How I got into talent development

I walked into the command tent, and checked in with the analysts for the evening update. I asked for a debrief on what we now knew about the opposition forces based on reports on our various teams spread out for miles around us. After getting that update, I then asked how they got their conclusions. What tools did they use? What gaps still existed? How reliable was the information? How did they know? And finally, how would they present this to the force commander who needed the best intel possible before approving a critical mission. I listened as the chief analyst walked me through, piece by piece, of their findings, and expertly answered all my questions and challenges.

In this instance, I was not the head of a special force unit, or a high ranking officer. In fact, part of my role was as the “head” of the opposition forces the intelligence analysts and their unit’s teams were facing. More important to where I am now – I was also the battalion training chief. And this moment was a key experience that led me into the world of talent development.

From Command Tents to Boardrooms

As an Instructor of Water Survival, one of my roles included supporting open water training exercises (and even being ready to serve as a rescue swimmer).

This moment I’m reflecting on, specifically, was the final exercise of a 6-month ramp up for a unit getting ready to deploy. So, for me, the inspiring part was that that same chief analyst had, 6 months prior, been completely unfamiliar with the job skills, the tools, and what he needed to do to be successful. And it wasn’t just him. Most in the 25 person unit – including its officers – had not worked with each other and had not done the specific job requirements in several years, if at all. But through our training program, at the end of the ramp up, and just a few short weeks before their deployment, they were a well-oiled team, operating at a high level, and delivering the results needed to make the whole organization succeed.

I loved this job. In my final year in the Marine Corps (and, for another year several years earlier at a different unit), my primary job role was developing others – new Marines, team leaders, and whole teams. In fact, this was one thing I truly appreciated about the military - subject matter experts are expected to train and develop younger servicepeople. As I myself learned how to develop training programs, design organizational development plans, and coach leaders, I saw how others would grow into highly-capable Marines and teams, and seeing this happen filled me with joy, pride, and a sense of accomplishment.

Several years later, I met with a career coach as I was, at this point, a civilian trying to figure out my next career steps. My coach suggested that, thanks to my background in training, to look into HR, and, more specifically, talent management and development. Admittedly, my initial reaction was “you mean the policy police?” Luckily, I heeded his recommendation, and found a field I became passionate about. I used my experience to become a technical trainer for a top academic institution, and was on may way.

Mission: Growing Talent

Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to learn new tools, experiment with different platforms and approaches, and get involved in projects encompassing the entire employee lifecycle and experience – from drafting a workforce strategy and writing job descriptions to helping create succession plans and develop executive leaders. Throughout these experiences, I’ve been able to harken back to what brought me into the field in the first place - the fulfillment from seeing others succeed. Working backwards from individual and group success has become my primary approach to work, whether working for a company or for a client.

Now, nearly 20 years after the moment I recounted earlier, I get to do the same thing for businesses and their leaders looking to develop their teams to support growth. And I get to experience the same fulfillment as I see people and teams grow not just their capabilities, but their potential, as well.  The mission is different. So are the people. The methods are, surprisingly, closer than many may initially think, though in the time since I’ve left the military a lot more research around workforce development has come out. In any case, the sense of pride and fulfillment I experience in helping clients achieve their goals is still there.

Do you have questions about how you can help your people grow? Let’s set up some time to discuss.

Developing Remote Workers - Can You Do It?

Last week, news outlets shared the results from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York placing a large share of the blame for new graduate unemployment on remote work, rather than the commonly-perceived culprit that is AI.

Today, I’m going to discuss less whether or not remote work or AI is the bigger culprit (hint: I do think the interpretation of the data is leading to some inaccurate assumptions), but rather, to look at what are some common pitfalls in coaching, managing, and developing your people - regardless of their career stage - and how you can implement better practices if remote work is a reality for your business.

What is missing

The study compares unemployment rates for young graduates in “remoteable” jobs (such as software engineers), and “non-remoteable” jobs (such as nurses). Because post-pandemic unemployment rates have returned to baseline for non-remoteable jobs but stayed elevated for remoteable jobs, the study is concluding that as much as 64% of the increased unemployment rate for new graduates can be attributed to remote jobs. However, a few things that weren’t touched upon include workforce behaviors during the Great Resignation period, how those that did land jobs during this time progressed during their career, workers that chose to not change jobs or take a promotion in order to stay remote, and how much of this data is due more to company reluctance than actual employee performance.

What is different when developing remote workers?

