This week, I attended a 3-day federal supervisory/managerial training class on building and sustaining teams. Day 1 began with the facilitator explaining that we were to define our roles in teams behaviorally, by observable or measurable movement or activity. In other words, we were to state the behaviors that we see exhibited in ourselves andRead… Read more »
Most GovLoopers are looking to move up or move out to the next great gig. There’s lots of great advice on this site about how to do just that. But if you’re not sure if you want to climb the career ladder, here are ten guaranteed ways to sabotage your own success: Stay underground –Read… Read more »
Last week I wrote about the MVP in the workplace. This week, I am prompted to make a stretch from last week’s narrative. Something quite the opposite. Although each of us can identify an MVP or two on our team, look around and you may not only identify the MVP but you may just alsoRead… Read more »
I was a detailee in the Bureau of Consular Affairs in the summer of 2008 when the office managing director walked by my desk and told me to ask my boss to be at TF3 in 30 minutes. “And make sure he takes the Colombia hostages file,” she added. My boss had gone out ofRead… Read more »
There are two kinds of people in life. Those who make adversity work for them or those who work for adversity.
At my job in the 1900s (you guess the decade), my supervisor told us that she wouldn’t approve our working from home anymore. That was too bad, because I always accomplished much more from my den than I did in the office. I didn’t have the distractions, and amazingly, I had the discipline to toRead… Read more »
Home security and personal security are subjects everyone can relate to, and safely assumed to share the same level of importance to most people. While we might not conscientiously put thought into foiling a burglary or assault, we do in fact take steps to enable successful prevention of crime…we take steps to protect ourselves. As… Read more »
In case you missed it, President Obama’s FY 2016 Budget of the U.S. Government recommends a scant 1.3 percent pay raise for the federal workforce next fiscal year. Well, as the old saying goes, something is better than nothing. However, when it comes to issues of fair pay, it appears that many feds are onceRead… Read more »
Are your workplace interactions motivating and engaging? Or stiff and stale? Other than email, in which format do most of your professional interactions take place? Presentations? Status reports? Discussions? Brainstorming sessions? Whatever your answer, ask yourself if the primary formats are particularly engaging or effective. If not, consider the contributions of “liberating structures,” an innovation broughtRead… Read more »
Use this checklist of email design best practices to deliver messages that are not only tailored to your audience, but also look professional, function properly, and capture the attention of increasingly-busy and multi-device-connected constituents to invite opens, attract clicks, and inspire action.