Most employees in companies today are all too familiar with the concept of the performance review. Just the mention of this often dreaded occurrence of discussion with one's supervisor where they get to critique every move you've made during the year while you sit ideally by is sure to send negative feelings throughout the mind's of employees everywhere. The performance review generally has a similar effect on managers and supervisors as well. So why is this performance review so dreaded and loathed by many?

I am not sure this is a training issue or a human performance issue, but recently I observed a situation where a Japanese firm was looking to do business with an American firm and the American firm was not prepared as they might have been and possibly lost the contract. Before seeking out new clients …

I am offering free guest lectures in crisis management/crisis communications-related topics to any relevant college or university class, lectures to be delivered by webcam. At your end — project my image for the class to see. Then point your webcam at the class so I can see and hear them. It’s that easy. Contact me …

Powerful yet simple tips from the national best-seller, "Secrets of Power Marketing: Promote Brand You" - the first guide to personal marketing for non-marketers.

Imagine this scenario… The charismatic founder of a small (but influential) nonprofit resigns suddenly and moves across the ocean, leaving the organization in turmoil. Stepping in quickly to clean up the mess, the Board promotes Douglas from Deputy Director to Acting ED. Douglas has been in his new position for a month when the Board …

Considering the two major objectives in conducting the interviews, determining how/if a program/project/activity should be implemented and beginning the cultivation of those folks who could help make it happen, it is essential, as with all serious development activities, that those interviews be face-to-face. You can’t be taken very seriously and you can’t read body language …

It was 1968 when an obscure academic at the University of Edmonton, Ludwig Von Bertalanffy, publish the book General Systems Theory. It was the first major look at the foundations and applications of systems thinking across a broad array of practical and scientific fields. Starting with the individual organism he demonstrated that the systems view …

Too many businesses describe the responsibilities of a project manager along the lines of: “to deliver the project on time and within budget” – this is the goal of project management, not the responsibilities of a project manager. Neither, for example, does it do much to help those entering the profession to understand the fullness …

The first step in the planning study process is determining what it is that you want the study to accomplish. Second, is the creation of a list of those folks you’d like to interview – a list that can be as long as you’d like … as long as you’re realistic. No one goes on …

Ethics Best Practices to Avoid the Sherrod Debacle The morning before the brouhaha over Shirley Sherrod vomited out of Fox News to create a domino effect of shameful response, I happened to publish an analysis of journalistic ethics today in the form of an article telling non-journalists exactly how to fight back against unethical media. …