The study did point out some examples where companies are either not adjusting, or choosing to deprioritize, their development of remote junior employees. For example, the study notes that remote junior employees receive roughly 20% less feedback than their in-person peers. Why does this happen? While some may place the blame on the location of an employee, it could be a symptom of passive management. In a traditional office, mentorship happens by accident (hallway chats, leaning over a desk), as well as in planned structured meetings. However, in a remote setting, mentorship must happen more intentionally. If feedback is dropping, it means we haven’t built intentional, structured digital check-ins. Most current managers built their entire careers in physical offices. They learned how to coach, read body language, and onboard talent purely in person. When the world shifted, many leaders simply tried to copy-paste their old management playbook onto Slack and Zoom and expected the same results. The friction we are seeing isn't because virtual training or coaching is impossible, but rather because so many managers haven’t learned how to manage virtually.

What can I do to help my young remote employees succeed?

Luckily, today’s recent graduates are true digital natives. They spent years navigating remote learning, collaborating across digital time zones, and building projects entirely online during their university years. They are deeply capable of learning and absorbing culture digitally. So, we know the graduates aren’t the bottlenecks.

To help your younger workers succeed, set up more intentionality, which means embracing asynchronous tooling, improving documentation and information organization, and encouraging manager engagement.

Some examples worth exploring include:

1. Digital shadowing - whereas in an office environment people often invite junior colleagues to sit in on meetings or trainings, doing the same with a virtual employee can help provide them with the exposure to higher-level discussions they need. Include a dial-in number or virtual link, have the employee listen in, and, most importantly, follow up the same day and check in with the employee. Let them ask questions and ask them what they’ve learned or are still unsure about.

2. Strengthen your documentation approaches - a lot of companies, especially smaller ones, lean on subject matter experts (SMEs) for historical knowledge and for coaching new employees. Creating a robust documentation approach takes a lot of upfront work, but doesn’t take away from the value of those SMEs. What it does is help all employees - new and tenured, to easily access the documentation and information when they need it, without having to find the expert each time.

3. Peer buddy system - especially true during an employee’s onboarding, pairing a young employee with a peer - not their manager, and ideally not necessarily on their team, to provides new hires a space for questions that they may feel are “silly” or aren’t comfortable bringing up in their 1-on-1 conversations with managers. Provide a stipend for coffee to reward the peer and encourage the meetups.

4. Train managers to conduct mini coaching sessions - rather than wait for 1-on-1s, encourage managers to provide virtual mini coaching sessions. When in an office setting, these come more naturally as you walk back to your desk from a meeting, or stop by for a “quick chat”. Virtually, this would require more intentionality. and some habit-forming, but something as simple as a Slack message, or building in 5-minute syncs after a presentation or a call to go over questions and feedback.

5. Focus on the output - Clear onboarding plans that articulate “by the end of Day 90, you should be able to do x, y, and z” gives everyone transparent goals to work towards, track, and measure, Continue doing this after your young employee has “onboarded”, and branch out into development goals to help build their career skills.

Shunning Fresh Talent Creates a Dangerous "Talent Cliff"

Finally, I want to provide some caution for any company pausing entry-level hiring because virtual onboarding feels too difficult. First of all, by creating this barrier right off the bat, you are excluding yourself from talent that could drive your business goals, or even become a future leader. You put yourself at risk of hiring from a lower pool quality. Furthermore, it creates a severe talent vacuum that you end up paying for heavily a few years down the line. Instead of avoiding the challenge, forward-thinking organizations should view this as an opportunity to upskill their leadership and set themselves up for the future, perhaps even at a discount. If you invest in teaching your managers how to coach effectively regardless of location, you gain an edge for the best talent pipeline for the future.

Are you looking for ways to attract, develop, and retain your talent for a sustainable and growth-focused future? Work with Sound Talent Strategy to get this work started!

A Bolt of Energy - How I Would Counsel Frustrated Leaders

If you’re in the HR world, you’ve almost certainly heard by now that Ryan Breslow, founder and CEO of fintech startup Bolt, completely eliminated his Human Resources department. The key tagline repeated was that HR was “creating problems that didn’t exist.” Following a magazine interview, Breslow confirmed on LinkedIn that Bolt got rid of its HR team, doubling down by stating traditional HR brings the “wrong energy.” Interestingly, he followed this claim by explaining Bolt now has a People Operations team to support and train employees.

