Last week, I gave a talk on twenty-first century recruitment and retention at the American Society of Training and Development’s annual conference in San Diego.  While I was there, I attended a few “train the trainer” sessions on improving your technique for delivering educational content in the workplace.  The guys (they were ...

Although 2008 has been pretty good so far, 2007 was a doozy, and it has taken me a little while to recover.  I’ve experienced a crisis of confidence, and only recently started talking to my friends about it.  My radio show co-hosts, Christine Hassler and Lindsey Pollak, have been especially helpful. Christine visited me in ...

In the blogosphere, we love to throw the term “branding” around.  Well, I’ve had almost ten years of marketing communications experience, and branding – what it means and how to do it – has been burned into my brain from a young age.  I have been very careful that what I write on my blog and my website relates strictly to my brand as a ...

Chicago has already gotten hit with around eight snowstorms this year.  It has also been quite cold, and next to every building you walk past downtown, there is a yellow “Caution: Falling Ice” sign. I understand the purpose of most signs like this.  After all, when you’re in a restaurant and they’ve just mopped the floor, it makes sense ...

Whenever I speak at a corporation, university, or nonprofit event, I always tell a lot of personal stories.  Why?  Because I feel that it’s the best way to crystallize the lessons I’ve learned for the audience, and provide examples of practical applications.  Also, I feel that these stories allow audience members to get to know me ...

Thanks to Penelope Trunk for sharing a great post from Nina Smith over at Queercents.  In recent years, I have met many gay colleagues who felt more comfortable being out of the closet at work, then with, say, their parents.  Smith maintains that gays who are out at work have stronger careers.  She herself developed a closer and ...

A few days ago, I was scheduled to be on a local NPR radio show with one of my biggest and longstanding influencers, Bruce Tulgan.  For those of you who might not know, Bruce is internationally recognized as a leading expert on young people in the workplace and has his own consulting firm, Rainmaker Thinking, that has trained employees in ...

People sometimes ask me how to sustain better relationships with the people in their lives.  My #1 suggestion is something that, unfortunately, several people I love fall down on regularly.  It’s this: when it comes to your relationship with your co-worker, friend, or significant other – pull your weight.   This means that if ...

My husband watches a lot of sports on television, and he usually sticks around for the post-game interviews.  He recently noticed a common thread in these conversations.  Inevitably, a reporter will be congratulating an athlete on a spectacular play, and in response the athlete will blush, shrug his/her shoulders, and say something like: ...

Calling people, especially ones I haven’t spoken to before, is not one of my favorite activities, this advice from Heather Mundell at Life @Work and the bloggers at Hiring Revolution.  Heather’s post is dedicated to people who will do just about anything to avoid picking up the phone.  For these folks, the worst types of calls are when ...