problem as a team in a high-stakes simulation. The underlying goal was to do so in a way that made people trust you and want to work with you. The most “trustworthy” people at the end were the “winners.”

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” Ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu was onto the idea of servant leadership centuries before it became a modern-day concept. This leadership style boils down to one principle: The goal of a leader is to serve.

Matt Dailey, a software engineer for a data management company, was managing a team with an engineer who wasn’t performing well. This was clear to Dailey—and to the employee. Yet, as I describe in my new book Mastering Community, Dailey said he “wasn’t bridging the gap of how to make the situation better.” His team missed their deadline.

January 20, 2022 Planning for the future of work has always been important. However, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the next big organizational shift—turning a hypothetical future into an immediate reality. In this rapid pivot, organizations gathered key learnings with long-term potential to improve operating models, employee experience, productivity, and more.

We live in a world buzzing and flashing with distractions: Slack messages sidle onto screens, phones vibrate with breaking news and chats from the group chat, and worries about COVID and other threats break our concentration. No wonder staying focused can be a challenge.

As the world—cautiously but inexorably—returns to the office, an inescapable concern is how to deal with those who don’t want to return.

That’s a fair question. Some people are going to oppose returning to the office versus working at home. That opposition is legitimate. It could be rooted in work–family balance, flexibility, commuting, workplace distractions, comfort, clothing, conformity, or a hundred other concerns.

You’ve decided to take the plunge and change careers. You are ready for a brand new start, excited to take on a new challenge. One major mental obstacle stands between you and your new start; the uncomfortable, but obligatory, interview process, which comes equipped with the dreaded “why did you leave your last job” question.