Five Steps for Integrated Succession Planning and Leadership Development

Succession planning is a topic that often gets overlooked. However, savvy organizations connect succession planning with leadership development planning, do it on an annual basis, and are well-positioned when the inevitable happens—a key person in the organization leaves.

In my consulting practice, I occasionally work with clients who have built a deep bench of talent and can effectively promote from within. That said, many clients have not yet considered developing their key people with an intentional eye toward future transition.

Thus, it’s important to set aside time and think about each of your leadership team members.

Ask yourself the following:

• Who would fill this role if this leader were to leave?
• What skills and abilities are needed?
• Is there a clear plan to develop the potential replacements?

Here are my top tips to create a succession planning strategy that will help you build a pipeline of leadership talent and give you flexibility.

1. Understand – At least annually, check in with everyone to find out where they want to be five years from now, and then figure out how to get them there. These conversations help you align on the potential future, even if it is a pathway outside of the organization.
2. Assess your team – Review your organization top to bottom. A common tool is a “Nine Box Grid,” where you plot out performance and potential. This helps you focus on developing people with high potential and high performance. For employees who have low potential and are low performers, this might be a time to counsel them out of the organization. For people with high potential but who are low performers, maybe the job fit isn’t optimal, and there is a better seat for them? Low-potential and high-performing employees provide stability; thus, you don’t want to lose them. Be sure to understand what they are looking for and offer it to them if possible. Examples could be flexibility, ability to mentor, etc.
3. Assess each position – Look at each position in the organization, including the leader. If the incumbent won the lottery, who would step in? How would you manage? Ideally, leadership roles have 2 or 3 possible replacements within an organization. When I worked at Ford Motor Company, a very large organization, there were dozens of people who could fill a role over time. By comparison, many of my startup clients don’t have any bench, whatsoever. Thus, what makes sense for each organization will vary.
4. Develop – Ensure each employee has a documented individual development plan. Include specific visions of what they want to accomplish in the short term (1-2 years) and long term (3-5 years). This could be something like, “I would like to have the skills to manage people in two years.” Then, you could work with the employee to understand potential development areas like communication, conflict management, or delegating. You could identify specific training for each skill, such as watching a video on delegating, shadowing a leader who is a great communicator, and taking a course on conflict management. Then, two years from now, if a position as a supervisor opens, they will be ready to take it.
5. Support – Keep development front and center. Make sure it is part of the annual goal-setting process, and that you reward and recognize people investing in themselves.

Follow these steps, and you will position your organization for long-term, sustainable growth and success. Your people will feel the investment and reward you with higher retention and engagement, too!

Welcome back to the discussion of people leader skills. I really enjoyed your feedback on last month’s blog. Now, I’d like to share some of my favorite resources for developing these skills.

