Let It Be...Let It Be

Let it Be was in fact the last Beatles album released in 1970 and the song was written by Paul McCartney which was inspired by his mother. I read a recent article that authored by Michael O’Brien titled, “Tardiness is on the Rise” and was published online by LRP Publications.

That exact song title came to me immediately upon starting to read the article, but as I continued to read on, the content contained in the article got my juices flowing.

It was noted in an earlier survey that more than 1 in 5 workers say they arrive late to work at least once a week and another 10% say they are late at least twice a week.

Some people believe that the rise in tardiness is directly related to the economic times and is more of an employee defense mechanism. People are now relating tardiness to specific behavioral patterns normally associated with procrastination. Behavioral change is possible and can be accomplished in good or bad economic times.

Other experts think the reason for tardiness has more to do with demographics as opposed to individual behavioral styles and the climate of the economy. Billy G. Blair, President and CEO of Change Strategists, Inc., a Los Angeles-based consultancy, and author of All the Moving Parts: Organizational Change Management says that the increase in lateness may correspond to an increase in the number of “millennials” in the workplace. She also says the “factory model” of being in a certain place at a certain time and predetermined duration is outdated. The “factory model” may be outdated but in many businesses today, coverage remains an important responsibility for the worker. Flex-time may help support the needs of the employer and the worker but random flex-time rarely provides a viable resolution for both.

Wake up! Work does not necessarily begin wherever you are, and the customer is not always available at the times you would like them to be. It just might be that in some workplaces today, consistency is more important than flexibility. Focus your culture on the customer, not the millennial. Oh, well, I guess I should Let it Be!

Article written by Richard J. Hohmann Jr., SeniorInnovative Leadership, a performance improvement company that integrates business consultation, training and development, and coaching with Leadership and Strategic/Forward Thinking to enhance organizational effectiveness and people development. Richard is a member of the Collaboration Team for Leadership Management International and a strategic partner with the accounting firm of Fitzpatrick, Bongiovanni, & Kelly, PC. For more information visit www.ILDV.org. Business and Management Consultant for

Communication Process to Drive Growth

Most companies are focused today on driving growth, as I’m sure you are with your business. Many don’t realize that to drive growth you have to start at the beginning with interviewing the candidate and end it with the exit interview or retirement dinner.

Your company needs to focus on hiring the people that will perform better and stay longer. Then, you must identify the high achievers at a very early point in their careers and the retention of these high achievers must be considered paramount to the organization. How do you do this? Employee retention starts with the on-boarding process or orientation. This is best opportunity to start the communication line, explaining the business strategy of the organization and how their role and responsibility provides value to that equation. Communication is the key ingredient for any leadership team to articulate where the company is heading and how they plan to get there. This is the best time to align your employees appropriately but most companies do not spend the time to do such.

The next step in the process is make sure the capabilities of your people can support your company’s strategy and create a competitive advantage; a slight edge as we like to call it. Last but not least, we have to hold our people accountable and in most cases we assign that role to our middle management team. It is their responsibility to structure reporting relationships and evaluate individual performance to ensure the desired business results. They are the ones that execute the strategy.

Companies need to construct a training and development process that enhances communication between the employee and management, improves individual productivity, enhances performance and makes a more effective organization that achieves its revenue goals. Human Resource executives must take responsibility for administering this training process and utilize this process to shorten the learning curve and make employees much more productive and engaged earlier. This will allow companies to achieve sustained growth during these difficult economic times.


Innovative Leadership helps companies connect their people success strategies with their business objectives to drive growth. It's time to get that process into place, we can help.