The Singular “They”, And Other Things That Evolve
Today’s blog post is a video blog. Here’s the video. And a transcript of the video is right underneath it. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xu891wlFsvQ%3Frel%3D0%2520width%3D560%2520height%3D315%2520frameborder%3D0%2520allowfullscreen%3Dallowfullscreen The longer I live, the more acutely aware I become that we live in an ever evolving world. For instance, have you heard that the Chicago Manual of Style has just decreed that because […]
When Someone’s Trying to Apologize, Get Off Their Back
I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but it has become all too rare for someone, anyone, upon making a mistake to step up, acknowledge their error, meaningfully apologize, make it right as best they can, and promise to do better. Due to lots of poor examples and an over-indulgence of “reality tv”, the reaction […]
Speaking Each Other’s Language
Let’s face it. Communicating at work is tough enough when both the speaker and the listener speak the same native language. Add different tongues to the dynamic and, sacré bleu! You’ve just hit a wall, and not the kind that’s proposed for the US’s southern border. To be clear, language, as well as literacy (the […]
Guest Post: 6 Tips to Get your Employees Engaged
By Sydney Frazer, Partnerships Manager, Glassdoor Employee engagement is often the buzz among HR circles. You hear about it and you know you should take steps to engage with your employees. You probably even know only a minority of the American workforce is engaged (in fact, only 32 percent is considered engaged). But why should you care […]
New “Best Companies to Work For” List Revealed
Last night, @AlanSMurray and the Fortune Magazine editors and journalists revealed for the twentieth time their annually curated list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For in America.” The list is special to me, for two reasons. First, my most significant employment experience prior to branching out on my own was at an early stage FedEx. Our HR […]
Career Advice from 6 Prominent Female Executives
Today, in celebration of International Women’s Day, we’re going to do one thing that guys like us should do more often… Shut up and listen. To wit, here’s a link to a very good piece written by Grace Nasri for FastCompany – Six Female Execs On The Early Career Advice They Wish They’d Gotten. Enjoy!
Good Leaders Look Beneath the Surface
One of the most remarkable people I ever worked with was a bank teller named Donna, at a bank branch I managed early in my career. Donna was a customer magnet. Brilliant. Hard working. Always went the extra mile. She was a single mother, and she’d been a teller for 12 years. I recommended to […]
When it comes to Training, Visibility Matters
I was conducting leadership training for a large public utility, in a rural training facility about 100 miles from the company’s headquarters. The Vice President who had brought me in was a full participant in the first class I conducted, and believe me, his presence and participation in the training wasn’t lost on anyone. A […]
Three Steps to being the Leader you Always Wanted to Be
Along the way, we’ve all observed and noted better (I hesitate to use the word, “best”) habits practiced by leaders we have come into contact with. I’m willing to bet that most of those habits are simple, straightforward, and have a high degree of commonality from one person to another. Here are three that stand […]
How to Avoid Cow Tipping at Work
Urban mythology has it that teenagers, likely fueled by alcohol have, in the pursuit of fun, been known to enter a pasture, sneak up on a grazing cow and, through brute force upend the animal, pushing (aka “tipping”) it onto its side. Rural mythology, however, aided by people who have actually touched a cow with something besides […]