Insights

Looking for a new job is both exciting and daunting. On the one hand, you may be envisioning what your next opportunity will look like and dreaming about resigning from your current role. On the other hand, you may be overwhelmed with all of the job hunting-related tasks and worried about if or when you’ll actually land your next gig.

Poor onboarding can leave your employees with lower confidence in their new roles, worsened levels of engagement, and an increased risk of jumping ship when they see a new, more exciting position elsewhere. 

One of the hottest topics in leadership development is trust. That’s because the ability to build and sustain trust is the foundation of good leadership and healthy company culture.

Growing up, I thought successful leaders were supposed to figure out all the answers on their own. Being smart — and making sure everyone else knew it — seemed to be their most striking attribute. The best schools were supposed to lead to the best jobs, which produced the best leaders. Power, fame, glory, and money were the measure of professional success. 

As we grow from individual contributors to managers and then to leaders of organizations in respective domains of expertise, the organization's expectations, the people who work with us, the shareholders, the customers, and essentially all stakeholders grow leaps and bounds. Every stakeholder looks up to a leader to deliver the margins, deliver the returns, and deliver the bonus for them higher year on year amidst market uncertainties, volatile economic environment, rising global competition, and increasing cost pressures. 

Change is an unavoidable constant in our work lives. Sometimes it’s within our control, but most often it’s not. Our jobs or roles change — and not always for the better. Our organizations undergo reorgs and revamp their strategies, and we need to adjust.

Microsoft's latest Work Trend Index compiles input from 31,000 people in 31 countries, labor trends from LinkedIn, and trillions of productivity signals from Microsoft 365 to provide a closer look at the year ahead, highlight what employees truly want, and help leaders visualize a path forward. The previous two years changed employees' expectations and the way they work. Leaders must adopt a new mindset and modify cultural norms for long-term success. The author, Jared Spataro, outlines five key trends that will assist leaders in empowering their teams to succeed in the coming year.

What does it take to lead change in today’s modern workplace? I remember my first time ever being trained to lead change while serving in the military. Everything focused on ensuring each step was detailed in a tab-heavy Excel spreadsheet. Then we’d roll out the plan, and everyone was expected to fall into line, follow orders and meet all agreed-upon deadlines. In that environment and at that time, that approach worked surprisingly well.

For the past two years, we've been asking executives: Where is your company in its digital journey, and where do you want to go?