Sweet Reason with a dose of Common Sense
IT’S BEEN A FEW YEARS since I went to business school, but I thought I had learned just about every basic principle of business that really mattered — until now. Yes, here’s one business basic that my grad school professors never spent much time on, and I’m sure I would have remembered it if they
FAST COMPANY MAGAZINE IS NOT a publication I’ve spent much time with, but since they have a section on their website titled Work Life, it seemed like a periodical that might have some interesting articles worth sharing here. So far, I have not been disappointed. That doesn’t mean everything in Fast Company’s Work Life is great, because it’s not. There’s a definite Jekyll and Hyde quality
I CAN HARDLY contain myself when I hear people touting the wonders of “unlimited” PTO. That’s because “unlimited” paid time off is really just a big fairy tale. I know … that sounds pretty harsh because there are a number of companies that have gone to “unlimited” PTO, and they will defend it to the
I LEARNED LONG AGO that user ratings — whether they be on Yelp, Amazon, TripAdvisor, or anywhere else — are easily manipulated. So, is anyone surprised that Glassdoor ratings get manipulated, too? The Wall Street Journal recently published an in-depth look at how some companies have figured out how to boost their ratings on Glassdoor
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
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
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
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
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
I’M ALWAYS AMAZED at how so many leaders can get so far without learning one of the very basic tenants of management. It’s this: Good leaders have to give bad news. Patty Azzarello learned this back when she became the youngest general manager in Hewlett-Packard (HP) at the tender age of 33, and she reminded me