Resources for People Leaders

1. Workplace Communication – This skill is at the top of the list for a reason: So much begins or falls apart because of communication. Make it your mission to read up on this and to get continuous feedback from your team. Use 360-degree feedback tools to learn how and where you can improve. Whether it’s listening, access, frequency, transparency, or some other aspect, this is the most important skill for you to continually hone.
2. Emotional Intelligence – Much of this boils down to self-awareness and understanding that we are unique. Thus, keep learning about yourself by taking different “tests” such as Enneagram, Myers-Briggs, DISC, StrengthsFinder, and others. Some of these tools will resonate with you and your team and can provide you with a common language. By learning more about yourself and others on your team, you will help develop this key skill.
3. Vision – This is something everyone can practice, and Ari Weinzweig, a co-founder of Zingerman’s, has a great visioning blog: Our Beliefs on Visioning – ZingTrain.
4. Inspirational – Once you get your vision down, you need to help your team understand where you are going and the steps you will take to get there. This is where a framework like EOS can help you put together the steps (or rocks, in EOS lingo). Learn more here about the EOS – Entrepreneurial Operating System for Businesses.
5. Decision Making – Making decisions can be difficult, but your team looks to you for guidance. Understanding the range of approaches (from top down to bottom up) is important. Try practicing different styles and ask your team for feedback using 360-degree surveys to understand where you may need more practice.
6. Giving Guidance and Feedback – Your team needs your input to grow. You need to be good at giving “constructive feedback” to minimize mistakes and effectively change behavior when needed. My go-to book on this is Radical Candor by Kim Scott.
7. Conflict Management/Resolution – Conflict will always happen on teams. My go-to book in this realm is Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson. Another excellent feedback tool is Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI).
8. Trust Building – As a leader, you must create an environment with strong psychological safety so that people will give you unfiltered input. If your team is scared to deliver bad news, you will not be able to make the best decisions. Again, 360-degree feedback can help you understand where you are and what you need to do to grow and develop more effective skills in this area.
9. Change Management – There are a variety of models and resources on this topic, with Prosci’s ADKAR framework commonly referenced. If your organization is facing change (and right now, whose isn’t?), practice being intentional and focus on helping people understand why the current state is no longer an option. Explain the future state (where you are going) and how you will lead them there through continuous communication, training, etc. (See Vision and Inspirational above for more tips.)
10. Performance Alignment – Are you setting goals? Holding people accountable? Providing regular feedback as well as immediate corrective feedback? This is another area where 360-degree feedback can help. The EOS toolkit is also very helpful for ensuring you regularly knock this out of the park.
11. Delegating – To share another EOS quip: You need to delegate to elevate. Letting go of certain tasks so that you can focus your energy on your “highest and best” purpose is a key skill you can develop through practice and feedback from your team. Another great tool is to think about what you are good at and what you like to do. Then, delegate everything that doesn’t fit in that box.
12. Appreciation – How often do you reward and recognize your team members? Marcus Buckingham’s First Break All the Rules covers this topic nicely.
13. Teambuilding – While this is one of the toughest skills to develop and master, many of the skills mentioned above support teambuilding. Getting feedback from your team, holding teambuilding activities, creating core values, and developing strong psychological safety are key components in helping teamwork thrive.

As you can see, I’m a strong advocate for paying attention to people leader skills so that your teams can help your company achieve the results you seek.

Do you have other tips to share?

I’m curious to know what has worked and what hasn’t for your organization. If you want to learn more about how we have helped our clients improve their people leadership skills, contact Yeo & Yeo HR Advisory Solutions.

For the next couple of months, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on people leader skills – a topic that is coming up more and more in the work I am doing with clients. As the saying goes, “People don’t leave organizations, they leave managers.” This longstanding adage matters more today than ever because when job markets are tight, people hunker down and don’t leave as often. Here lies opportunity. Perhaps we should reframe the expression to include, “Organizations don’t engage employees, managers engage employees.”

Many of our clients are concerned about employee engagement, retention, and productivity. The common thread to achieve these kinds of results is linked to the people on your team who are responsible for others. It’s worth noting that a painfully large amount of effort goes into cleaning up the messes that poor supervisors make. And it’s preventable.

Having strong managers can increase productivity, communication, performance, quality, innovation, customer satisfaction, well-being, and employee satisfaction.

Roles and Terminology – Why do they matter?

Getting results means that you have managers (aka bosses and supervisors) who have “People Leader Skills” (PLS). Even though PLS isn’t a catchy phrase, I am choosing these words to describe this concept quite intentionally. For instance, should I say leader or manager? Most people describe leaders as being visionary and inspirational, and managers as being tactical and operating under a shorter time horizon. While I have nothing against the term “manager,” I know some people scoff at manager vs. leader. I also think that anyone can be a leader, but today, I am focused on the work that needs to be done when leading (managing, supervising, or guiding) people.

Thus, if your title is supervisor, department manager, or CXO, or you aspire to be one of these roles, I am talking to you or about you.

