Recently I was able to watch an experiment conducted in the inhospitable environment of Nevada’s Black Rock Desert and in the nonstop pressure of Burning Man. Burning Man is an annual arts festival hosting the likes of Elon Musk, Katy Perry, Jeff Bezos, Susan Sarandon, Mark Zuckerberg...
Break-ups are hard. Whether it be a personal or an employer/employee relationship, it’s rare that someone likes the process of giving someone else “the boot.” So often these hard conversations are put off, hoping that someone or something will change so we don’t have to...
Everybody has a tell. Whether in poker or in a romantic relationship, human beings almost without exception give off clues to our internal states. As a manager, sometimes we are tasked with decoding those clues. “I’m turning in my resignation.” Most bosses are caught off guard when...
I’ve had two great bosses in my life, both of whom I still talk to and respect deeply. Jeff and Andra believed in me and challenged me. They taught me how to think. At 22, I was so mad when I’d charge into Jeff’s office and...
Most of us don’t go to the doctor when we have a cold. We use self-dose over the counter medicine, down some chicken soup and go to bed. Or some variation of that. But if you had a compromised immune system, avoiding the doctor over a...
When I was 16, I got my first car. My grandfather, being incredibly sharp, purchased this solid steel Volvo behemoth with an additional identical car which had been totaled in the rear end. A wise man, assuming I’d hit someone before I got hit myself. While...
It’s a rare executive that would lead a company without looking at the financials. “Flying blind” on feeling and assumptions about how the business is doing financially would be ruinous. Yet most business leaders do just that with their people. Most businesses survey their customers regularly...
By: Dixie Agostino, SHRM-SCP Recruiting is expensive, turnover is expensive, and training is expensive. Since it can be challenging to calculate the return on investment on these expenses, many times they get pushed to the bottom of the pile, relegated to the cheapest vendor, or ignored...
A nationwide company once had a local team of four sales people. They worked well together and enjoyed their jobs. They received awards and were top ranked among the sales teams from across the country. But there was a problem. At first it was nothing big. ...
So, it’s been a tough year in Oklahoma. One of my favorite Warren Buffet quotes is “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked” and for many local companies, it’s low tide. So, when cutting costs is key to survival, often...