Conflict is an unavoidable part of working with others - inevitably, not everyone has the same time frame, work style, or ideas about how to do things. In addition, you are likely to encounter a few simply unpleasant characters throughout your career....(more)

"Companies have a hard time distinguishing between the cost of paying people and the value of investing in them" -Thomas A Stewart 1997 I think this quote from Thomas Stewart captures one of the most significant issues that organizations still face...(more)

By Joseph Skursky, President of Market Leader Solutions How many times have you read an article or Q&A forum regarding the classic interview question, “What’s your greatest weakness?” If you never have, here’s a spoiler...(more)

When results start to decline business leaders start to put more pressure on their sales team, maybe they start dropping prices to get more revenue, or make other changes to satisfy the urgency of the situation.  Profit losses are not just driven...(more)

By Joseph Skursky, President of Market Leader Solutions The traditional recruiting system is broken. This isn’t breaking news, but the awareness will hopefully lead to change. At the risk of offending multiple levels of readership, I’ll...(more)

By Mark Herbert, Principle Mark F. Herbert & Associates, Inc. and New Paradigms LLC So today is January 10 of a new year. If you put any credibility into the information collected by the Gallup information (and I do), we have lost $10 billion so...(more)

By Mark Herbert, Principle Mark F. Herbert & Associates, Inc. and New Paradigms LLC As I have indicated before, I like using analogies both for my own edification and as an illustration point for others in explaining a concept. It may be that I am...(more)

By Mark Herbert, Principle Mark F. Herbert & Associates, Inc. and New Paradigms LLC Over the last few days it has been interesting for me to see a number of discussions pop up on blog sites and social and business networking relationship sites that...(more)

In an ideal world companies would use promotions as a means of motivating employees, incentivizing high performers and securing workplace loyalty.  But the reality is far different.  Unfortunately promotions are too often given to fill vacant...(more)

Are you at risk of losing your job or being passed over for promotion?   Besides all the obvious reasons such as theft, lying, not showing up for work and poor performance, there are other underlying reasons why people are let go when there is a...(more)

Identify the essential resources, what you can and cannot do with current resources and communicate the gap.  Present a clear picture to the decision makers including the results you will be able to generate with the investment.  In the...(more)

Define different levels and cost structures for training so there are options that may work better for some vs. others.  Show the value of each to your management team, engage them in the process and try to get one or more to help you promote your...(more)

Work closely with senior leaders to define a consistent company culture that entails a shared vision and philosophy.  Once defined, use your resources to survey the one that already exists getting employee feedback throughout the...(more)

Focus on what you can control and influence from an HR perspective.  Identify priorities and push back where necessary while working with leaders to help them set policies and monitor...(more)

Always provide clear feedback and coaching to those who seek it.  Coach others on how to provide feedback consistently throughout the...(more)

Over communicate, check with people throughout the company to make sure they understood the message, check with others to make sure you are clear.  If people don’t understand the message the same way, you are not presenting it properly. ...(more)