You’ll find all types in an office, right? As a manager with a team ranging from the type A worker bee who’s more detail-oriented than even you are to the brilliant-yet-frustrating creative who’s full of fantastic ideas but lacks follow-through, your communication style needs to be flexible. A good manager understands that each employee requiresRead… Read more »
Recently I sat in on a meeting between a group of IT developers (contractors) and Federal program managers. Just a routine project review. As I looked around, it struck me that we were really quite a diverse crowd. In the room were people from China, Viet Nam, India, Russia, Somalia, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Iran,Read… Read more »
by Mary Schwarz, ICF Interactive Interdisciplinary has always been one of those words that bothered me. Not the actual intent of interdisciplinary – approaching work by involving practitioners from several areas of knowledge – but what it sounds like. So many ways to be disciplined or punished … will it be writing lines, scrubbing gumRead… Read more »
If you oversee the human resource (HR) group of a federal agency or are heavily involved with HR performance management for an agency, you can be forgiven if it sometimes feels as if you’re stuck in the 20th century with no way out. Ingrained Federal Performance Management Problems Here are just a few of theRead… Read more »
Hope you all are enjoying a nice autumn season wherever you live in the United States – or around the world. I encourage you to take a look at this We the People petition below that was recently submitted to the White House: Federal Employees have dealt with pay freezes and furloughs over the pastRead… Read more »
It is unanimously accepted in effective employee motivation space that managers who positively reinforce their employees drive high levels of engagement. Unfortunately, much of the positive feedback employees receive is simply recognition for a job well done. While recognition has its place in the workplace, appreciation has much greater impact on job performance. Our country’sRead… Read more »
Talent acquisition for the federal government is a challenging proposition in this era of talent shortage. Despite the lingering effects of the Great Recession and the fact that for many it seems like we are still in a recession. According to Rahaf Harfoush, co-author of the New York Times best-seller The Decoded, 1 out ofRead… Read more »
Hello, my name is Emily and I am a millennial. And you know what? I am proud to be a millennial. Oftentimes, the millennials get a bad reputation as being lazy, tech focused and commitment phobes. But I’m here to tell you: It’s not all true. Right now, millennials make up about 16 percent of theRead… Read more »
A couple weeks ago, OPM released a report on millennials in the federal government. The major finding? Those born after 1981 are satisfied with their jobs, but frustrated by the lack of reward and advancement. It’s not necessarily rewards in the monetary sense, but rather failure to recognize innovation, hard work, and creativity. Currently, millennialsRead… Read more »
On Monday morning I woke up to the horrible news that the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital nurse diagnosed with the Ebola virus over the weekend was a 2010 graduate of Texas Christian University. As a Fort Worth resident, proud TCU alum, and daughter of a recently retired nurse, the news hit home. I also hadRead… Read more »