From the monthly archives:

October 2009

In the Family Way

October 29, 2009

Years ago, I attended a company-wide meeting in which the company’s President Pete addressed the employees.  During his presentation, he declared, “It’s great to work here at XYZ Company.  It’s like family here.”  At the time I thought, “Well that’s a nice thing to say” and didn’t really give it another thought. So imagine my [...]

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What’s Your Networking Style?

October 22, 2009

I recently gave a presentation on Networking Styles to members of the GRAPE organization (Grand Rapids Area Professionals for Excellence.)  Several of my colleagues indicated interest in attending, but could not, so here’s a summary, divided into three parts. Part I, “What Savvy Networkers Know”  outlines my “nuggets” gleaned from years of building a strong [...]

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What Savvy Networkers Know

October 22, 2009

I recently gave a presentation on networking to members of the GRAPE organization (Grand Rapids Area Professionals for Excellence.)  Several of my colleagues indicated interest in attending, but could not, so here’s a summary, divided into three parts. This post is Part I, “What Savvy Networkers Know”. It  outlines my “nuggets” gleaned from years of building a [...]

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Networking Resources

October 22, 2009

During a recent presentation to the GRAPE organization, I outlined several networking strategies to increase the “health” of your personal network. (See summaries, Part I and Part II.) During the research for the presentation, I realized that there was way more content than the one hour could contain. So, here are additional resources, organized by [...]

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What’s It Hurt To Ask?

October 16, 2009

I just returned from conducting on-site meetings for a new client.  The CEO of this company hired me to help his employees make the transition to a new organizational structure. We’re doing a series of input meetings, SWOT analyses and informational interviews.  Something that one of the employees said this morning is really sticking with [...]

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The Affirmation of Perseverance

October 8, 2009

On September 8th, 2009, I accepted Sandra Martini’s 30 Day Blog Challenge.  Simple contest: blog 30 times in 30 days to see what will happen when a person does “one ordinary thing” consistently.  I knew going into the contest that it would indeed be a “challenge”, and not because there wasn’t anything to write about.  [...]

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When Performance Review Meets the Customer Experience

October 6, 2009

I just returned from the grocery store, one that I frequent nearly every week.  This is what I overhead as my groceries were being rung up and bagged today: Supervisor (to cashier): “When you’re done ringing her up, meet me upstairs for your evaluation.” Cashier: “OK.” Supervisor walks away. Cashier (to bagger): “Oh, man. . [...]

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When OK is The Best We Can Expect

October 5, 2009

The other day I was exchanging emails with my friend Kathleen who has extremely diverse interests.  She’s an accounting software trainer/working artist / gallery owner.  (How’s THAT for variety?!) It had been awhile since we’d talked and I inquired—“how are you?”  Kathleen emailed back, “I’m fine…well, OK.  But ‘OK’ is the new ‘Fine’, right?”  After [...]

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Book Review: Find Your Strongest Life by Marcus Buckingham

October 5, 2009

Marcus Buckingham wants to teach women how to live a “strong” life.  He says a strong life is one in which you are able to discern the activities which energize you, catch those moments and cradle them so that you feel fulfilled—personally and professionally. That’s a pretty tall order, especially when coming from a man. [...]

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Walking the Leadership Talk

October 4, 2009

How many times have you heard someone opine, “Leaders must walk their talk”?  I’m pleased to report that corporate learning & development manager and award-winning leadership blogger Dan McCarthy is doing just that.  Dan, the host of the popular Leadership Carnival on his blog Great Leadership by Dan, knows first hand how time-consuming hosting a [...]

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