Naturally, many in my network responded with all the ways this move would backfire, and largely, I agree. At the same time, some startup leaders share Breslow's frustrations, and I completely understand why. While it is easy to dismiss Breslow’s move as a reckless stunt, it exposes a deep-seated, systemic friction between traditional HR practices and fast-moving, lean startup cultures. To get ahead of it, as HR leaders who want to help our supported businesses succeed, we need to analyze the real problems and build strategically to support the speed of the business.

What Do We Know?

Breslow’s decision didn't happen in a vacuum. Bolt is operating in a pressure cooker. After founding the company in 2014, he led it to an $11B valuation in just eight years (maybe I should take some tips from him). He stepped down, and by 2024, the valuation plummeted by 97% to $300M. During this time, Bolt experienced multiple layoffs and, according to Breslow, reckless spending. Now, less than two years after returning as CEO, he is overseeing a significantly leaner workforce, estimated at a couple hundred employees. His core argument is that at this smaller scale, a multi-layered HR team is an unnecessary overhead expense that slows down product and engineering.

What Do We Not Know?

Public statements give us the narrative but leave key operational questions unresolved. If I were supporting Bolt during this transition, here is what I would want to know:

• What kind of problems were being created? First and foremost, HR looks to mitigate risk. Were the "problems" actually valid risks? Unconfirmed reports indicate sudden pay structure changes and unpaid contractors. Even if this happened just once, HR likely raised the issue as problematic, but perhaps failed to articulate the consequences in a way the founders valued.

• What was the root of these risks? Breslow believes problems were created to justify headcount increases. Possibly. I’ve seen HR implement solutions that were frankly much more troublesome than the root issue, inadvertently aggrandizing the problem.

• What is the difference between HR and "People Operations"? Breslow is right that a scaled-down company doesn't need a massive HR department. However, managing people operations—like training and development—is a core HR function. By retaining a People Ops team, he acknowledges HR is still vital. I would bet this scaled-down team still handles payroll, benefits administration, equity, compliance, and onboarding, either through full-time employees or fractional consultants.

Where the Bolt CEO is Right

To fix HR in a company similar to Bolt, we have to admit where it often fails startups. We must acknowledge that HR professionals can over-index on risk aversion, creating rigid, corporate policies that feel arresting.

I remember one HR department implementing a new transfer policy to reduce bad hires. The problem? They were trying to improve a metric that was already successful, shifting the bad hire rate from 5% to 4% (I am making the numbers up here - but it was something along those lines). The result was immense frustration from employees who faced new career development hoops, and hiring managers who needed third-party evaluators and expressed frustrations and prolonging an already time-consuming hiring process.

When HR focuses entirely on policing rather than partnering, they become a bottleneck. Creating processes just to justify their existence actively kills the high-autonomy culture startups need to scale. In a large company, this can often be mitigated as the HR department becomes multi-layered and areas of responsibility are clear. But in a start up, these behaviors can become suffocating.

Where the Bolt CEO is Wrong

Getting rid of HR because they are creating problems is like getting rid of your home’s smoke alarms because the ones you have are too sensitive. Sure, you don’t have the noise annoying you anymore, but you’re setting yourself up for a catastrophe.

A better approach is replacing the current system with one aligned to your needs—moving the alarm further away from the stove, replacing the alarms with ones that recognize the difference between burned toast and an unattended pot roast. Restructure the team to be led by a business-centric Chief People Officer, align HR goals with business goals, and challenge the department to propose solutions rather than just raise issues. Work with the HR teams to maximize efficiency, create processes that are low effort for employees to learn and implement, and ensure the team is consistently aligning its work to business strategy. Scorching the entire department signals a lack of leadership nuance and chooses a headline-grabbing stunt over strategic management.

If It Were My Client

I would recommend a frustrated founder build a “business-first” People team.

• Tie strategy to outcomes: The HR team should work with operations to build lean, high-trust frameworks matching the company’s current lifecycle.

• Develop a feedback loop: Founders must realize that labor laws, equity management, and workplace safety are guardrails keeping them out of court and legal liability. HR leaders must think like founders, present solutions aligned with the vision, and clearly articulate trade-offs so compliance isn't mistaken for "Wrong Energy."

• Audit for process bloat: Create a culture where employees can recommend improvements, look for ways to streamline policies, and execute clear communication strategies for change.

In a later blog post, I’ll go into more detail on how I got into Talent Development and Management, but I do remember being in a counseling session in grad school where someone suggested I consider HR as my field, and my immediate response was “you mean the policy police?” It’s clear that Ryan Breslow - and many other business leaders - have this same mindset. I love working with such leaders, and, just as I was introduced to what good HR (or people operations, or talent) looks like, help leaders see where the value lies, and how we can work together to build an HR team that helps drive the business forward.

