Blog Posts

Many Managers Are Trying A Number Of Ways To Make Such Meetings More Efficient Or Scarce.  When I facilitated one of the last staff meetings at the last company I founded, HR Solutions, my Management Team and I tried something new:  we stood the entire time.  We did so deliberately since our staff meetings were simply running too long.  The great news:  standing the entire length of the meeting effectively worked to shorten the meeting.   We also had one team member who loved to hear himself talk.  Meetings with him were not efficient whatsoever. As with ...

Well, I am thrilled to say that I pulled off my own personal “Hat Trick” last week: I secured a Keynote Speech at an upcoming Human Resources & Management Conference. I facilitated a large Podcast on Employee Engagement & How To Build A Magnetic Culture. I followed through on a successful consulting assignment on Managing Generational Differences for a large Fortune 100 company. Interestingly, although the phrase “Hat Trick” is used to describe a hockey player who scores three goals in the same game, did you know that the origin of the term has nothing to do with hockey at ...

Defining Stay Interviews  I define a Stay Interview as “a structured conversation a manager has with an individual employee to learn specific actions the manager can take to strengthen the employee's engagement and retention with the organization.”    Why Do Stay Interviews?  Stay Interview questions help your most valuable team members understand that:  ∙ You recognize and appreciate their loyalty.  ∙ You care about more than just their performance.  ∙ You are open to making changes that would help them become more engaged and less likely to leave the organization.  Stay Interviews also help you ...

What if you are one of the few employees who have chosen to stay remote?  How do you stay relevant, engaged, and productive?   As offices around the world reopen, myriad organizations are planning for a hybrid workplace.  Some employees will head back to the office, while others will work remotely, and still others will combine the two.   For those who are fortunate enough to choose, it could be a very sweet arrangement.  You get a work/life balance that compliments your personal life, rather than having work dominate your time and family life.  With that ...

About 2 ½ months ago, well ahead of No-Shave November, I decided to put away my razor.  I wasn’t really going out that much, so I wasn’t really being seen or noticed by others. I was completely unaware of what my first beard would look like, and as such, was a bit surprised when most of the beard came in grey. I was fine with that until two nights ago when I went out to a local restaurant for dinner.  About halfway through my meal, a Mother and her five-year-old daughter sat down at a table nearby.  ...

Acing a job interview often depends on great preparation for all types of questions, especially awkward or inappropriate ones about your family, personal lifestyle, current salary, and other off-color subjects.   Despite the great effort by most employers to promote Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), inclusiveness, and bias elimination, some inappropriate queries can arise during recruitment.  As such, I thought it would be helpful to you, your managers, and your team members to have an outline of some of the worst or toughest interview questions, as well as how best to answer them.   Question #1.  What is your ...

There is insurmountable evidence that being optimistic about life has many benefits, not just for your mental health, but also for your physical well-being.  Countless research studies have demonstrated that if one becomes more optimistic, one’s life will improve in myriad ways.  These same studies have shown that you are even more likely to live longer if you are more hopeful and positive. Among these benefits of being optimistic are:   1. Optimists Are Happier. It may seem painfully obvious that an optimist would be happier than a pessimist, but it is still worth mentioning.  Optimists are ...

Promoting connection is likely not part of your organization’s mission statement, but much research has proven that your organization would benefit if connection was an integral part of your culture.  According to a recent study by Blueboard, 95% of HR Leaders agreed that human connection in the workplace is critical for talent attraction and talent retention.  Furthermore, employees wholeheartedly agreed, with 77% stating that they want to work for an organization where they feel connected to both the organization’s purpose and people. Fundamentally, humans are social creatures, and as such, are fulfilled by connection with others.  And ...

Are you nervous before you speak in public? Sweating, shaking, panic-stricken, and fervently wishing you were anywhere else in the world but here? You are not alone.  Countless people all over the world share this same fear.  I even know extremely talented people who avoid public speaking opportunities simply because they do not want to experience the sheer anxiety leading up to the event. The official name of this fear is glossophobia.  I call it “throw-up nervous,” because so many people do just that because of that aforementioned fear, misery, and anxiety.  In fact, 77% of ...

Every culture has its own unique idioms and proverbs and many can be taken to heart about that culture’s customs, beliefs, and ways of being.  An idiom is a turn of a phrase that utilizes a figure of speech to make an exact point (e.g.  “They really rubbed me the wrong way”), while a proverb is a brief and pithy saying that points to a rudimentary piece of advice (e.g.  “Don’t cry over spilled milk”). The Japanese culture contains some very colorful idioms thought to be conveyed by deities through oracles.  It also has ...

Putin had the arrogant feeling that he could snuff out the character of Ukraine and its people.  The palpable irony is that Putin’s cowardly invasion of Ukraine has had the opposite effect, illuminating the resilience, strength, and pride of the Ukrainian people.  Moreover, Putin assumed his massive army would quickly roll over the Ukrainian forces.  Again, Putin was grossly mistaken and now finds himself and his military stuck, facing a fierce and wonderfully stubborn Ukrainian defense. I’ve always believed that, in the end, bullies eventually get what they deserve.  Putin has and will. The great ...

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), handwashing is one of the most effective means of preventing deadly infectious diseases.  Simply put, handwashing saves lives.  As such, let’s celebrate the importance of handwashing this week. It has been repeatedly proven that correct handwashing not only reduces the spread of flu, colds, and infectious diarrhea, but also eliminates the spread of antibiotic-resistant germs and very serious potentially life-threatening diseases like hepatitis, tuberculosis, and respiratory infections.  The reason is that most germs are transmitted through hand-to-hand contact.  Sadly, here is how it works: A sick person sneezes, ...

Several weeks ago, I had the honor of delivering a Keynote Speech at a Human Resources conference in Huntsville, Alabama, somewhere I had never been.   Prior to the event, I interacted with several of the other speakers for the event.  Sadly, two of them began making fun of us going to rural Alabama, claiming that we would be meeting and presenting to “a bunch of rednecks and hillbillies.”  I found this prejudgment incredibly unfair and unjust.  The rest of this story is both highly ironic and full of Karma. Upon arriving in Huntsville, banner signs ...