As an executive joining a new organization, you are expected to achieve a higher level of productivity within the first few months with a lower learning curve than other employees. Executives must be ready to make an immediate contribution once they’ve accepted their job offer. You can achieve this by knowing everything you can about the organization, its culture, your team, your executive colleagues, and the Bo...

Let’s face it. Hiring can be tough. The unemployment rate is low – just 3.8% according to the Department of Labor Statistics – and employers have to compete for good employees. So what can you do? Here are a few tactics to turn to in order to step up your recruiting and hiring success rate. Obtain Data from Exit Interviews A first step to creating successful recruiting, hiring and retention strat...

If you follow my blog, you know that one of my pet peeves is #LazyRecruiting and its cousin #LazyHiring. Lazy hiring/recruiting is rampant in any job market. When it’s an employer’s market, it takes the form of hiring companies kicking back, and having job seekers do all the work. In a candidate’s market, like we are in now, lazy hiring is represented by hiring companies that appear desperate to fill posit...

Can you and should you back out of a job offer? If you’ve accepted a job offer, what should you do if other opportunities then present themselves? I’m a firm believer in keeping your job options open until the day that you actually start work. Things can fall through at the last minute, and few things are more difficult than resuming the search after you thought it was over. But what happens if your post-o...

You’ve made your career a top priority. You strive for excellence and may have even made sacrifices to advance in the workplace. When life throws you a curveball, it can be challenging — and somewhat disorienting — to stay on track. Major life crises, like a family member being diagnosed with cancer, financial troubles or other life events can (rightfully) consume a lot of your time and attention. If yo...

Every day we generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. This information has led to some tremendous breakthroughs with the potential to improve thousands of lives. As leaders, we also have mountains of data available to us—honestly, more than we can assimilate or make sense of. Yet huge decisions are made every day based solely on the numbers. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love numbers! But, in my years working wit...

While Millennials in the workplace have dominated our thinking about generations for years, it’s time to acknowledge that they are no longer the “newbies” in the workplace — in fact, the oldest Millennials are now aged 38. So, while decoding the Millennial mindset is still an important part of the work I do as a multigenerational workplace speaker and consultant, much of my clients’ attenti...

Is your resume a turn-off to employers? Chances are that it is. 75% of HR professionals say that they routinely receive resumes that are not on point. That is significant. Are you committing any of these Crimes Against Employability with your resume? You don’t tailor your resume for the job opening. Seven seconds. That’s how long a recruiter looks at a resume before deciding to move the candidate along to in...

When I was working in the corporate arena years ago, I had the great misfortune of reporting to and working with a number of extremely toxic colleagues and managers whose behavior hurt me and was also a complete mystery to me. I couldn’t understand their raging, their defensiveness, they inability to be challenged or questioned, or their penchant for drumming people out who were not obsequious and total “yes&rdq...

We live in an age of remarkable products and services from inventive thinkers with lofty ideas. These visionary leaders, who don’t think or work like anyone else, have started businesses based on novel concepts, and those whose achievements greatly impact society are afforded special status. Employees often flock to these visionaries’ companies, hoping the future will offer prosperity within a corporate cultu...