Are you looking to scale and are unsure how your people operations could help? Set up some time for a free consult!

Stop Managing Tasks, Start Managing Goals: A Tactical Guide

Recently, I’ve noticed many within my network asking about and sharing tips around staying focused in an effort to maximize productivity, and, crucially, to protect their time.

First of all, I love seeing the exchange of ideas around this topic. A lot of leaders are under tight constraints, and, in many cases, I have seen many of these leaders strive to set good examples to their teams on protecting their time to focus on the most important items on their to-do lists. But how do you do that when people depend on you?

This has been a topic I have loved discussing with leaders throughout my career, so much so that I now offer a course on maximizing productivity. But I’m going to share some quick insights with you here, with the hopes of getting you started with some actionable steps to maximizing your productivity, and doing the right things right.

1.       Clarify your main goals

Start first with your key goals – the big projects, the important clients, the growth-supporting needs that will define success. Go the extra step and clearly define your role in supporting or achieving these goals.  Avoid trying to cram everything into this list – in fact, use this as an opportunity to determine if you are trying to do too much!

As you write out these goals, make sure they truly are your key goals. This is not a list of tasks, but rather the truly progress-impacting goals that are important to you.

2.       Recognize your productivity barriers

Productivity barriers are often sneaky – you don’t see them coming, but when you end up stressed out, tired, or unaccomplished, they are easy to identify post-event. Common productivity barriers include firefighting, lack of clarity or information (meaning you either spend time figuring it out or unmotivated to move forward), cherry-picking easy tasks, poor planning, and external distractions. The common theme with these is that not only do they distract you, but that it takes, on average, more than 23 minutes to fully get back into the flow of work after one of these interruptions. And when you do get back, you are 50% more likely to make mistakes on your important work. Write out some common ones you encounter on a consistent basis.

3.       Define What’s important – and what needs to be done ASAP.

An example of the Eisenhower Matrix. You may see different variations, but main principles are the same.

Think back on your daily work. Sometimes you work on things that appear to be urgent, but they are really an inefficient use of your time and accomplishes very little. Other times you are working on important items, but the deadline, turnaround time, or other constraints makes your work on this inefficient, and you end up not accomplishing as much as you’d like. Still other times, you do have time to do some deep, focused work, and you use that time to truly move a project forward. Think of how you felt after each of these moments, and you’ll notice a pattern. The ability to work on the big impact items with efficiency is a lot more rewarding, and helps your team move forward, than the firefighting or menial work.

Using the goals you wrote, add common work tasks you typically do, then classify them using what is known as The Eisenhower Matrix. Simply: everything you do fits into one of 4 tiers or quadrants: Top Tier is the most important items – major projects, big goals – that you want to make sure you spend time on. Tier 2 are important things that come up and you need to address, often with a deadline, but if you spend too much time on it, you’ll burn out (it’s important we acknowledge these – we can’t always eliminate these items, but we’ll come back to how we manage them). Tier 3 are the items that provide lower value, but you still need to complete… maybe. And finally Tier 4 are things that add no or little value and are inefficient uses of your time. Items directly related to your key goals? Those go into your Top Tier items.

You may see different variations, such as Six Sigma’s Action Priority Matrix, but the main idea remains the same - every task and activity should be able to fit into one of these quadrants or tiers, with items related to the goals you defined above going squarely in the most important tier.

4.       Time boxing

Time boxing is a process where you almost literally box out time in your day – but now we are using it for your Tier 1 items. Maybe it’s a client meeting. Perhaps it’s focus time to work on a strategy document. It could be reviewing spreadsheets to identify cost savings opportunity. Whatever it is, if it’s an important item that needs your attention, block it out on your calendar. You can still move it, but the important thing is to protect that time block.

Time blocking by itself helps you overcome most of the productivity barriers from Step 2. Some researches estimate that using timeboxing allows you to do the same amount of impact work of a 60-hour workweek into a 40-hour one. I recommend 30-90 minute blocks of time throughout the day and week.

5.       Daily and Weekly Planning

All this work does you no favors if you don’t plan for your week and day. Plan on 30 minutes a week, and 10-15 minutes a day, reviewing your tasks. Did any Tier 2 items come in you need to address, and if yes, what do you need to move to address it? Did a meeting get rescheduled? Do you need to sync with a partner quickly to go over the day’s biggest needs? What are items that you can delegate, or automate, or streamline to reduce the amount of time you have to spend on it? This is your time to answer your key questions and make your calendar work for you and set priorities.

