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Manage Your Career Competitive Edge

Career success does not happen just because one does good work. That is expected. To get ahead and stay ahead, you must excel. Here are three strategies to manage your competitive edge. 1. Become a Career Entrepreneur The business of career management is that—an independent business that you manage—even if you work for someone else. …

Take Advantage of Crises to Grow and Learn

Crisis management continues after the problems are over It seems counter-intuitive to some, but crises can present amazing opportunities to grow and learn. In a post on his Harvard Business Review blog, expert business consultant Ron Ashkenas explains the shift that occurs during crises, and gives some excellent advice on how to stretch it as …

If I Am An Actor, Why Am I Here?

“I y’am what I y’am, what I y’am.” Now, I am an actor, a speaker, and a trainer–as well as a writer. When I act, I act. When I speak, I speak. When I train, that’s different, too. As I said earlier in my previous blog, acting is more than “being someone else” or “a …

Trainer, Speaker or Actor? Why Not Acting in Business? In Training?

This all began as a comment to my LinkedIn colleagues of actors, trainers, speakers and assorted other related professionals. Someone had asked the question: In your opinion what is the difference between an actor and a speaker? It actually stirred up quite the controversy. Actors, speakers and trainers come from many different backgrounds as you …

Coaching Tip – Get an Accountability Partner

When I talk with people they state they are disappointed that sometimes they do not accomplish their goals – a promotion, start a business, run a marathon, go back to school, or whatever they set their sights on. They have great intentions and mean well, but they fall short on execution. What they set out …

8 Guidelines for Managing Ethics in the Workplace

The following guidelines ensure the ethics management program is operated in a meaningful fashion: 1. Recognize that managing ethics is a process. Ethics is a matter of values and associated behaviors. Values are discerned through the process of ongoing reflection. Therefore, ethics programs may seem more process-oriented than most management practices. Managers tend to be …

Leading Change

The research and literature on change indicates that a primary reason for the success or failure of a change initiative hinges on the skills and knowledge of the individuals responsible for leading the change. So what leadership behaviors or competencies are most strongly associated with effectively leading or overseeing change initiatives? This blog entry introduces three competency areas that enhance the capacity of a leader to coordinate and drive organizational change: Systems Thinking, Strategic Savvy, & Organizational Agility.

Linking Innovation and Operations

Development is hard pressed to interface with operations. Yet it is extremely important that this interface be workable because developments are not relevant until they find their way into operations. This is the “reason for being” of development; to have new systems and adaptive processes and structures integrated, in the long run, to foster organizational …