I am also very intentional about the word “skills.” I did not say behaviors. I chose the word “skill” because it is more likely to be seen as something you can develop, vs. behaviors that are often viewed as fixed. If you can develop something, you can get better at it, and I think all leaders are a work in progress vs. “She is a born leader,” a rather fixed and limiting view.

Okay, are you still with me? Great.

Suppose you have the knowledge, experiences, and demonstrated behaviors needed to be considered for a promotion to people manager, and you continue to develop the following skills. In that case, you will be a huge asset to your organization.

Here is the list of skills I believe all people leaders need to have.

1. Workplace Communication – Understand the importance of key communication aspects and utilize an intentional communication strategy. Clarity is king.
2. Emotional Intelligence – Understand and manage your emotions and be able to empathize with others. You need to understand that other people see the world differently than you do, and that is a good thing.
3. Vision – Have a long-term view of where your team needs to go.
4. Inspirational – Effectively convey to the team where you are going and why.
5. Decision Making – Analyze situations objectively and make timely, well-informed decisions while involving the right stakeholders. You need to create an environment where people provide you with the necessary information to make decisions.
6. Conflict Management – Understand how to navigate interpersonal conflicts with diplomacy and create solutions that address and resolve conflicts.
7. Trust Building – Understand what creates and destroys trust.
8. Change Management – Lead through change with resilience, support others through transitions, and manage resistance.
9. Accountability and Performance Alignment – Set clear expectations, track performance, measure goals, and have difficult conversations when needed.
10. Delegation and Prioritization – Empower others and ensure there are workflows that focus team efforts effectively.
11. Appreciation – Reward and recognize your team.
12. Inclusivity and Teambuilding – Foster a culture of trust, respect, and belonging while understanding key components of teamwork so that you can get a group of people to accomplish more together.
13. Coaching and Development – Mentor, give constructive feedback, and support team members’ growth through ongoing learning and development.

Phew! That’s quite a list.

Cleaning up the messes made by poor supervisors is expensive and risky, as is losing engagement with your people and having them leave. Investing in “People Leader Skills” for your team can help your company achieve the results you seek and avoid many missteps.

What do you think? Did I miss any? Do you have a better catchphrase?

Join me next month as I discuss ways to develop these skills. If you have questions or would like help developing your managers’ people leader skills, email me at Amy.Cell@yeoandyeo.com.

Are you interested in creating an amazing culture with highly engaged employees? I’ll let you in on a little secret – communications are at the core of engagement.

Each employee in your organization is unique and has different needs, wants, and expectations for the work part of their work/life. Yet, through my experience with a wide range of companies and people, I continue to see a few issues coming up across the board – trust and respect.

If employees feel disrespected by their boss and colleagues, it is a surefire way to be on the fast track of disengagement. And, if an employee feels like they do not trust their organization, they will also stop putting in their best efforts and may engage with the 2024 phenomenon of “quiet quitting.”

What do respect and trust have in common? They are both built or dismantled by workplace communications.

So, you’re probably wondering what I mean by workplace communications. In a nutshell, I have found that the following aspects need to have focus and intentional tactics built around them:

• Communication skill development
• Emails
• Meetings
• Feedback
• Organization updates

Let’s break these down a bit more:

