Like most people, I woke up yesterday morning and was greeted by a somewhat new interface on my Facebook page. The changes were minor but enough to disrupt my usual routine. It was apparent that what I was looking for was much more difficult to find and everything else seemed to be overly complicated. I wasn’t the only one having difficulty adjusting to these changes. I checked  my news feed and saw post after post of people complaining about the new look of their home page and how much they [...]

When someone is talking to you, do you listen? You’ll probably say, “of course!” But are you really hearing them? It seems that with so many distractions in our lives today and in the office that active listening is slowly slipping into extinction.  Too often, we are so absorbed with ourselves and thinking about when we need to pick up the kids, what we are having for dinner, etc that we don’t actively listen when someone is talking. We’ve all done it, so you are not alone! What can you [...]

Do you think you know what respect is? The dictionary defines it as: the condition of being esteemed or honored. In this short video, Paul Meshanko explains how we define it and also how this relates to you and your organization. It might just change your idea of what respect is and what respect isn’t. How do you define respect?

Today’s tip, like last week, is a simple one. Be kind to everyone you encounter. What  happens when you do this consistently Would you notice a difference in the way people treated you? Would it make you feel better? All of these might actually happen. Kindness does improve the chances that someone will be kind back to you. And kindness has been shown to improve your health. But above all, being kind to everyone – from the person who empties your trash can to the person in the corner office [...]

So here’s a scenario for you to consider: It’s based on recent political entanglements. You sit on a board that has the power to make decisions for the entire company, but you dislike the President of the company. Even though both of you claim to want the best for the company, you continually block all the President’s initiatives, because you disagree with them. You’ve been with the company longer than the President, so you believe you know more than him on these issues. The President has asked for your input, but you [...]

Today we begin a new weekly feature, where we suggest a respect tip for you to use in your workplace and daily life. Often these tips will seem obvious, but as everyone’s daily lives become busier, these ‘niceties’ are often the first thing we forget and are also the most important to fostering an environment of respect. When we think about respect, we usually remember how we felt when someone treated us with respect – or disrespect! That feeling will stay with us and the next time that person needs [...]

Most of us grew up with the nursery rhyme “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”. At a young age, when we would parrot such expressions while being verbally bullied, it seemed quite effective. There we would be, two kids face-to-face, finding our way through our worlds – the playground or the classroom, deciding who would have the upper hand. Usually once this exchange was completed, order was established and we went on about our business. Whatever was said by the bully didn’t seem [...]

A direct outgrowth of diversity training in the workplace – the desire to learn Spanish for work – is slowly finding its way into the corporate psyche. The benefits of workplace Spanish seem to be well worth the effort, since efficient communication on the job is critical when there exists a large number of Spanish-speaking employees who have difficulty communicating in English. Of course, workplace English classes help bridge the communication gap tremendously too, and many companies are choosing to incorporate English language instruction on the job. However, far less [...]

I was talking to a client recently about a local HR conference she had attended. When I asked her for her thoughts she said that the main theme that emerged for her was a variation of how we are all going to have to work harder, smarter, better and faster if we want to be successful. Now I don’t know about you, but if I have to work any harder, smarter, better or particularly faster, I’ll need to break into light speed. The pace of change we are all dealing [...]

As both a resident of central Ohio for most of my younger life and a graduate of The Ohio State University, I consider myself as big a Buckeye fan as any. That’s why, like most members of “Buckeye Nation,” I was profoundly disappointed by the recently reported NCAA violations involving both some of the football players and recently ousted head coach, Jim Tressel. While there are still many unknowns to this story (including who else in the administration may have known about “Tattoo-gate”), what has clearly become apparent is that [...]