Often the push back on daily and weekly planning is “I don’t have time!”. The fact is, spending a little bit of time up front to plan your day or week increases cognitive flexibility, leads to fewer unfinished tasks, boosts job performance, and supports your well-being. If I told you 10 minutes of planning saves you 2 hours of work later on, I bet you would take that in a heartbeat.

There’s certainly more to discuss, and a lot of this takes practice to make a habit, but these are the key steps to get your started. This is a topic near and dear to me, so much so that I offer workshops to help you maximize productivity in the workplace. We go over these concepts in deeper detail, discuss different approaches, and practice some of the recommendations we discussed above to get you well on a productive – and, importantly, sustainable – path forward.

Set up a free consult with Sound Talent Strategies to learn how you can bring this workshop (or others!) to your team!

Beyond the Bonus: Kickstart Retention on a Shoestring Budget

Looking for ways to compensate and reward your employees but you’re running a tight budget?

I recently read the interview with Kickstarter’s CEO Everette Taylor on the growth he’s helped oversee and the implementation of Kickstarter’s remote work and 4-day workweek culture. It got me thinking about some research I’ve read about the emerging trend of 4-day workweeks, and the fall of remote work’s prevalence in many workplaces.

I know you’re probably thinking “great, another article about remote work or reducing hours.” Well, not exactly.

What catches my eye about success stories like these is leaders looking for ways to support, engage, and reward their employees in ways beyond typical compensation. And, how that translates to employee, and ultimately business, performance.

In Kickstarter’s case (full disclosure, my information is coming only from this article), the drive seemed to come from the fact that, post-pandemic, some of their most valued employees were not living local to their headquarters. Taylor essentially made the decision as a perk to his best employees, and raised the performance bar for the rest of his organization.

When thinking about compensating or rewarding employees, many companies still look at things strictly in a financial sense. The truth is, most employees, once making enough to cover their primary expenses and have a little money left over, find great value in smaller acts of reward and recognition. If you’re on a tight budget, finding creative solutions that employees value can drive retention, and keep your best workers to help drive your growth.

These could be, much like remote work or a 4-day work week, flexibility in time worked. Other benefits to consider would be early exits on Fridays, allowing employees to log off at 2pm as long as weekly goals or deliverables are complete. A variation I’ve seen teams do are Focus Days: one day of the week, say Wednesday, gets blocked out all day so no internal meetings happen, with employees expected to do deep work. Compressed workweeks (40 hours over 4 work days, though I like the 80 hours over 9 work days set up, so every other Friday is off), Mental health days (1-2 days per quarter, separate from sick days), or Volunteer days (a day off to do an act of good for the community), are all examples of flexibility you can provide to your employees as a reward, at no financial cost to your team.

If you’re willing to spend a little bit, but can’t spend it on raises, there are still low-cost options worth considering. Professional development opportunities like a small learning stipend (think a Coursera class or a year of Linkedin Learning instead of a major conference),  mentorship circles where individuals connect with senior leaders over coffee (and the company covers the coffee),  or subscriptions to apps like Headspace are all in most firms’ budgets, even during tight financial times, and can make a big difference in employee engagement.

Even when on a tight budget, you can find ways to reward and compensate your employees. Doing so can mean the difference between finding replacements and watching your team and company grow.

I’ll probably dive deeper into some examples in a future post, but broadly speaking, these small gestures return far more on your investments. The latest research suggests the average cost of turnover in the US is over $45,000 per employee, after factoring in recruiting, onboarding, training, lost productivity, and management time. Retention initiatives such as mentoring and development support, flexible work, and recognition programs show a 4.2 ROI, and can lift retention by 87%.

Employees who feel seen through recognition, development, and flexibility are 18% more productive. Including wellness initiatives can reduce absenteeism and lead to healthier employees. The improved engagement and increased productivity leads to, according to Gallup, 23% increased profitability.

Not every one of these options is the right fit for your company, and there are many more that might work, based on your company culture, the workplace, and your goals. Are you looking for ways to motivate and retain your employees, but are worried about what this means for your budget? Work with Sound Talent Strategies to discover ways you can better reward strong performance, even on a tight budget. Let’s work together to help your business grow!

Court Success: Why Your Office Needs a March Madness Pool (And How to Run One

It’s that time of year again. The brackets are drawn, the upsets are predicted, and across the country, millions of employees are subtly (and not-so-subtly) checking scores on their phones.