1. Communication skill development – Every team member needs to have communication skills, and your organization needs to provide mechanisms for them to receive feedback and guidance on how to improve these skills. Ask yourself: Are written communications clear? Are team members comfortable having direct conversations with each other when they have different opinions? Are conflicts resolved effectively? Do people pick up the phone instead of emailing or texting when angry? These basic skills are often lacking or are not regularly practiced.
2. Email etiquette – Emails can be a great timesaver but can also be misused. Emails lack immediate feedback, can be easily misunderstood in terms of tone and intent, and are often skimmed because recipients receive hundreds a day. Ensure your organization has clear guidelines on what emails should include, and how they should be used.
3. Meetings – Meetings can be incredible opportunities to strengthen relationships and move an organization forward. Or, they can be poorly designed, waste everyone’s time, and become a meme. Be sure to put together a meeting strategy that includes a mix of “town hall” meetings where everyone hears the same thing at the same time, “leadership” meetings that truly move an organization forward, “decision” meetings that have the right people in the room to solve a problem, “one on one” meetings where managers can provide guidance, and “staff” meetings where people can understand what is going on and get advice and support.
4. Two-way communication – Are structures in place for leadership to receive regular feedback? This can take many forms. A regular employee engagement survey is highly effective at identifying the good, bad, and ugly so that leadership has a clear picture of how people feel. Skip-level meetings are another tool that allows employees at a lower level in the organization to interact with those at higher levels, which can also provide a forum to test the effectiveness of information flow. 360-degree feedback surveys are another way to ensure communication loops are being closed.
5. Transparency – Employees want to know what is going on – especially during times of change. Sharing information about how things are going helps to build trust. Thus, I am a big fan of metrics and dashboards that help people understand what keeps the leadership team awake at night. I am also a big fan of regularly sharing information, such as through a weekly email that highlights recent business wins, updates, the current state of metrics and projects, and highlights exceptional team and individual contributions.

When done well, workplace communications can foster feelings of respect and trust, which is foundational to employee engagement. It’s the secret sauce.

I hope that these recommendations were helpful to you as you continue your quest to build a great organization. If you would like to chat more about strengthening your culture or company, let me know.

We can help you develop a workplace communications strategy, conduct an HR assessment, implement a 360-degree feedback system, and more.

Strategic plans often look strong on paper but fall short when people, capacity, and execution aren’t fully considered.

Discover how to turn strategic plans into achievable steps, avoid common pitfalls, and ensure your board, staff, and resources are aligned.

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Yeo & Yeo HR Advisory Solutions, formerly Amy Cell Talent, celebrates 10 years of providing HR services to businesses, nonprofits, municipalities, and startups across Michigan. After joining Yeo & Yeo in January 2025, the company continues to build on its strong foundation while expanding its reach and impact.

“Amy Cell and her team have spent the past decade building a strong, trusted HR advisory company and we are honored to have them as part of Yeo & Yeo,” said Yeo & Yeo’s President & CEO, Dave Youngstrom. “As we celebrate this milestone, we look forward to continuing their legacy of exceptional service and supporting even more businesses and organizations together.”

Amy Cell founded Amy Cell Talent in March 2015 to provide affordable and effective talent acquisition services. With her experience as Vice President of Talent Enhancement and Entrepreneurial Education at Ann Arbor SPARK and Senior Vice President of Talent Enhancement at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), Cell saw an opportunity to help both jobseekers and employers. What started as a single engagement with an Ann Arbor entrepreneur seeking to hire a purchasing and operations professional quickly evolved into a growing business.

Mary Salley and Lori Emerson were the first to join the team in 2015. Their contributions helped shape the company into a trusted HR partner, and they remain integral team members today. In 2018, the company entered the municipal recruitment sector, successfully competing against established businesses and securing a City Manager search contract, which laid the foundation for a thriving municipal recruitment practice. Additionally, in 2019, the company expanded its services to provide comprehensive HR support, including strategic HR and fractional HR solutions. These offerings ensure organizations have a trusted, ongoing partner to navigate leadership transitions, workforce challenges, and their evolving HR needs.

Over the past decade, the company has steadily expanded, boasting a team of 24 professionals serving more than 90 clients annually. Amy Cell Talent, now Yeo & Yeo HR Advisory Solutions (YYHR), has been recognized as an Ann Arbor “Fast Track” award winner for the past three years and was named one of Michigan Small Business’s “50 Companies to Watch” in 2022. Today, Cell serves as the President of YYHR. Under her leadership, the team continues to uphold the same high standards of service on which the company was founded.

