I’ll be honest. The world scares me right now. I feel like we devolved into a global Lord of the Flies Netflix series that, like The Walking Dead, won’t end but just keeps mayhem on infinite repeat. It’s draining and exhausting. I know you feel it too. I also think many of us are starting to look inward to find …
If You Want a Culture of Feedback, You Should Measure the Sensitivity of Those You Hire
Feedback has never been on the menu for most of us, people. Here’s a taste of what I’m talking about from the aptly-named Tim Sackett Project: Here are the types of “critical” feedback people can handle: “You’re doing a good job, would love it if you could get that big project off the ground. That would really help us out!” …
Microlearning’s Macro Mistakes
Microlearning is one of the newest (cough, cough) hot topics in professional talent development. You will hear about it over and over again spouted by professional trainers as a way to make themselves sound knowledgeable and hip. Frankly, you have likely been hearing it for years. People talk about it at conferences, write articles, and use the jargon to sell …
Are You Brave Enough To Teach Leaders To Not Treat Everyone Equally?
Leadership slang time, people. Let’s give you a term you can text your fellow HR/Talent pros in response to hearing that they’re stuck in a time-suck they shouldn’t be in. The term/acronym? NINA. “No Influence, No Authority.” NINA refers to people who really can’t get things done in an organization, and it’s position/situation specific. Consider the following: – Authority is downward sloping. People with …
A Lesson on Letting Go
Sometimes I learn things from my personal life and can apply that learning to situations I encounter in my work life. Sometimes it’s the other way around. I’ve personally never been able to keep my home life separate from my work life. I’m a continuous learner on both fronts. And I’m just not wired that way. One such lesson that …
Micro-Internships: A Gig Economy Way to Find Great Young Talent.
Count me as a big fan of college internships. I’ve told this story before, but I trace my long career as a journalist and media executive back to my college internship on the Metro Desk of the Los Angeles Times. I got class credit instead of pay, but that wasn’t the point. I wanted a chance to write something that …
What Makes a Great Leader? The Very Same Things That Make a Great Person.
Here’s one of the many things I’ve learned from leading and managing people: Great leadership wisdom is really hard to find. For all of the many leadership books that have been written — and there are more than 60,000 listed on Amazon — the really great V-8 moments, the “Blinding Flashes of the Obvious” where a truly great leadership or …
Telling High Potential Employees That They’re High Potential
One of the cool things about writing at FOT is that I get to meet tons of folks from around the country. I often get questions from those awesome HR pros…tells me that all of us are trying to figure out this talent game and make a difference. The question below that came up a few weeks ago is one …
Tinder CEO Makes Hires Off His Own App (Or Why It’s Time to Refresh Your Harassment Training)
Image from Meshworking.com Who here is on Tinder? Not me, people. But I appreciate the… cough… algorithm behind the app. I also appreciate how new technology makes seemingly unfathomable work mishaps not only possible—but probable. What mishaps you ask? Tinder CEO Sean Rad is actually making hires by swiping right on the app and thinks that’s perfectly reasonable. More from Fast Company: “Although …
WORK DREAMS: Teaching Mick Jagger to Eurostep…
How many of you have dreams about work? Of course you dream about work. How could you not? You work more than you sleep. I guess the key question is the following: How weird are your dreams about work? Are you married to the 64-year old boomer with the brochures about the tea party? Are you dating the accounts payable …