Category: Sidebars

Smartphone Addiction: It’s Problematic, Self-Destructive, and Taking Over Our Lives

People are in denial about their smartphone addiction. That’s what I take from a recent survey from KDM Engineering titled Smartphone Etiquette that hit my email recently. As I read the findings, all I kept thinking was, “This doesn’t surprise me at all.” Here are a few of the topline findings: A whopping 92 percent of Americans believe

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The Battle Over Casual Work Dress: It’s Time to Declare Victory and Let It Go

BACK IN 1994, I showed up for a job interview in Honolulu wearing a suit and tie. It was the hottest, sweatiest interview I ever had. Fortunately for me, that didn’t matter. I got the job but I never dressed that way again during my three plus years as a newspaper editor in the Aloha

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Yes, This Is Probably the Greatest, and the “Ballsiest,” Cover Letter of All Time

REMEMBER THE OLD military concept of “shock and awe“? It got a lot of attention during the Iraq War, and is defined as rapidly dominating an opponent “by the initial imposition of overwhelming force and firepower.” But “shock and awe” isn’t just for the military; it’s useful whenever you want to overwhelm someone quickly and

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When Candidates “Ghost” an Interview, It May Be Proof of a Bad Candidate Experience

HERE’S A HIRING TREND we could really live without – job candidates who are “ghosting” (aka, blowing off ) scheduled job interviews, or, failing to show up to work for new positions they had accepted. Last month, USA Today published a story that indicated that this new phenomenon was due to the strength of the job market and our near-record

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Improving on Your Weaknesses? The Smart Play Is to Build on Your Strengths

If I’ve heard it once I’ve heard it a hundred times while listening to managers give performance reviews to their employees – “Here are the areas you need to work to improve on.”  It sounds like a really smart thing to do, doesn’t it? After all, don’t we all want to improve on our weaknesses? Well

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What I’ve Learned About Leadership: There Are Many Ways to Be a Great Leader

ONE OF THE FIRST things you learn about leadership is that there are a lot of ways to be a leader and demonstrate leadership. Years ago I had a boss who tried to tell me that I wasn’t a leader. Want to know my response? “Hey, I AM a leader — I’m just not your

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The Best Leaders Know That Letting People Fail Can Help Them to Grow and Improve

RAISING CHILDREN, and leading people, isn’t easy. In many ways, leadership is similar to raising a child. The goal is to have people who are self-reliant and self-sufficient, but the trick is knowing just how much help to give along the way  — and when you might actually be giving too much. Although it seems to

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No Matter What You Call It, Taking Time Off Between Jobs Is a Good Idea

I LOVE IT WHEN a long-time workplace practice suddenly gets re-defined and is referred to by some silly new terminology. Yes, I was excited when I discovered what The New York Times is now calling that time you get off in-between jobs. Although I have a lot of problems with America’s Newspaper of Record – it’s

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A Business Truism: You Learn a Lot More From a Bad Boss Than a Good One

HERE’S A MANAGEMENT TRUISM you can’t avoid: You learn more from a bad boss than you do from a good one. I was struck by this when I came across an old Corner Office” column in The New York Times. It was a Q&A with Dawn Lepore, the now-former chairwoman and CEO of Drugstore.com, and

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Here’s More Proof That in Life, It’s Never Too Late to Make An Apology

JUST WHEN I’M ABOUT ready to finally give up on human nature, something happens that helps to give me a little hope again. And believe it or not, this new hope comes courtesy of controversial radio personality and “King of All Media” Howard Stern. I’ve watched or listened to Howard for many years, and although I don’t

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