“We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve built,” said Cell. “Our journey has been fueled by an amazing team, outstanding clients, and a shared commitment to helping businesses and communities thrive.”

As Yeo & Yeo HR Advisory Solutions celebrates this milestone, the team looks forward to the next decade of growth, innovation, and service. For more information about Yeo & Yeo HR Advisory Solutions and its services, visit https://yeoandyeo.com/hr-advisory-solutions.

Over the last year I have worked with a number of clients on strategic HR issues facing their organizations.

As an aside, I think of HR activities in three buckets. The first bucket is compliance – you need to make sure that you are following regulations and laws. This is not exactly the most exciting part of HR for most people, but critical. The second bucket is transactions – are your people transactions efficient and effective? This bucket includes recruiting, onboarding, compensation planning, performance management, training and benefits. And, the third bucket is strategic human resources.

Strategic HR includes restructuring, culture change, making difficult decisions about long term leaders, succession planning, leadership 360 degree performance and leadership development. These aspects can make or break an organization’s ability to thrive, and sometimes even to continue. These are the times when good leaders understand the importance of “people issues” and bravely address key challenges head on.

I have seen some incredible examples of leadership. I’ve often seen the opposite.

Thus, I wanted to compile and share a few best practices. (All names and specific references have been changed to protect the innocent/guilty.)

1. Have a plan

Restructuring or transforming a culture is not easy, and has many steps that need to be considered. Each situation is different, too. Perhaps a revenue stream has dried up, and major cost cutting needs to happen and a group of people quietly need to make tough decisions. Or, perhaps an organization is growing and experiencing some growing pains, and there is a process to include everyone in the decision-making activity as you chart out an exciting future.

Thus, this is not a one-size-fits-all approach, but here is an outline that can be tailored to your situation:

• Create a steering committee that will help lead the charge. Depending on the situation, this could be a portion of the leadership team. Or, it could be a CEO and a few board members.
• Clearly define the issues with the current state/situation. Doing a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) can be helpful.
• Clearly define the desired state (where you’re trying to get to).
• List the activities that you will need to do. This includes hiring new staff, laying off staff, changing the structure and reporting relationships, putting in place development plans, gathering employee input, creating core values, reinforcing new/existing core values to modify your culture, etc.
• Develop an internal communication plan. Likely your team is aware of the change, or need for change, and is anxious. Keeping everyone up to date (as much as possible) with where things are is key to reduce the anxiety and to show a level of trust and respect that your team will want and appreciate. You will want to make sure that there are ways for employees to communicate with you. The more information you get, the better you will be able to navigate these changes.
• Celebrate the successes and small victories.
• Practice self care – make sure that you are taking care of yourself during this challenging time. In addition to taking care of your physical health, do things to avoid burnout. Also, make sure that you have an external support network. Find a coach, utilize a CEO group, find a mentor, etc.

2. Be flexible

While it is good to have a plan, it is also good to stay flexible. You might learn that team members are concerned about something, and want to be able to provide input. The input may or may not change your thinking, but listening is a key leadership skill, especially during times of uncertainty. Modifying a timeline, or changing your mind about a particular path is just fine.

3. Include

I am a big fan of including as many voices as possible. In larger organizations, middle management is sometimes referred to as a “layer of clay” where information about the vision and strategy doesn’t always make its way to front line staff. And, the folks that are in the best vantage point to provide key input do not get their voices raised. Thus, employing tactics such as anonymous surveys or focus groups can be quite helpful.

4. Communicate

Nature abhors a vacuum. Providing weekly or bi-weekly updates will be key to keep the rumor mill under control. Also, provide office hours, anonymous suggestion boxes and other ways to keep information flowing to you.

5. Decide

There will be difficult decisions to make. You might need to let go or reassign people that have helped you get to where you want to be, but are holding you back from moving forward. You might choose to keep someone who doesn’t meet your core values, but is mission critical for the next quarter. You might need to spend top dollar to bring in the right executive. You might need to delay certain initiatives to make sure that you put the mindshare into your challenges at hand.

