The Christmas Bonus Dilemma: Sometimes, You End Up Feeling Like Clark Griswold

I’VE WORKED THROUGH so many holiday season that I’m starting to feel a little like Clark Griswold. If that name doesn’t immediately ring a bell, the character should. It’s the role Chevy Chase played numerous times, but most memorably, in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. One thread throughout movie was how Clark was anxiously waiting to

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The 5 Most Important Things I’ve Learned About Being a Better Manager

I’M A SUCKER for anything that tries to answer a question I almost never hear anyone ask much less answer: How can I be a better manager? Notice I say anything that “tries” to answer this question  because I have found that most advice on how to better manage people usually goes one of two

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Yes, It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year … But It’s the Most Stressful, Too

YOU KNOW HOW the song goes — “it’s the most wonderful time of the year.” But, it’s the most stressful time, too. Everyone knows that the holiday season that runs from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day is pretty crazy for a great many people, and, that the stress of it all spills into other parts

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What Does It Take to Be a Great Leader? The Same Things It Takes to Be a Great Person

HERE’S SOMETHING I’VE LEARNED from years of managing people: Great leadership wisdom is really hard to find. For all of the many leadership books that have been written — and there are more than 60,000 listed on Amazon — the really great V-8 moments, the “Blinding Flashes of the Obvious” where a truly great leadership

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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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Do Your Workplace Policies Encourage Employees to Do Their Duty and Vote?

IT’S A TOPIC that only comes around every few years, but it comes down to this: What are your workplace policies for allowing employees to vote? A recent survey uncovered a new wrinkle about this issue that I had never thought about. It’s this: A company’s voting policies can also have a huge impact on the

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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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Summer Reading: The Best Dr. Seuss Book Is One You May Have Never Heard Of

EVERYBODY SEEMS TO HAVE their favorite book by the late, great Dr. Seuss. But picking the “best” Dr. Seuss book isn’t easy. According to The Washington Post, Dr. Seuss’s 45 plus published books have been translated into 17 languages and have sold 650 million copies in 95 countries. A number of them have also been turned into

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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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