If you're a leader, do you know why employees hate your employee recognition program? There's a good chance your program started off with good intentions but now has become a turnoff.  The reason is that people may feel like they have no chance of ever winning the award. As a result, something that was supposed [...]

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Learning how to answer colleague complaints is an important skill that can help you enrich your career. Keep in mind that often the other person is just confiding in you and realizes there's little you can do to solve the problem.  But that doesn't mean you can't help them and silence may feel like a [...]

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If you work at a business that has just been acquired, then it's understandable if you're nervous about a merger. A lot of uncertainty comes when new ownership takes over.  Often these deals happen in secrecy, so they come as a big surprise. What should you do next? I asked my LinkedIn connections for their [...]

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A good way to get work done faster and improve your work-life balance will see you solve procrastination with deadlines. In many cases, wanting to do a good job with projects is important. But are you spending too much time on certain things, in the pursuit of perfect, where the extra effort does little to [...]

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If you're a leader, then understand you will be judged on responding to an unexpected challenge. Some sort of problem will emerge, you likely will have little control over it, and yet you'll be expected to find a path out of the challenge. Do you have the skills to make this kind of fast adjustment? [...]

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Celebrate episode 700 of this podcast with a story about why you may need to redefine impossible. When faced with an unexpected challenge, do you find yourself immediately throwing in the towel and saying, "It can't be done."? What if, in those moments, you were selling yourself and others short? Join me on stage, at [...]

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For businesses that have been around for a while, it's important to consider if you're old or experienced. The two are not always the same and you need to understand the difference. If your business is just old, then trouble might be down the road. Find out what makes something old, still relevant, in this week's [...]

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These tips for smart networking at conferences can help you boost your return on investment when you attend events. For many, the ability to connect with fellow professionals is a big reason why they go. But you may not get the success you desire if you don't have a strategy. Find out how your fellow [...]

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If you want a job or a task done correctly, then you need to understand that poor training produces poor results. When you assume someone will understand exactly what you want, through some kind of magic, disappointment is often around the corner. This was never more true than when I saw an employee's vision of [...]

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In a world where technology is everywhere, should your smartphone be banned in meetings? Meetings are a place where lively discussions are supposed to happen, leading to major decisions. Does the smartphone interfere with that productive process? Recently, I polled my LinkedIn connections on the topic and found there's support for several different strategies when [...]

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