Hanna Hasl-Kelchner – The IAN Interview

 Hanna Hasl-Kelchner

Hanna Hasl-Kelchner helps organizations improve performance by bridging the gap between theory and practice to gain clarity about complex concepts and make more informed business decisions.

 

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.