6. Communicate more

Keep communicating! Even once you have implemented the necessary changes, keep reinforcing. Make those weekly update emails a regular practice. Keep a transition team in place for longer than you think you might need to help provide two-way feedback. And, keep rewarding and recognizing people.

Are you contemplating a change?

I’m happy to provide a complimentary chat with you about your situation and provide you with suggestions from my experience.

Welcome to March – that time of year when warmer winds blow, basketball brackets dominate the airwaves, and you can’t avoid the color green.

March is also the time of year when we focus on performance management tools with our HR clients. (In fact, just this past week, I had a great discussion on how to align a client’s leadership team with the aspects of the business that keep them awake at night.)

Some people think of performance management as the dreaded annual review at the end of the year or a “check the box” exercise used to justify a merit increase. However, I like to view this as an ongoing process and refer to it as performance alignment—how you get everyone rowing in the same direction throughout the year.

Thus, here are a few tips to ensure that your people and organization are set up for success.

Tip #1 – Make sure that you have a good strategy in place

A key part of getting everyone focused on the right priorities is understanding where you are going, and that is where strategic planning comes into play. Thus, be sure to incorporate it into your performance systems so that you end the year with organizational success, high individual performance, and no surprises!

When it comes to strategic planning, or working on the business, you want to make sure that you have a system or tools in place that does the following:

• You have core values, guiding principles, or something that people use as a compass
• You have a longer-range plan or vision
• You have annual goals or objectives
• You have clear accountability about who is responsible for different aspects of the organization

If you don’t have such a system, check out the book Traction by Gino Wickman; his “Entrepreneur’s Operating System” is a great resource for organizations of all types.

Tip #2 – Reward the behaviors that are aligned with your organization

Focusing only on outcomes but not behaviors can cause problems. For instance, you might have a high performer, but they are also a jerk to other people on the team. If you don’t focus on the “how” but just the “what,” you might end up unintentionally contributing to bad behavior. Thus, be sure to reward behaviors that are aligned with the values of the organization. What this looks like in practice can vary. Some organizations are 50% behaviors and 50% accomplishments. When it comes to leadership, you might have a 360-degree feedback process to ensure that the leadership skills are positive, and that people are working effectively with peers.

Tip #3 – Focus on organization success

Don’t make the mistake of focusing leaders on department goals instead of organizational goals. For instance, if your Sales VP only cares about revenue, they will not care about the product development team or the team that onboards new customers. Instead, make sure that part of their bonus is focused on something – often profit – that requires leaders to think beyond their department. This approach also encourages teamwork and collaboration.

Tip #4 – Meet multiple times per year

You don’t want the dialogue to only happen at the end of the year when the opportunity to course correct has passed you by. Meeting quarterly, or at a minimum of twice per year, is key to ensuring that there is open communication and a built in process to provide guidance and feedback. It is very easy for managers to avoid difficult conversations, or to let things build up where there is a lot of frustration. Instead, have those conversations early when course corrections are easier to make.

Aligning your team’s performance with organizational goals is key.

If you’re interested in learning more about this, let’s connect. We enjoy helping our clients:

• Design effective tools and systems that support employee retention and development
• Design bonus systems that align leadership teams around teamwork and the strategic goals of the organization
• Train managers on how to be great people leaders

Being a people manager is hard! Your team has a lot of responsibility and when you manage people, there are different opportunities, successes and challenges each day. You need to provide your team members with support, guidance, mentoring and coaching.

And, this is the time of year when performance reviews are coming up. While it is important to strategically set goals for 2025, and to reward, recognize and celebrate the successes of 2024, this is also the time to put on your coaching hat.

Your team needs you.

