Leadership

President Obama says he wants ideas.  How about this one?  The government will designate a fixed dollar amount to be deducted from each taxpayer each year.  This fund will be…

Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Meg Whitman has rekindled the debate over whether to telecommute with a memo urging employees to show up at the office more often. She wrote that “HP needs all hands…

On the heels of the series finale of Breaking Bad, I heard a radio interview on NPR’s show “Fresh Air.”  The host was interviewing Peter Gould and Thomas Schnauz, part of the writing team for…

Recently I heard Charles Barkley on ESPN radio, but he wasn't talking basketball. He was talking about Justin Bieber and how Bieber’s life is gradually unraveling. It’s been a slow shaping process…

Managers can’t be everywhere all the time. So an important part of providing positive reinforcement to keep desired behaviors going is to build it into the work. This is referred to as natural…

The start of the school year is my favorite time of the year because it marks the start of the college football season. While college freshmen have plenty of adjustments to make, freshmen football…

When will they learn?  I wrote my book Oops! 13 management practices that waste time and money in 2009 and the one that has caught the most attention is Performance Appraisal. An article by Will…

There is always a lot of buzz surrounding leaders– what makes an effective one, are they born or made, and why do some transform into bad bosses.  Yet the most common trending topic today seems…

Behavior is all around us: the good and the bad.  Yet so often the actions and reactions of others go by without thought. In support of our quest to bring the science of behavior to the masses,…

Update: It’s been announced that the Duchess of Cambridge has given birth to a Baby boy.  The UK government has changed the 300-year-old laws on royal succession to ensure that a first born…

I received an unsolicited email from a company that is selling software that they say “can reveal to you (SIC) what your employees do during business hours. It reminded me of George Orwell’s popular…

Can you believe it! J.C. Penney hired a therapist to help employees cope with the firing of former CEO Ron Johnson. I need to add this to my next edition of OOPS: 13 Management Practices that Waste…

I was recently asked by CEO Blog Nation to give my thoughts on what qualities make for a great leader. Let me hear from you. Add a comment below and tell me what qualities are important to…

Maybe it is because I turned 78 last week, but it seems that every day I read something or see something on TV that drives me crazy. Even though by the usual standards, I am at the age where people…

Well, it had to happen.  I received an email advertising a series of papers, HR Lessons from Angry Birds.  It seems that what or whoever becomes famous will sooner become the subject of a…

Now this borders on ingenious and unethical and takes the concern for employee engagement to a whole new level.  I was stunned to read last week about a software developer who literally…

(Note: Feb. 2014) This week's finale of The Biggest Loser illustrates how the show may inadvertently reinforce the wrong behaviors. The desired result is to the lose the most weight but how the…

We recently put Surveys to the test on our website.  We polled our clients to find out if they felt that Employee Surveys were worth their time.  With more than 50% of the vote, clients…