I don’t know how to hold a grudge.  I’ve never met anyone who has done something so terrible to me (killed or seriously hurt someone I love on purpose) that it warrants harboring an extremely negative opinion of them for months or years on end.  Even when a person does something that I consider rude, mean, or inconsiderate, my ...

For about a year, I’ve been getting these odd red bumps on one of my legs.  At first I thought they must be a result of some illness, environmental toxin, or even pregnancy.  When they appear, they itch and hurt, and I’ve been known to complain profusely about them.    Only lately has it occurred to me that perhaps something ...

My friend and radio show co-host Lindsey Pollak has a brand new blog over at Fast Company.  Her first, post, 5 Ways to Take More Control of Your Career, comes at a perfect time as we all sit in shock over the demise of long-established, powerful financial institutions Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch.    Many people who would ...

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 ...

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 ...

Over at 45 Things, Anita Bruzzese talks about coping with a demotion at work.  I was particularly interested in this post, because while I frequently discuss how to overcome work setbacks in general, I’ve never focused on the specific issue of demotion.  Here’s what Anita has to say: Whatever the reason, being demoted is something no ...

I’ve been taking on some new management responsibilities recently.  And you know what I realized?  The number one quality I appreciate most in a direct report is reliability.  By reliable, I mean a person who says she is going to do something, and then actually does it in the agreed-upon manner.     You’d think this one ...

A professional acquaintance just told me about a guy she hired last year.  The guy was from Southern California and was morally opposed to moving to Philadelphia, where my friend’s company was based.  But he’d been unemployed for a long time and thought the opportunity sounded “good enough.”  He took the job.   My friend ...

The following is an e-mail that came my way this week.  Dear Alexandra: I graduated from college last year, so I’m still at the bottom of the totem pole at my company.  I have four senior colleagues who delegate work to me, and they have no problem doing so…all day long.  Trouble is, there aren’t enough hours in the day to do ...