Experts say that the average person actually remembers a fraction of what is said to them
Speaking is easy; listening is difficult. Experts say that that the average person actually remembers a fraction of what is said to them. In the course of a lifetime, so much time is spent mastering nuts and bolts career skills but little time is spent polishing essential interpersonal skills. Listening is one of them. For…
The worst thing an organisation can do is to reward pathological behaviour
One of my bosses, Janet, was clever, hardworking and had an amazing eye for detail. She had high standards: if you e-mailed with a question at 10 p.m., she replied by 10.05. She worked hard, delivered on time, hated mistakes and expected the same from her team. She was driving us mad. We had been…
Rather than asking if you are a happy, ask whether you are good
It was 2,400 years ago that Aristotle identified happiness as the goal all people seek – the end of all “why” questions. But is happiness really the point of human life? I ask this question because when we look at history (or even the news today), it is apparent that there are a lot of…
Stay the course and hold on to your vision, no matter what anyone says about you
War is a powerful metaphor for work. So says Kay Hammer, author of Workplace Warrior, Insights and advice for winning on the corporate battlefield. The real enemies aren't only bad bosses and inefficient management, it's also yourself. The toughest battles we fight are often with ourselves. Hammer should know. She fought all the way to…
And why it is important
For some people there is a fine line between confidence and narcissism. But even with it being a balancing trick, everyone needs to have some confidence. There are a million things that feeling good about yourself can do from you, from personal life to business life. For some people, building confidence comes naturally; for others…
As you count down the days and dream of faraway lands, here are five ways your passport could derail your vacation and what to do about it
Travelling abroad this summer? As you count down the days and dream of faraway lands, you may be overlooking easily-preventable problems – including with your passport – that, unfortunately, many people aren’t aware of. Here are five ways your passport could derail your vacation and what to do about it: Your passport can be rejected…
Avoid these seven deadly sins and you’ll be sure to improve the quality of your hires while at the same time providing a return on your investment
We’ve all been there: you have to fill a position, and it needed to be done yesterday. Any warm body will do, right? Wrong. Poor hiring decisions mean decreased profits, lost sales, productivity and costumers, increased costs and a decrease in employee morale – costly mistakes for any employer. The average cost of a bad…
Some tips to help you choose which will work best for you
When you’re starting a new venture, there are a number of things to think through (and often stress about too), from the idea itself and how you’ll execute it, to the staff you might need to hire, money you might need to raise, marketing of the product and service, and so much more. However, one…
Do any of these characteristics remind you of anybody you know?
Imagine you are a CEO and you need to hire a vice-president to turn around a failing business unit. You are down to the last two. There is Jane, who is charming and ambitious and drives the team hard. No fools are suffered, the dead wood is hacked and the parking lot is full from dawn to dusk. Jane…
Most job candidates have unrealistic fantasies about their resume, so here is our advice to make sure yours gets more than a perfunctory read
Most job candidates have unrealistic fantasies about their resume. The first fantasy is believing that their resume is exceptional and will actually be read. The second is that all resumes are given a perfunctory read. Now the truth. Few resumes are exceptional, and a tiny fraction of the resumes received by organizations are actually read.…
Domestic violence, no matter the gender of the victim, is wrong
I remember being 12 years old when my stepfather scarred my face for the first time. He had graduated to his fists from his belt some time before, and while he usually confined himself to battering me between the waist and the shoulder blades, the non-visible portions of my anatomy, occasionally he lost control. This…
Understanding who, or what, reads your resume will increase your chances of getting hired
Once upon a time, in a world seemingly far, far away, a job seeker would sit down with the classified section of the Sunday newspaper and a red pencil (it always was a red pencil, wasn't it?) and circle jobs that were perfect for them. They would attach a well thought-out cover letter to their…
There are a few basic truths that reveal themselves in almost every story of sudden-onset caregiving. The first is that love remains intact
Falling into caregiving is a particularly apt descriptor for anyone whose spouse has suffered a stroke or received a cancer diagnosis. The day of a loved one’s serious head injury is the marker for a family life before and after caregiving. A catastrophic event or diagnosis catapults a caregiver into another land – a territory…
Teaching Country Dance for Beginners to actual rural folk proved to be an eye-opener
Back in my not-so-halcyon days of youth and yore, when I practised the challenging social craft of ballroom dance instruction, I accepted a contract to teach 'Country Dance for Beginners' at a community centre in the small hamlet of Thorhild, Alberta. I had taught at various community centres in and around Edmonton to urban posers,…
Trade, trade, trade your way to the perfect family
A few years back my dog suffered from GDV, gastric dilatation volvulus, a sudden killer that can affect the healthiest dog. GDV is more commonly known as gastric torsion, where that cute, furry little quadruped stomach flips like a young Eastern bloc gymnast and is quite often fatal if not caught in time. Even if…