Recently, I was lucky enough to go to a private screening of a new documentary, “Pursuing Happiness.” The director, Adam Shell, shared wonderful stories of the people he interviewed in his attempt to find the happiest people in America. “Who is the happiest person you know?” was the question he and his production partner posed. My friend who hosted the …
Workplace Bullying, the New Normal?
At age thirteen I was led to an epiphany. The year was 1976, and this is my story – – I was an eighth grader, rocking a pair of light blue converse all-stars, the perfect afro, and living large at Canterbury Jr. High School. That was the year of my (to this day) most infamous encounter with Clifford, a classmate and neighbor, who by that time …
Worked Up About Manipulated Glassdoor Ratings? Maybe It’s Time For a New Approach
I learned long ago that user-generated ratings — whether they be on Amazon, Yelp, TripAdvisor, or anywhere else — are easily manipulated and should be taken with a grain of salt. So, is anyone really surprised that Glassdoor ratings get manipulated too? The Wall Street Journal recently published an in-depth look at how some companies have figured out how to …
Do You VUCA? Should You?
I had a nice New Year’s breakfast with a friend and we were talking about VUCA. Yeah… I live on the edge! If you’re not familiar, VUCA stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. The acronym was first described in 1987 and adopted by the U.S. Army War College to describe the multilateral world resulting from the end of the …
Marketing Training as a Benefit
Today’s workforce is very impatient. We want to grow and develop and get promoted, and we want it all to come very quickly. To be perfectly frank, we believe we are entitled to it. I am your employee, and so therefore you should be giving me things. Lots of things. So many things. I don’t even care what those things …
You Worked Really Hard in 2018.
It’s 2019 and it’s already time for everyone to start implementing New Year’s goals. But before you jump in and make good on your 2019 resolutions, let’s acknowledge that you worked really hard in 2018. Like really hard. You may not have met all of your 2018 personal goals, and maybe missed the mark on one or two objectives, but …
Call Me! The Lost Art of Picking Up The Phone.
Gen X version: “Call me (call me) on the line Call me, call me any, anytime“ Millennial version: “Hey, I just met you, And this is crazy, But here’s my number, So call me, maybe!” Aside from the observation that Millennials are much coyer in their request for a call (“So call me, maybe!”) and those of us who identify …
The Five New Year’s Resolutions of an HR Leader
2019 is just around the corner and HR leaders everywhere are making their New Year’s resolutions. I’m not talking about false promises to lay off gluten, flatten that spare tire around the midsection, call grandma in Sheboygan more often, eat more kale, blah blah blah. That’s all well and good, but how about making a collective resolution to your employees and …
HR Girl Power in 2019
Ariana Grande proclaimed “God is a Woman,” Keith Urban sang about “Female,” and Jesse J begged girls to feel elevated and say “I am a Queen.” Fearless Girl is on the move to the NY Stock Exchange; Sheryl Sandberg focused headlines read “Fall from Grace” for her part in Facebook’s mishaps, and a new study shows a 51% wage gap …
5 Hard Lessons I’ve Learned About Being a Better Manager and Boss
I’m a sucker for anything that tries to answer a question that I almost never hear anyone ask, much less answer: How can you be a good boss? Notice that I say anything that “tries” to answer because I usually find that most advice on how to better manage people usually goes one of two ways — it’s either very …