Years ago, I attended a company-wide meeting in which the company’s President Pete addressed the employees. During his presentation, he declared, “It’s great to work here at XYZ Company. It’s like family here.” At the time I thought, “Well that’s a nice thing to say” and didn’t really give it another thought.
So imagine my surprise [...]
I recently gave a presentation on Networking Styles to members of the GRAPE organization (Grand Rapids Area Professionals for Excellence.) Several of my colleagues indicated interest in attending, but could not, so here’s a summary, divided into three parts. Part I, “What Savvy Networkers Know” outlines my “nuggets” gleaned from years of building a strong [...]
I recently gave a presentation on networking to members of the GRAPE organization (Grand Rapids Area Professionals for Excellence.) Several of my colleagues indicated interest in attending, but could not, so here’s a summary, divided into three parts. This post is Part I, “What Savvy Networkers Know”. It outlines my “nuggets” gleaned from years of building a [...]
During a recent presentation to the GRAPE organization, I outlined several networking strategies to increase the “health” of your personal network. (See summaries, Part I and Part II.) During the research for the presentation, I realized that there was way more content than the one hour could contain. So, here are additional resources, organized by [...]
I just returned from conducting on-site meetings for a new client. The CEO of this company hired me to help his employees make the transition to a new organizational structure. We’re doing a series of input meetings, SWOT analyses and informational interviews. Something that one of the employees said this morning is really sticking with [...]
On September 8th, 2009, I accepted Sandra Martini’s 30 Day Blog Challenge. Simple contest: blog 30 times in 30 days to see what will happen when a person does “one ordinary thing” consistently. I knew going into the contest that it would indeed be a “challenge”, and not because there wasn’t anything to write about. [...]
I just returned from the grocery store, one that I frequent nearly every week. This is what I overhead as my groceries were being rung up and bagged today:
Supervisor (to cashier): “When you’re done ringing her up, meet me upstairs for your evaluation.”
Cashier: “OK.” Supervisor walks away.
Cashier (to bagger): “Oh, man. . . I HATE [...]
The other day I was exchanging emails with my friend Kathleen who has extremely diverse interests. She’s an accounting software trainer/working artist / gallery owner. (How’s THAT for variety?!) It had been awhile since we’d talked and I inquired—“how are you?” Kathleen emailed back, “I’m fine…well, OK. But ‘OK’ is the new ‘Fine’, right?” After [...]
Marcus Buckingham wants to teach women how to live a “strong” life. He says a strong life is one in which you are able to discern the activities which energize you, catch those moments and cradle them so that you feel fulfilled—personally and professionally. That’s a pretty tall order, especially when coming from a man. [...]
How many times have you heard someone opine, “Leaders must walk their talk”? I’m pleased to report that corporate learning & development manager and award-winning leadership blogger Dan McCarthy is doing just that. Dan, the host of the popular Leadership Carnival on his blog Great Leadership by Dan, knows first hand how time-consuming hosting a [...]