• A rock star needs more challenges
• A high potential employee isn’t finding the success that you both feel is possible, and needs help developing a better habit or two
• An employee that is struggling and needs guidance
• An employee that isn’t a good fit for their current role and needs some advice and feedback that could help them find a position or company that is better for them – yes, sometimes it is the role of a manager to coach someone out of an organization

Thus, I wanted the focus of this blog to be about coaching.

What is coaching?

I view coaching as being a sounding board, and in posing questions that will help your team members explore and develop in a way that they own and value.

Coaching is different from mentoring or providing guidance.

Mentoring is often about sharing your experiences – this is why people often want to be mentored by someone that is a role model. The mentors that I have had in my life have been people that I wanted to emulate, and allowed me to see them in action so that I could learn how they approached different situations, and handled different challenges.

Providing guidance, or feedback, is helping an employee successfully complete their tasks. This includes explaining how to do something, providing constructive feedback when expectations are not met, and giving positive feedback to reinforce good behavior. Guidance is critical – and should be direct and respectful, but that is a topic for another blog.

Coaching at its heart

The core of coaching is engaging your team members so that they can develop their skills. This involves asking questions and supporting your team members and helping them find the answers. This involves being truly curious. Here are a few coaching questions to consider:

• What are your career goals?
• Where do you want to be in five years, and how can I help you get there?
• What are the skill gaps that you need to fill?
• What are barriers to filling those gaps?
• How can I support you?
• What types of experiences would you like to get in the next year?

Listen carefully to the answers, and see what themes can be incorporated into your employee plans for 2025.

Be sure to circle back to these themes and ask more questions throughout the year to help keep them on track. During the year, be aware of situations that come up where your team member might have missed an opportunity. This is another great time for coaching questions like the following:

• Why do you think the situation turned out the way it did?
• What might you have done differently to avoid the situation?
• What would you do differently next time?

Showing care and curiosity are two of the best things you can do as a manager.

It will help you engage your employees, support your team, deliver better results, and help your organization succeed through thoughtful staff development.

Got questions?

Please let me know if you have other coaching questions that we can add to our manager resource book. If you would like to chat more about how to support your managers, please send me an email at Amy.Cell@yeoandyeo.com and we can set up a time to chat.

Workplace harmony is having a moment right now.

Maybe you’ve seen the headlines about “Workplace Civility.” Unfortunately, the world stage is a bit divisive right now, and some of that tension and disruption is finding its way into organizations. Additionally, with the COVID-19 pandemic and remote/hybrid work, many people are out of practice when it comes to handling difficult interactions.

Not surprisingly, more of my clients have been reaching out about workplace culture and organizational effectiveness, leading me to investigate the topic of thriving workplaces further. This research has reinforced the lived experiences of my clients, and I wanted to share five common root causes of disharmony and discontent, and what you can do to address them.

1. Unclear workplace structures – Many workplace problems stem from a lack of clear expectations, overlapping responsibilities, or conflicting KPIs. Clarity around these elements is foundational to a thriving organization. Get people on the same page by having a clearly defined strategy, transparent annual goals, job descriptions that are available to everyone in the organization, and intentional discussions to clarify ambiguity. Lack of clear expectations is a top issue when it comes to employee satisfaction.
2. Awareness – In the workplace, a variety of personalities, experiences, communication styles, and leadership styles abound. Thus, consider treating your team to an annual assessment tool, such as Myers-Briggs, DISC, StrengthsFinder, etc. This can help people understand where some inherent conflict might be happening. For instance, if one person in a group is outgoing and quick on their feet, there could be some repeated frustration with someone who is quiet and likes to have time to reflect carefully before expressing an opinion. If these two people work together, they might be at odds because one person needs longer to buy into a decision or path.
3. Conflict resolution training – Conflict is present in EVERY organization, and it can be an asset that improves innovation, performance, and agility. However, if it is not managed well (in my opinion, conflict should always be addressed with honesty, directness, and respect), then friction, disengagement, or worse can occur in a team. Remember to “work the issue,” not the person, and to address issues early and respectfully.
4. Toxic behavior – The list of behaviors that can derail an organization is long and isn’t limited to harassment and bullying. Complaining, undermining, gossiping, favoritism, blaming, and numerous other behaviors can create a culture that throttles teamwork and productivity, leading to disengagement and turnover. Make your workplace expectations clear and communicate them to everyone.
5. Jerks – Okay, these folks have been called much worse, too. Let’s face it – everyone can behave a bit badly under certain circumstances, but some people are just hard-wired to be mean, power-hungry, disrespectful, etc. No amount of HR training or coaching will change these folks into workplace wonders. Thus, you need to put together a jerk prevention and mitigation strategy! Be sure to screen out jerks during the hiring process. Carefully check references and focus on behaviors. And if someone sneaks through, be sure to call them out on their behavior and consider counseling them out of the organization.

