Career

Rule #1: The test of ethical behavior is always “would your mother approve?”

Back in the 1980”s (you remember the 80’s-the “me generation”, big hair, bad rock and roll), institutions began to develop courses on ethical behavior in response to a perceived lack of ethical behavior in the workplace (venerable Harvard Law School placed an ethics course in their curriculum which generated more then a modest amount ofRead… Read more »

Life Outside the Beltway

Looking at the residence listings of GovLoop members made me feel a bit of an outsider; so many are from what I would consider the “DC Area.” It made me wonder how valuable GovLoop would be for me, as a Washington Outsider. But then I got to thinking: what, if any, are the real differences?Read… Read more »

Wisdom From a Retired Fed: A Practical Guide to Management

Management is (to paraphrase Casey Stengal) :”75% art and the other half is science” . To individuals entering the profession, managing can appear to be an endless minefield with potential disasters lurking at each step. Yet veteran managers often appear to subordinates as magicians able to generate optimum performance effortlessly. Over the next several weeksRead… Read more »

Success is That Easy

Since my last post discussed dealing with failure, I wanted to come back with a blog on success. I once wrote a 800 word essay with tips for success for Gen Y. While it never came out (you can thank some merciless editors), I don’t think I need 800 words to summarize my article. YouRead… Read more »

Dealing with Failure

When you are early in your career, mentors have often told me “you should take risks” and “if you aren’t failing, you aren’t trying.” While I understand their advice, it is still really hard to fail for the perfectionists out there. One of the best talks I’ve been to recently was Karen Evans from OMBRead… Read more »

Public Speaking

Are you already nervous? Don’t worry – this is a post about public speaking, you don’t have to talk. Public speaking is one of those skills you just have to practice until you get better. The little known trick to public speaking is 90% of speakers are really bad. You can worry yourself sick aboutRead… Read more »

Lessons from the great 2009 Birmingham City Council website disaster

The night before last – and in the night – Birmingham City Council without much fanfare switched over to its rejigged website. Within moments the twittersphere was alight. It was crashing, it had obvious faults and it looked terrible. Over the next 36 hours reviewer after reviewer found fault after fault. This would not beRead… Read more »

Lessons from the great 2009 Birmingham City Council website disaster

The night before last – and in the night – Birmingham City Council without much fanfare switched over to its rejigged website. Within moments the twittersphere was alight. It was crashing, it had obvious faults and it looked terrible. Over the next 36 hours reviewer after reviewer found fault after fault. This would not beRead… Read more »

Social Network Service (SNS) newest trend – “affordable and necessary” premium pricing

The Social Network Service (SNS) NING Related Articles GBE101: strategies for business development under the social network umbrella GBE101: Podcasting – becoming a technological native GBE101: Wikis and Wikipedia GBE101: social network sites (SNS) by Donna L. Quesinberry Government Business Examiner On the 15th of March 2010, Jason Rosenthal moved from the Chief Operations OfficerRead… Read more »

The Lazy Government Employee

Several years ago, about 6 months after I started working for a new employer, my supervisor called me in to his office to give me feedback on how I was doing. During our conversation, he told me, “I only hire people who are lazy.” Not wanting to be tagged with that moniker, I figured IRead… Read more »