What’s Most Challenging at Work?

We’re in the midst of collecting responses on the 2009 Workplace Issues Survey

Here’s a “teaser” of some results. Interestingly despite current economic pressure, thus far this year the vast majority of responses still focus on the “people side” — for example, based on rough calculations from responses to date….

89% say employee’s feelings are “important” or “essential” to solving the issues the organization faces
91% report that “emotional intelligence” skills are “important” or “essential” to solving the issues the organization faces
The “people issues” are perceived to be about 63% more significant than “technical issues”
Only 9% report that they’ve received training to effectively deal with the issues they’re facing
And by about a 20% margin, “mentoring” is perceived as the most effective way for people to develop the needed capacity to deal with all these issues!

Here are the top scoring words from comments so far (bigger is more frequent)…

What are the top issues you’re facing at work? Are they “technical,” “people,” or something else?
Do feelings matter? Please share your views on the survey — and invite colleagues to do the same!