WE CONNECT WITH MANY people in our journey through life, but the few we truly cherish are the ones who, as the famous quotation noted, understand our past, believe in our future, and accept us just the way we are. There have been a few people like that in my life, but I don’t think
Tag: Leadership
Editor’s note: The Skeptical Guy is back. I’ll explain my absence very soon. *********************************** I’VE MET A LOT of big-name media people over the years, but one I’ve missed is Anna Wintour, the famous (some would say infamous) and feared editor of Vogue magazine. The British-born Wintour is known for a lot of things –
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
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
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
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
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
DESPITE THE FOCUS on improving how we recruit and hire new employees, we also know that we should spend as much, if not more, time on how we can better retain the people who are already on our staff. That’s a great thought, but there’s something to consider: No matter how good a job we do