It’s Wednesday, February 10th and I’m at the bus stop early. The 311 doesn’t arrive for 15 minutes yet. This is the kind of morning that mysteries are made of. Ya know ….. “It was a gloomy night ……”

Standing in the dark, light rain falling, traffic zooming by, and their drivers did not seem to care that I’m there all alone. Maybe glad that they are safe in their cars? Even though I’m pretty sure I can take care of myself, I did feel a little vulnerable standing there all alone. After all, on any other day I would have been one of those drivers, safe in that mobile iron box.  Read the full article...

The age old tradition is to use discipline as a means of changing behavior. The term “discipline” is typically associated with union contracts and has the usual verbal warning, written warning, suspension, and finally termination. There are many variations of this method such as paid suspensions, or two written warnings, but most pretty much follow this method.

I challenge that traditional method. The further you go into that progression, the less chance there is of changing the behavior.  Read the full article...

Sitting here reading the 11-22-2009 Sunday Seattle Times, I ran across an article in the NWJobs section. A reader wrote that he wants to know how to respond to questions about why he has had 10 jobs in 12 years (because of the description of the jobs he held, I assume it’s a he) . He wants to deflect those questions and stress what he can do for the company and he wants advice on how to do that.  Read the full article...

Why would anyone want to supervise others? You get the nasty jobs…such as having to take corrective action, firing people, telling people “no” when you would rather say “yes”, work long hours with little thanks.

Well, because if you are really good at your job, the tremendous personal satisfaction you will have in being what I call a respected “class act” leader will keep you coming to work every day. There are a lot of people in supervisory roles today that should not be there. They are still out there, causing long-term damage to organizations. You have probably met some of them. They cause unions. They cause turnover. They cause morale problems. They should be anywhere but in a leadership role.  Read the full article...

I have a problem. When I am not writing about leadership topics, I provide consulting services to senior management and do selected senior management searches in a variety of areas. Again and again when I sit down with these executives to get details regarding a position they want to fill, I get one message loud and clear. They do not want to see any candidates that only stay in a job for a year or so and then move on. Yet, when I network for candidates, I see many, many resumes with just that kind of short term job history. One short term move, or maybe two, in this economy may have real valid reasons. But when I see several such short term stays, I put them in the discard pile because the employer has specifically said they don’t want to see them.  Read the full article...