Recently I attended a speech given by a brilliant but soft-spoken philosopher and author. Even though he had a gentle, thoughtful way of speaking, and a serious topic, he managed to connect well with the audience, and got some great chuckles with his stories and his subtle humor. It started me thinking again about how …

Although Merriam-Webster defines grantsmanship simply as “the art of obtaining grants,” the reality is so much more than that. A broader, more realistic (somewhat dramatic) definition of that term would be, “The cradle to grave process for ‘birthing,’ ‘raising’ and managing grants.” Regularly, on this blog, I will share my experiences, real world examples, and …

The book I find most useful during Adaptive Change is The Practice of Adaptive Leadership by Ron Heifetz, Alex Grashow, and Marty Linsky. When Destabilizing Events arise our first response is to act, and in some cases this is the best response. But those cases are actually rare. In order to truly understand the adaptive …

This list incorporates the most important components of a successful email newsletter, with a few examples of how to use them.

…is you, the company training director. It’s not quite what it seems. There’s always what we say and what we communicate. Training is still the same even after all these years; it’s been the same forever only we sometimes forget to use it well. The learning theories are the same; the training methods are the …

Have you ever hired someone who did not live up to expectations? I’m sure many of us have at one time. A wrong decision can be very costly. It’s been estimated that replacing a key professional or manager can be three to five times their annual salary. Do you want to increase the odds of …

I’d like to draw upon the teachings of H.H. the Dalai Lama from his book, “The Compassionate Life” for ideas that we can use at work and in our daily life. The Dalai Lama defines compassion as the wish for another human being to be free from suffering. Love is a desire for others to …

Do you “work to live or live to work”? In a recent Leading News, e-newsletter, from Marshall Goldsmith, the premier executive coach, asked that question. Why? Because if you figured how time you spent at work – approximately one-third of our waking hours – then you realize that your job has a significant impact on …

Not just a branding tool Your company’s blog is one of its most valuable assets, serving as a tool for marketing, customer service, and, of most interest to us here, crisis management. With some forethought, your blog can become the focal point for information distribution in times of crisis, getting the story you want to …

…and that’s the easy part. Serving customers is what we all do. We know that. It’s just that sometimes our employees don’t seem to care about anything but their own little comfortable box they made for themselves. Now, the truth is that they may care; they just don’t know what to do to make it …