For decades, business leaders have viewed the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament—affectionately known as March Madness—with dread, calling it a “productivity killer.” But what if this could be a key tool in driving employee morale, engagement, and productivity?

Instead of fighting the tide, forward-thinking organizations are leaning into the tournament. They are recognizing that a structured, voluntary March Madness office pool is a powerful, low-cost tool for driving engagement, morale, and connection.

The Benefits: Fostering Community, Not Cyberloafing

The most significant benefit of a workplace March Madness pool has nothing to do with basketball and everything to do with human connection.

1. Breaking Down Silos and Boosting Camaraderie

In today’s landscape of hybrid and remote work, creating a unified company culture is harder than ever. An office pool provides a neutral ground where a junior analyst can playfully banter with the CEO over their bracket. It gives employees across different departments something in common to talk about other than a spreadsheet. HR Firm Randstad U.S. found that 89% of workers reported that participating in workplace bracket contests “helped build better team camaraderie.” Research cited by Forbes Magazine showed that such healthy competition is a sign of a positive work culture, which can lead to higher quality work. Still more research shows that a March Madness office pool and other low stakes workplace competitions reduce burnout and increase retention.

2. Mental Refreshment and Enhanced Morale

The tournament offers a built-in, mental “micro-break.” Allowing employees a moment to engage in a shared, fun activity can prevent burnout and make the daily grind more palatable. The same Randstad survey noted that 84% of respondents agreed that office pools make their jobs more enjoyable, and 79% said it improved their level of engagement at work. Furthermore, research from TSheets (now QuickBooks Time) revealed that employees who are encouraged by their bosses to watch the games actually watch fewer hours than those whose bosses discourage it.

More and more, HR leaders are using March Madness to increase camaraderie, reduce burnout, and drive collaborative relationships.

Taming the Beast: Tips for Maintaining Productivity

While the benefits are clear, the tournament is designed to be captivating. You cannot simply flip on the TVs and hope for the best. To protect your company's performance, you need a strategy to keep people engaged, but ensure you still meet your key tasks, timelines, and goals.

1. Set the Ground Rules Early

Communicate clearly about the pool's voluntary nature and reiterate your existing Internet and mobile phone policies. The goal is transparency, not surveillance. Make it clear that while "the madness" is welcome, mandatory work deadlines are non-negotiable.

2. Designate "Tournament Zones"

To avoid having streaming games slow down your network or distract focused teams, create designated areas for viewing. A conference room with the games on during lunch hours or a shared digital channel for score updates allows employees to stay connected without hindering their individual tasks.

3. Encourage "Forced Efficiency"

Steve Karau, a management professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale who studies cyberloafing, argues that these distractions don't have to be entirely negative. The presence of a distraction can sometimes produce a psychological effect known as "forced efficiency." When employees know they want to catch the last ten minutes of a game, they are often more focused on "buckling down" and completing their tasks beforehand.

4. Champion Non-Monetary Prizes

To keep the event professional and avoid legal complications, explicitly ban entry fees or cash prizes. Instead, focus on bragging rights. Offer prizes like:

• Lunch with the CEO.

• The winner's picture prominently displayed on the internal homepage.

• A coveted prime parking spot for a week.

• A "late arrival" or "early departure" pass.

If you want to have some sort of monetary prize like a gift card, be sure to work with your HR team to be clear about steps you need to take to ensure you remain compliant.

The Bigger Picture: March Madness as a Low-Cost Employee Benefit

The beauty of a March Madness pool is that it costs the business nothing. It is a pure engagement play that fits perfectly into a holistic low-cost employee benefit strategy.

Businesses often focus on the big-ticket perks: premium health insurance, matching 400(k) contributions, or high salaries. While these are critical for attracting talent, research consistently shows that they are not the only, or even the most effective, levers for retaining talent and driving day-to-day performance.

The March Madness pool belongs to the critical category of culture-based, non-compensation actions.

The Evidence: Why Leader Actions Trumps Cash in Retention

The premise that non-cash actions drive business outcomes isn't a "soft skill" myth; it is backed by hard data.

Employee engagement is a primary indicator of both performance and retention. According to Gallup's comprehensive state of the workplace reports, organizations with a highly engaged workforce see 21% higher profitability and up to 59% lower turnover in high-turnover organizations.

How is that engagement built? It is rarely through salary increases alone. Instead, it is built through leadership actions that foster a sense of belonging, recognition, and psychological safety.

• SHRM research shows that 83% of employees who rate their workplace culture as excellent are motivated to produce high-quality work, compared to just 45% of those in poor cultures.

