Hanna
accomplishes this as a business strategist through her writing, speaking,
consulting, and popular syndicated podcast, Business Confidential Now,
and as President of Business M.O., LLC.
She grew up
with a front row seat to the American Dream, watching her parents build a
successful business and running her own before age 30. Those hands-on
entrepreneurial experiences blended with formal business training and decades
of practicing business law give her a unique perspective on what makes
successful business cultures tick.
It’s also allowed
her to be a trusted advisor to influential decision makers ranging from
startups to the S&P 500, Big Tobacco, and the White House.
IAN: Please tell us about your latest book.
Hanna
Hasl-Kelchner: Seeking Fairness at Work: Cracking the New Code of Greater
Employee Engagement, Retention & Satisfaction examines the unwritten
rules at work—rules that, when broken, keep employees from doing their best
work and companies from fully flourishing.
It’s well
known that high employee engagement drives organizational success. But, what’s
less understood is the crucial role the implied social contract plays in this
process and how unwritten rules betray employees’ legitimate expectations of
fairness.
Using
evidence-based science, academic research, interviews, and real-life stories, I
analyze why traditional means of improving employee engagement fail and offer a
practical five-part strategy to help raise employees’ game instead of their
defenses.
IAN: Is Seeking Fairness at Work published in print, e-book, or both?
Hanna
Hasl-Kelchner: Yes to both. Not only is it in print and e-book formats, but
also audio for those who like to multi-task.
IAN: Where can we go to buy Seeking Fairness at Work?
Hanna Hasl-Kelchner: The book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and through Ingram Sparks for librarians and retailers. For more information visit SeekingFairnessAtWork.com.
IAN: What inspired you to write Seeking
Fairness at Work?
Hanna Hasl-Kelchner: Two
things motivated me to fire up my computer and write Seeking Fairness at
Work. First, the continuous annual workplace polling by Gallup that reports
engagement numbers year after year in the 60-70% range plus other research
finding 75% of employees think their direct manager is the most stressful part
of the job and 65% saying they’d rather have a new manager than a pay raise.
The second driver was my own firsthand experience
with frustrated employees who shared their feelings of helplessness and anger
over the years, upset about their company’s willful blindness to management
behaviors that torched their dignity, confidence, and psychological safety.
It occurred to me that both sides of the desk
were experiencing unnecessary pain and I authored this book to help heal those
divisions.
IAN: Did you use an outline, or do you
just wing the first draft?
Hanna Hasl-Kelchner: I
definitely outlined the book multiple times. The final product looks dramatically
different from its first draft.
IAN: How long did it take to write Seeking
Fairness at Work?
Hanna Hasl-Kelchner: The
actual writing process took approximately one year, but when you include all of
the research and outline restructuring it was closer to five or six years. Definitely
more than weekend project!
IAN: What do you hope your readers come
away with after reading Seeking Fairness at Work?
Hanna Hasl-Kelchner: For
executives, managers, and entrepreneurs my hope is (1) they acquire a new
appreciation for their employees’ experiences and what it means for their managerial
responsibilities of good asset stewardship, (2) gain a deeper understanding of
why certain past efforts to improve employee satisfaction, engagement, and
retention have failed and (3) discover why a synchronized five-part strategy
focused on the employee-employer relationship is a smarter way to achieve
extraordinary results.
For employees, my hope is that they find
comfort in knowing their expectations of fairness at work are reasonable and
justified.
IAN: How is Seeking
Fairness at Work from
others in your genre?
Hanna Hasl-Kelchner: Unlike
other books in the leadership space, Seeking Fairness at Work offers a
new perspective on employee engagement by reframing it as a response to
how power is used in the workplace and how power causes leaders to miss
solutions hiding in plain view. After all, employees are never more engaged
than on the first day at a new job. It’s only after they discover how things
really work that their enthusiasm starts to wane.
Identifying those “things,” those unwritten
workplace rules employees secretly wish they could tell their boss about, is
another way Seeking Fairness at Work differs dramatically from other
books in this genre. It’s also why repairing workplace relationships requires
the multi-pronged approach outlined in the book and I include over one hundred
fairness factors to highlight incremental opportunities for positive change, as
well as address the nagging doubts and fears managers may have in implementing
them.
IAN: Do you recall how your interest in
writing originated?
Hanna Hasl-Kelchner: It
goes back to third grade when something I wrote was “published” in the school’s
Inkling magazine. It inspired me to keep painting pictures with words.
IAN: What was the hardest thing about
writing Seeking Fairness at Work?
Hanna Hasl-Kelchner: The
most challenging thing about writing Seeking Fairness at Work was
winnowing down the huge amount of research and connecting the dots in a practical,
no-nonsense way.
IAN: Do you have anything specific that
you want to say to your readers?
Hanna Hasl-Kelchner: Some
people say, “Life isn’t fair, why should the workplace be fair?”
And the answer is simple: Leaders and managers
need to get work done through others. It requires cooperation.
Fairness greases those wheels by giving
everyone something they want and need. It’s about being reasonable, not being
taken advantage of. Unfairness misaligns those gears.
What that means for managers is that fairness
is not about charity. It’s smart business. It’s a management superpower because
it lets everyone win.
That’s
why I encourage readers to share the book with leaders who want to prosper.
IAN: Tell us about your next book or a work in progress. Is
it a sequel or a stand-alone?
Hanna Hasl-Kelchner: My
next book will probably be a 20-year anniversary edition of my first book, The
Business Guide to Legal Literacy: What Every Manager Know About the Law,
which was published by Wiley in 2006. Technology changes have altered the
business landscape in a way that makes organizations more vulnerable than
before and increases their need to be more proactive in managing risk exposure.
