Five Good Ideas on how to manage the modern workforce

We can all agree that the world has changed in the last few years – and so have workplaces. Today, managers are facing a workforce shaped by changing demographics, shifting expectations, and growing pressures outside the workplace.

In this Five Good Ideas session, Dave McKechnie, Toronto Office Managing Partner of McMillan LLP and an expert in all areas of employment and labour relations law, offers practical strategies for managers who want to lead effectively in this new environment.

Session handout

Five Good Ideas

1. Introspection. What are your strengths and blind spots as a manager? What are your strengths and blind spots as an organization?

2. Intention. Be deliberate in setting not just your goals or an employee’s goals but the steps to get there.

3. Improvise. Be flexible as not all your employees are coming with the same experiences.

4. Include. Be hyper-conscious of your words, actions, and behaviours. Are there unconscious biases that you have that you need to address?

5. Insulate. Control what you can control. You need to be conscious of the outside world, but you cannot control it.

Resources

Suzanne Wertheim, The Inclusive Language Field Guide, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2023

Simon Sinek, Start with Why, Penguin, 2009