There are few relationships as intimate in your working life as the one you create when you mentor someone. There are also few partnerships as fraught with peril or as likely to veer off course and lose their effectiveness for both of you. If you’re going to go to the trouble of finding a person you want to mentor and putting quality time into it, you really want to make sure it brings value to both parties. Here are...

For the first time in American history, there are five unique generations in our workforce: the Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation Xers, Millennials and the newly graduating Generation Zs. At some organizations, colleagues up to 50 years apart in age and work experience are working side by side. There are many areas in which the generations differ in their expectations and preferences in the workplace—comfor...

Companies can no longer be impersonal buildings where employees show up each day, carry out their duties and shut off their brains before going home each night. People aren’t satisfied with simply following procedures and checking boxes. They seek professional fulfillment through engagement, passion and long-term value. The most successful leaders know that employees want a rewarding work life—an environment...

In today’s rapidly changing business world, an agile business is a successful business. But how do you know when the best thing for the project is to change the plan, and how can you execute and communicate changes without destroying team motivation and momentum? The following three strategies may prove helpful. Agility Strategy #1: Create and Challenge Assumptions Any major strategic initiative should involve t...

When you’re the person who makes the seating chart, you have a lot of power and also a serious responsibility to optimize a functioning workplace. There’s a whole Myers-Briggs personality chart of different needs to consider when deciding who sits where and in what kind of working environment. You’ve got your introverts who suffer in an open area with no control over chatty co-workers; then there are th...

As some of you may know, I’ve been studiously writing a multi-part essay on “Capturing and Captivating a Mostly Distance-Learning Audience.” The platforms are webinar and teleconferencing and the unprecedented program success (in terms of “spin-off gigs”) has been surprising. I've been trying to understand how the setting and structure of these two recent programs has affected my presentati...

You know what to do with an underperforming employee, but what about an efficient but difficult one? I’m a strong believer that you can’t be too positive or too empathetic in the business world. Yes, a lot of places of business are far from that ideal, but that’s exactly why you should distinguish yourself from the dog-eat-dog norm and try to make your work life a place of caring and sensitivity. Why...

People constantly ask me about what elements and tactics are absolutely necessary to execute an effective and efficient job search. At the same time, employers want to know what they need to do to recruit and retain top talent. Frankly, both employers and candidates need to up their game. They need to respect each other’s time and act with professionalism. What does this mean? For job seekers Write a cover lette...

If you’re a good leader, you probably encourage your employees to come to you with ideas, feedback and complaints. Plus, most modern companies have some chain of command set up to “listen” to workers, ranging from employee help lines, surveys and check-in meetings all the way up to extensive HR structures. But that’s not the kind of listening I’m talking about. I’m talking about walkin...

Every day we generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. This information has led to some tremendous breakthroughs with the potential to improve thousands of lives. As leaders, we also have mountains of data available to us—honestly, more than we can assimilate or make sense of. Yet huge decisions are made every day based solely on the numbers. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love numbers! But, in my years working wit...