My grandmother Martin, when commenting on the difficult adolescent years, would often say, “teenagers have all the answers, it is the questions they are minus.” Good questions can foster creativity, provide insight, and focus the mind to address problems. The ability to construct, ask, and …
Career Developemnt
The Real Value of Pay Transparency
Pay transparency is getting a lot of press recently, with New York introducing legislation requiring businesses to list salary ranges. The shift toward pay transparency is growing globally, with other cities expected to follow suit. But salary ranges are just one piece of information, and many …
Teaching Kids About Careers
This week I spoke to 20 elementary school children (Kindergarten through 3rd grade), about careers. The beauty of working with kids is you have to be clear, direct, and not use jargon. In that spirit, I’d like to share three keys to career exploration we can all adopt using the eyes of …
The Who, What, How, and Why of Value
Clearly and concisely communicating how you add value is a cornerstone of success. No matter the situation - looking for a new job, growing your business, or volunteering for an organization – the ability to denominate your value is important. But this is one of the weakest skills I’ve observed in …
Happy, Unstructured, and Grind Time
Over the years I have learned that managing my energy and focus, versus time management, is the key to enhancing productivity. By shifting the focus from time management to energy management I work on what I want to, when I want to, and under my desired environmental conditions. My goal is to …
Build Broad-Based Coalitions to Become a “Triple Bottom Line” Leader
Building broad-based community coalitions is a key skill, especially as you rise to the upper levels of an organization. But in my experience, leaders fail to recognize the importance of this ability early enough and wait too long to proactively develop. The result is being passed over for …
Celebrate and Appreciate Your Way to Success
“What gets measured gets done,” is an often-quoted business aphorism (FYI, wrongly attributed to management guru Peter Drucker). Proper attribution aside, the veracity of the statement is evident to anyone working in a large organization. Companies allocate their time, money, and human capital to …
The Power of Podcasts
Continually expanding functional knowledge, monitoring industry trends, and gaining insights are keys to business and career success. In the early 1980’s, when I worked as a bank analyst and loan officer, the internet was in its infancy. I spent many hours at Boston’s Kirstein Business Library …
Do These Two Things to Achieve Career Success in the New Year
Focus is the most important part of creativity, innovation, and career success. If you work in a mid or large-sized organization the beginning of the year is chaotic. There are multiple iterations of what human resource leaders call the “goal cascade” phase of the performance management process. …
Best Books to Manage Your Career
I want everyone to reach their full potential. Whether you are about to graduate from high school or college, just got your first manager role, were recently promoted to the executive level, or planning to retire, there are resources that will help you succeed in your current situation and prepare …
Get Ready for Year-End Reviews
At many organizations, the end of the calendar year is an important performance management time that includes employee self-ratings, calibration meetings, performance reviews, and succession planning. The information gathered during this process is used to determine employee performance and …
Be a Great Sponsor
All Fortune 500 companies have mentoring programs. They understand the importance of helping mentees tap into the knowledge of those with more experience to learn faster and perform at a higher level. But to really move the needle on talent development we need better sponsorship. A sponsor is …