You don’t need to be a CEO to be a leader

An interesting post on Forbes.com by leadership expert Mike Myatt got me to thinking. What about leadership skills in “non” leaders. Why can’t you and me—the bottom half of the ladder, okay maybe the middle third—take a page from the leadership manual and be leaders in our own right?

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Leaders Grow, They Are Not Made

Leadership today has become a very multi meaning term. Professionals from various disciplines have defined ‘Leadership’ in different ways. Paradigm shifts in the cultures of organizations and the consistent parallel and horizontal development of companies have raised the need to look at leadership in a new angle.

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When is it age discrimination?

When can we ask applicants for their dates of birth? Many employers feel that asking for the Date of Birth for a Criminal check is a violation of EEOC. Can you help me justify my need to check employees out before hiring and screen their background which requires disclosure of Drivers License and Date of

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Interview Small Talk Makes a Big Impression

“Oh, I notice you went to Whittier College. So did I.” “You were at Disney for two years? I worked for Disney, too.” “Toastmasters? I’m in Toastmasters, too.” All of the above are opening gambits that I’ve used while interviewing candidates. They often were greeted with an “uh huh” while the interviewee waited for a

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A Free-Agent Outlook Can Hurt Your Career

In his book “Free Agent Nation” (Warner Books, 2001), Daniel H. Pink focused on the more than 30 million Americans who, for a variety of reasons, have abandoned traditional employment and the idea of a job that lasts a lifetime. The free-agency movement promotes the notion that — because the loyalty contract between employers and

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Do Technology Experts Make Good Managers?

Even in the current uncertain environment, the U.S. economy is driven by nerds — a term that recently morphed from an insult into a quasi-compliment. Nerds specialize in computer science, mathematics, electrical engineering, physics, biophysics, molecular biology, nanotechnology, bio-nano and who knows what. They are smart, sometimes arrogant, and not necessarily the most sociable folks

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New View of Parenting: It’s Good for Your Career

Jolene Tornabeni, 50, started out as a nurse 25 years ago. Two grown children later, she is the chief operating officer of Inova Health System, a health-care provider with facilities in Northern Virginia. She attributes her rise in the ranks to being a mother. “People always ask me if children didn’t stop me in my

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Why Boards Often Fail To Curb Executive Pay

Last fall, Richard Grasso, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, was forced to resign following disclosure that he had accepted a $187.5 million compensation package. The chairman didn’t set his own salary, however. The board of directors set it. What was their rationale for approving a package of that magnitude? Was he being

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Business Networking Online Can Advance Your Career

When networking is mentioned as a job hunting or career-advancement tool, you probably think of industry or professional meetings with picked-over hors d’oeuvres and people wearing “Hello, I’m…” name tags. The mere specter of working a room this way can cause even the most practiced executive to break out in a sweat.

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One Question, And Plenty of Debate

It is a hot business idea of the moment, a growth formula embraced by General Electric Co., American Express Co., Progressive Corp. and many others. But a growing chorus of skeptics question the value of the “net promoter” concept advocated by consulting firm Bain & Co., market researcher Satmetrix Systems Inc. and author Fred Reichheld.

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3 takeaways from sizzling October jobs report

WASHINGTON — Employers shrugged off worries about the U.S. economy downshifting, adding a whopping 271,000 non-farm jobs in October and raising worker pay in the process. The unemployment rate in October dipped slightly to 5 percent, and measures of stress in the job market continued improving, the Labor Department reported Friday in a solid monthly

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