At the beginning of my career, desperate for experience, I took whatever job I could in my field. Fortunately, my first manager treated employees and customers like gold. Luck struck twice when I was hired by yet another wonderful manager. Regrettably, subsequent managers provided the “opportunity” to witness appalling treatment of both employees and customers.…
Ensuring employees have ample opportunity to learn and develop is crucial to organizational success. Yet, leaders can be bombarded with messages to increase the use of technology if they want the most effective means for their teams to learn. As a leader, how do you judge which learning modality will lead to the most effective,…
Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderer, harried for years on end, after he plundered the stronghold on the proud height of Troy. —The Odyessy, by Homer Your career is an epic journey! Or, at least, it should be—something that Homer…
Today’s posting goes out to all those working professionals who may have underestimated their boundaries to the point of no return – and who may be questioning their sanity on a regular basis. I am talking about the working student. Do I have any sympathizers out there? You know how it goes: Work a very…
I close my eyes. I begin to count slowly as I inhale through my nose, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5.” I briefly pause and then once again count slowly while exhaling through my mouth, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.” This exercise has become routine for me. I find myself pausing…
The following excerpts are from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “The Drum Major Instinct” speech delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, on February 4, 1968. “And there is deep down within all of us an instinct. It’s a kind of drum major instinct – a desire to be out front, a desire to…
This time of year I’m usually a great big wound-up ball of stress. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the holidays. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. I always want to do more, a lot more, than I have the means to be able to do. I obsess on trying to find the perfect gift so…
The opera is within, and leadership is the voice that allows others to hear what you already know, feel, and desire deep down.