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Business as Un-usual: The First Step to Change Workplace Paradigms is Defining “Usual”
Want to see big changes this new year? As Albert Einstein famously said, “We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.”
What do Trevor Noah, James Corden, Judy Woodruff, Nancy Pelosi, and Anthony Fauci all have in common? They’re all well respected in their respective fields and are choosing to step down from high-profile positions. While the prestige of being a public figure will stay with them, they understand the changing tide; they know the power they’ve cultivated is a privilege that should be passed on to the next set of capable hands, as opposed to a manifestation of their “inherent greatness” — i.e. their ego (Trevor Noah even joked about this!).
Unfortunately, this voluntary transfer of power appears to be the exception these days, as CEOs, managers, supervisors, and others in positions of authority are using the power of their position as a weapon of manipulation against their subordinates. Unfortunately, subtle and overt workplace abuses now seem to be the default behavior across a diverse range of professional settings.
Take, for example, the controversy surrounding the end of Ellen DeGeneres’s…