• Furthermore, 42% of employees who voluntarily exit organizations say their manager or the organization could have prevented their departure. This preventable attrition is almost always tied to feelings of being undervalued or disconnected from the team.

Conclusion: Embrace the Opportunity

By organizing a voluntary, structured March Madness office pool, you are sending a clear signal as a leader: "We value hard work, but we also value your mental well-being and our community."

You aren't just letting employees "play." You are strategically leveraging a national cultural moment to strengthen the relationships and morale that form the backbone of your business's performance.

So, this March, don't fight the madness. Embrace it. Your employees—and your retention rates—will thank you.

What Winter Olympians Showed About Leading Through Failure

Like many others, I spent a little over two weeks captivated with the Winter Olympics. My favorite sports to watch are biathlon, figure skating, and this year I really got into the halfpipe competitions. But this year, I was struck by something we all saw, and what it means for our own personal leadership principles.

We’ve all seen the footage. A world-class Winter Olympian—a short-track speed skater, a figure skater, a curler – catches an edges, loses their balance, or pushes the rock a little too hard. In a heartbeat, an athlete on top of their game fails in their mission in front of the entire world.

Figure 1. Adeliia Petrosian falls during the free skate competition. Image courtesy of Getty Images

I first noticed it during the figure skating competitions. Ilia Malinin, Amber Glenn, Adam Siao Him Fa, and many other skaters had errors in their competitions. Athletes who were otherwise performing spectacularly would fall, instantly eliminating them (practically) from an Olympic medal. But every single time, the skater gets back up immediately. Why? Because dwelling on the error, regretting the turn, or nursing the immediate pain (however justified) will not help them reach the finish line.

This is an example of leadership. Specifically, what I refer to as “personal leadership”.

In business, we often frame 'resilience' as bouncing back later. True leadership resilience is rapid resetting. When a product launch fails, a critical presentation bombs, or funding falls through, a leader must process the shock instantly, push off the ice, re-engage, and figure out what it takes to accomplish the goal. The timeline for recovery defines the trajectory of the response. A leader’s speed of reset dictates the team’s reset speed.

How do we take that raw, instinctive athlete energy and apply it to a failing corporate project?  Because the fact is, in sport, business, and life, we are all going to find a point where we failed. The biggest difference becomes whether or not you fail properly

Figure 2. Ilia Malinin mid-fall. Notice he immediately recognizes the situation, and despite the mistake, he continues to skate.

This is what failing properly looks like in leadership:

• Acknowledge the Data, Fast: The leader doesn't hide the failing graph, the red goals, the poor client pitch; she highlights it. “This is what we set out to do, this is what happened, this is why, and this is how we will do better.” A leader’s job isn't to prevent all failures, but to illuminate them quickly so the team can learn. The curler who pushed the rock too hard and lost the end for his team immediately recognizes what went wrong, and acknowledges it.

• Neutralize Blame: The focus is not on who fell, but what we do next. The skater doesn't blame the ice; she checks her skates. The leader doesn't blame the team; she identifies the cause, and looks at how to improve.

• Redirect the Energy: The adrenaline of the crash is immediately channeled into the pivot. Yuma Kagiyama tripped in his sequence, and still earned the silver. The leader rallies herself and the team to look at what they learned, what to do next, and how best to move forward.

What is the result of failing properly? Learning, growth, and rapid innovation.

Think of properly failing as research and development. You’ve identified the cause, and can now craft a plan to address the cause and lead to success the next time. Because just as surely as there will be another Olympics, there will be a next time for you, as well. You also build psychological safety for your teams, as you signal that growth is welcome, and encouraged.

When an Olympian falls, they do not just get back up. They absorb the moment, process the failure instantly, and redirect that kinetic energy back into the race. They lead by example. This leader is not afraid to catch an edge, attempt a quad lux, or try to knock away a blocker. She is not afraid to see the graph crash, a goal turn red, or a client walk away. She knows that when she pushes off the ice with determination, she is building the foundation for the future breakthrough. And when she pivots, she is showing the team how to do it, and how to innovate, as well.

Fail properly. Learn from it, figure out how you can improve, and continue your forward momentum. Sound Talent Strategies can work with your leaders to develop the skills to quickly analyze and recover from failures and mistakes, leading to better growth in their leadership and in your business.

The Accidental Manager and Team Burnout

If you feel like your management layer is more of a mushy middle than a powerhouse, you’re not alone. I’ve been seeing it repeatedly over the years, and the data supports it. Recent Gartner research shows a startling disconnect: only 35% of HR leaders are satisfied with their mid-level managers. Even worse? Only 38% of employees actually like their boss, and less than half trust them. The problem isn't necessarily that people are bad at managing—it’s that they don’t actually want the job.

