Human Resource professionals are often given the task to create performance management systems. One would expect these systems should focus on the individual and organizational performance needed to achieve the organization's targets and goals. However, it seems that often times these systems are counter-productive and result in anything but higher levels of achievement consistently and across all areas of the organization.

Believe it or not, there is a positive side to this, but be careful what you wish for. As they should, all employees should receive supervisory, management, and leadership training–if only to know their functions. Often the training is job-related or of a more general nature. The training helped this young man know the differences …

Our company is going through some hard times because of the economic uncertainty. We are tightening our belt and trying not to lay off our folks, but we may be forced to. How do we make the best of a bad time for our business? It is easier to be open with employees when the …

I was recently teaching a course where the discussion turned to project resourcing, and the problem of people being stretched more thinly than ever. I suggested to the student that maybe her company’s mechanism for “project selection” needed to be revisited with her management, so that the number of projects could be decreased until the …

“I find myself trying to avoid those annual appraisals with my people. Much as I try to keep the meeting focused, we always seem to get side tracked and involved in personal stuff.” – Health Care Manager During a recent training on performance reviews, I asked managers when they experienced problems. Many said it was …

There’s been a fair amount of interest lately in how to write your business plan quickly, say in a weekend. The most well-known is called Startup Weekend, which promises to turn strangers into teams with a completed business plan in an intensive 54-hour weekend marathon. Is this a good idea? There’s also a new book, …

We should (and usually do) work hard to make our best possible case for support to corporations … wanting them to know as much as possible about us. But an equally important issue is, “What do we know about them?” I was recently thinking about the extent, the depth, to which we have to know …

I recently wrote a blog, rather unlike my usual blogs in that I told the true story of fellow worker; in this case he had no way out of his current negative job except unwanted retirement or quitting, or death. It was called simply, Finding the Way Out of a Coffin That is Nailed Shut, …

This post will conclude a series on Twelve Lessons I Learned or Re Learned this Year. These final two are lessons that I am reminded of often. Within these two, I find challenge and reward.

Tom in The Glass Menagerie wants to know how the magician or anyone can “find a way out of a coffin that is nailed shut without removing one nail,” or you could say how to find “a way up the slippery slope.” Work and work relationships can do more harm than good. This is one …