These are some of the most common underlying issues that can make (or break) an organization.

I hope some of these suggestions help you create an organization with more appreciation, positivity, and kindness.

Need Help Now?

If you are looking for the right support to align your team, Yeo & Yeo HR Advisory Solutions can help!

The Michigan Earned Sick Time Act (ESTA), scheduled to go into effect on February 21, 2025, is causing lots of angst for different people. So far, every handbook that I have reviewed has required significant changes to be compliant. To get a sense of the scope of changes you will need to make, feel free to take the following quiz. Take our quiz here.

Key Changes

• All employers(*) will need to provide earned sick leave for full-time, part-time, exempt, non-exempt and temporary employees at the rate of one hour accrued for every 30 hours worked. For a full-time employee, it would be 8-9 days per year. By contrast, current legislation applies only to full-time employees and is 5 days per year. *Note: The federal government doesn’t need to do this.
• Documentation around absences due to illness is also changing, and employers may no longer request documentation for less than 3 days of absence. If the employee does provide documentation, they only have to offer a generic statement by a healthcare professional and nothing more.
• If documentation is required, employers will need to pay for the cost to acquire it, such as covering a co-pay for a doctor’s visit.
• Employees can submit leave time notifications that they are using time under ESTA “as soon as practicable.”

As they say, “Hope shouldn’t be your strategy.”

Thus, I wanted to share a few thoughts on this potentially transformative issue.

Be ready for the change.

Things to consider as a Michigan employer:

Do you have part-time workers?

• If yes, you should review your current sick leave plan for part-time workers (if you have one) and create a revised plan that complies with the new rules.

Do you currently provide 5 days of sick leave? *This was the guidance from the previous law.

• If yes, you will need to be ready to change. If you have a combined PTO bank that includes sick time and vacation time totaling more than 9 days, or you provide unlimited sick leave, you should be fine.

More details to consider:

• ESTA limits the types of restrictions employers can put on leave time, such as “advanced notice” or “supervisor approval,” as is typical with most PTO plans.
• Employees may use ESTA time in the smallest increment allowed by the employer’s timekeeping system, whereas PTO usage may have different requirements.
• There is currently no cap for accrual, and all sick time rolls over to the following year, although employees can only take up to 72 paid hours per year. Employers with fewer than 10 employees may take up to 40 paid hours per year. This may require employers to change how they record/account for this liability.
• Sick pay is not paid out upon departure, whereas vacation is. If you stick with one bank, or increase a PTO bank, you are potentially increasing your liability.

What are your documentation requirements for sickness, and what is your disciplinary process for absences?

• You will want to review your processes and language after the law and administrative guidelines are finalized.
• If you are an employer, make sure that your HR team is following this issue, and/or have an employment attorney provide you with guidance about handbook policy updates.

Help is here.

We are offering 30-minute ESTA consultations in 2025.

To help you customize a policy that matches your benefits philosophy and cost considerations and minimizes change, sign up for a 30-minute ESTA Consultation for $125.

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