The Rise of the Reluctant Manager

Most of us have seen the typical corporate ladder in some form like this: keep moving up until you hit the manager rungs. Then, you keep going up, but only as a manager, or, you stagnate your career. We take our best individual performers, give them a team, and think “they’re a high performer, so they will do great!”

The result? As many as 82% of managers are “accidental” managers, including 25% of senior leaders, and the impacts are staggering. The Chartered Management Institute found that employees dissatisfied with their managers are not just dissatisfied with their jobs compared to those with effective managers by a 3-to-1 ratio, but are significantly more likely to leave within the year. Moreover, managers themselves can feel less engaged with the work, proving less effective in leading their teams to drive results.

So, how do you stop the reluctant manager problem?

Stop the "Surprise" Promotion

Most management selection is backward-looking. We promote people because they were great at their previous job, not because they’ll be great at the new one.

To prevent reluctant managers from taking the keys, start having the conversation early to demystify the role.

• Simulate the Stress: Give candidates a taste of the “manager” stuff—workload prioritization, difficult performance reviews, and budget calibration.

• Provide Mentorship: Only 26% of managers get to talk to a peer about the realities of the job before starting. Change that. Pair them with a current manager for some "real talk."

• The Safe Off-Ramp: Create a culture where a candidate can say, "Actually, I’ve seen the job and it’s not for me," without it being a career-killer.

Diagnose the Reluctance

If you already have managers who seem checked out, they are not yet a lost cause. Figure out if their reluctance is addressable (they’re just overwhelmed) or entrenched (they fundamentally hate the work). Talk to your leader to see if they are frustrated with some current but temporary challenge, or with a challenge that is inherent to the role. Are some functions dull or perhaps awkward? Or do they make your leader uncomfortable?

Your leaders may need coaching to learn how to apply new skills to their new role. Or perhaps they need help establishing new habits that makes the admin of management quicker and easier.

The Bottom Line

When a manager doesn’t want to be there, everyone knows it. But when a manager is engaged, they are four times more likely to be high contributors, and those efforts cascade to their teams, in turn developing better future leaders. Investing in a selection process that ensures people actually want the job isn't just "nice to have"—it’s a retention strategy.

Facing this problem with your company? Let’s set up some time to discuss how you can help!

The start of a new era

My dad was an airline pilot, and for a little while – though, truthfully, during my remember-nothing years – he owned his own small cargo airline. From him, I grew up with an interest in airplanes, and at one point imagined what it would be like to start my own airline. I wasn’t so much interested in, say, taking over an established one, or working up the corporate ladder at one of the big ones. I was much more interested in starting one, figuring out how we’d be different and would grow.

As I grew and my interests evolved, I would occasionally entertain the fancy of my own little startup. In high school, I had, what I still maintain was, the original concept for iTunes – though in my mind it was a service that would burn CDs with your selected songs and mail it to you. Still, the common barrier to these ideas centered around this thought – “I don’t actually know how to do this.”

Today, I open the doors for Sound Talent Strategies, which, for me, provides an opportunity to scratch that business-owner itch, without that self-restricting barrier. After decades in the Talent Development and Human Resources fields, I decided to launch Sound Talent Strategies to help our small- and medium-sized businesses, startups, and growing companies set up their talent departments in a way to best support their business and future growth.

I first found my passion for the field when I was serving in the Marine Corps. After a couple deployments, I was put in charge of training our battalion’s pre-deployment teams. I loved seeing teams work together through our training programs, and comparing the teams and individuals at the end of our programs to how they were performing at the start, and sharing those improvements. I learned a lot about human development and how people learn through experiences, and I decided to pursue this field after my military service. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of working for higher education institutions and the corporate world, during which I’ve had the pleasure to learn more about the human resources field at large.

My goal is to work with clients to develop holistic approaches to developing and growing their talent. For some, that might be a specific leadership development opportunity focusing on specific outcomes. For others, that might be a broader project in a specific area that they need help in. And still, for some, it may be more of a generalist need that can handle the day-to-day during times of transition.

I encourage you to check out the different services Sound Talent Strategies offers, and if you’d like to learn more, let’s chat!  I also encourage you to come back for a visit, as I’ll be using this blog to share some thoughts on talent-related issues and questions throughout the year. Thanks for visiting, and I look forward to getting to know you!