On The Blog

Innovation is not – contrary to the list of ‘skills’ on some performance review forms – a skill that one can turn off and on at will or read about and BE better at. Though creativity is a large piece of innovation, piloting and actual implementation and evaluation of results are part of the innovati...

You’ve heard of them, most likely . . . many of us took the [then] “Strong Interest Inventory” as juniors or seniors in high school. It gave us job families that might suit us well. Also widely used is the “Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)”, given to many college freshmen hoping to focus in on a p...

Tomorrow, I have the fantastic opportunity to talk with 300+ IT folks about every manager’s favorite topic, “performance management.” Yawn?? Not this talk . . . tomorrow, I will be showing this management group how knowing a little bit of brain science can help them:

• get the highest performance
...

THE SEED

You have an idea, a spark that drives you to pursue bringing that idea to fruition. What’s the very next thing you’re likely turning over in your mind, oh entrepreneur? The design of benefit packages that you could offer your future employees? Doubtful. The most logical and effective super...

How & When to Do Development Planning

In an ideal work world, managers and leaders create STRATEGIC PLANS, from those strategic plans flow the ANNUAL WORK PLANS, and from the annual work plans (group or unit level), flow INDIVIDUAL WORK PLANS.

Then, based on the work an individual is charged wit...

I spoke with a group of residents in a large university prosthodontics program recently about the challenges of managing and leading organizations today. Some of their concerns as potential future practice owners were the very same concerns a leader of any organization might have, including:

...

FLIGHT ATTENDANT GENERATED ANXIETY IN AIR

Talking with my close friend Kathy recently, I asked about her April family vacation to the Caribbean, especially in light of the fact that she has a strong fear of flying and this was a long flight each way! Both flights were direct, meaning that Kathy h...

Is “no news, good news” in the boss-employee relationship? Research shows that receiving no feedback is actually far worse from the employee’s perspective than receiving negative feedback! The rationale? Receiving negative feedback may carry a critical message,but it also shows the employee that the...

What do you see in this picture? A teenager mindlessly surfing the web on a summer afternoon? Think again.

This is my oldest daughter, nearly 17 years old, doing the required online training for her new (and first) part-time job for a well-known coffee shop. I watch her in fascination, because: