Archive for category Corporate Culture

Even when I left Corporate America, I didn’t leave. For at least a few years I think I was still caught in the corporate culture trance as I contracted in semi-permanent positions. It was lucrative and fun, but I didn’t really experience the freedom of the outside until later.

Freedom can be scary, but to me, now, it’s not nearly as scary as the idea of going back. I’m not alone. Most solopreneurs I meet who’ve survived more than a year or two on their own wouldn’t go back for the world, even when we miss the camaraderie and teamwork of a group. Just this weekend I met a young woman who’s experimenting with multi-level marketing programs and dreams of escaping her corporate job – even though she just got a promotion and is 15 years younger than the next oldest colleague on her leadership team. When I was in that position in my 20′s, I thought I’d made it and was determined to stay, and I did for ten years. Is this generation so much less patient? Many signs say yes.

Why is corporate culture such a bummer for so many people? What’s the secret sauce of flying solo and can corporate leaders inject some of it into corporate America? It just might save corporations from the brain drain that’s already happening and is likely to become an avalanche if the self-employment penalties ever loosen (by which I mean primarily the corporate flytrap of “affordable” health care).

Here are three lessons for corporate leaders about why their folks leave and how maybe they could hold onto them if they tried. Read the rest of this entry »