Most jobs today require you to be stuck at a cubicle. If you are lucky, you have an ergonomic chair that allows you to maintain beautiful posture. As a physically active person I often cringe at the amount of time I spend behind a desk. Entering the workforce definitely took a toll on my body.Read… Read more »
Some state governments are not making it easy for their elected officials or their citizens to see where money is being spent and what results are being achieved. Consider this latest example. The actual name of the state has been omitted, as it would be a terrible embarrassment to its statewide elected leaders, its legislature,Read… Read more »
As a career counselor, I get a lot of eye-rolls when I talk about self-assessment as a part of the career development planning process. And yet, when I ask my graduate students what they do best, they don’t have very descriptive words. “Multitasking” or “problem-solving” or “building strategies”—interesting concepts but not particularly useful in jobRead… Read more »
Leaders (and everyone reading this is a leader irrespective of title or duties): sweat the small stuff. Notice details and pay attention to the invisible dynamics around you. In our ever-evolving world, yesterday’s intern could be your future boss. Chuckle at your peril… Much has been written about situational leadership, including the excellent theory positedRead… Read more »
During my time in National Defense University’s Advanced Management Program (41), I took a great course on the balanced scorecard technique. Generally speaking, it is a technique for senior management to measure how well strategic initiatives are performing. However, project managers can use the technique to help steer any project towards success. Balanced Scorecard BasicsRead… Read more »
“I believe we need to attract a new generation of the best and brightest to public service and I believe that government can be a source of inspiration, not degradation.” Andrew Cuomo There is a lot of evidence that diversity in the workforce enables lots of great things like problem solving, communications, and the abilityRead… Read more »
In parts 1 and 2 of this series on professional use of social media in the public service, I talked about the two different approaches you can take and about the social media disclaimer. In part 3, I would like to discuss two different models commonly used for message amplification through employee professional use ofRead… Read more »
I’ve been participating in a young professional women’s group. Recently we discussed and worked through Lois Frankel’s Nice Girls ^Still Don’t Get The Corner Office. Frankel’s book offers an assessment to help identify areas the reader self-identifies as performing well and areas the reader self-identifies as needing improvement. One common area improvement amongst the groupRead… Read more »
Top 10 ways to stay on top of research developments in your field 1. Join a professional society. Actually read their newsletters, e-mails, and updates. 2. Set alerts (Google alerts, etc.). 3. Look deeper than the headlines- if you read a popular article, go back to the peer-reviewed source. Does the headline actually match theRead… Read more »
It’s rare that a group in Silicon Valley becomes speechless. When a colleague kept us spellbound during a staff meeting regaling his tales of filming a video blurb in Navajo Nation a few weeks ago, I knew this was a story for the masses. Navajo Nation, the largest area belonging to Native Americans, comprising threeRead… Read more »