How do you cope when your brand gets hijacked? Today’s news includes the story of a hoax launched as an attack on coal company Peabody Energy. In short, an activist group calling itself Coal is Killing Kids developed a false campaign including a news release, a Coal Cares website and a Twitter account. The campaign …

Based on a comment by Barbara Kite, an acting and public speaking coach (and a respected colleague), I am encouraged to write an article on the importance of practice. She has been very influential in how I look at acting, coaching, and, of course, training. Her views, like mine, come from a link between acting …

Yes, this is the Linda who co-hosts this blog with me. What a wonderful opportunity for me to share with you more about Linda’s philosophy and work around spirituality. A few months back I interviewed Linda as one of the gratitude experts for Project GratOtude. This interview shares a lot of her mindset and work …

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 …