In 1500 words or less, each post will give you something you can use TODAY to build yourself, your people and your organization whether your organization is a "for-profit" or a "not-for-profit."
In Canada this weekend was for Thanksgiving and I thought reposting this story would be appropriate. The person in this post may be fictional; however, her story is one that is playing out daily in every community in Canada. People who are struggling need our understanding, our help to survive, and for us to provide a framework so they can have their lives back.
Each of us can help, we have a responsibility to make a difference.
Twice each year I present a workshop on “How to Keep a Job” for high school cooperative education students. The one piece of advice that was shared with me before my first one was “Don’t be boring.” I keep getting asked back so I must have succeeded.
Each time I speak to students I feel invigorated by their attention and their questions. Last week I spoke to approximately 150 students and their questions inspired today’s post. I wrote this with them in mind, my own three children, and what I had wished I had learned when I was their age.
Please read this, share this, and add your own comments.
It is not too optimistic or too negative, I have tried to balance both so each reader can take some tools away they can use.
Are we just the sum of our good and bad decisions? Labels and simple equations do not begin to adequately describe us and how we became who we are. In a world that increasingly uses simple rhetoric to explain how to solve our problems; we need to understand the complex interplay of variables that shape all of us.
If we can understand and appreciate, then we can begin to tailor individual courses of action.
Finding a job or reinventing yourself after leaving a job can be one of the most difficult situations we face in life. Help is available in virtually every region. There is also a focus, a series of steps, something similar to Abraham Maslow’s famous Hierarchy of Needs, that can help achieve your goals.
This post is a little longer than normal, but it is worth the extra few minutes. Please use it, share it, and please add your suggestions to help people who are struggling.
Politics and elections is more than 10 second sound bites and popular slogans. We seem to have grown apathetic towards our democracies and take our rights as something we will always have.
Most of the world does not live the way we do … if we are not careful our rights and democracy could disappear while we are watching.
Read this as a beginning, ask questions, become interested, become engaged, and vote whenever you have the opportunity.
I began as a good manager but a poor leader. I benefited from good mentors and people who believed in my potential and through hard work, and many missteps, I have become a better manager and a good leader. In a small way, I hope this post repays their faith and helps you.
Success does not result from a single action, success is the cumulative result of hundreds of small intricate actions and decisions; but most importantly success comes from treating your people well.
I am passionate about people, learning about them, learning from them, helping them, and helping me. For organizations that want to engage with their communities, with perspective clients and future employees a great vehicle is attending a trade show, job fair, or other types of exhibitions. Improve your success by considering the following “do’s and don’ts,” as always please feel free to add your suggestions.
We all want to make a difference, from the most senior to the most junior, the need has never been greater. Use this as a starting point for your own contribution, add/subtract as you wish, but please start now.
Sometimes it is too easy to blame the victims rather than to work on solutions to the cause. Not a week goes by where a municipality is not trying to dismantle an encampment of people experiencing homelessness. Our media is full of outraged politicians and community members demanding action be taken, often punitive action.
One of the missing elements in these diatribes is “How” people come to experience homelessness. Few of those demanding punitive action realize just how precarious they and we are.
Could it happen to you, to me, to your friends, and even your grandparents, it could and it could happen faster than you can think.
Recently I attended a local job fair. Individually all of the participants, job seekers/employers/and organizers, did a good job … but some things were missing.
I came away from the job fair the same way I always do, frustrated and disappointed, as I suspect did many other people. I decided to offer some suggestions or “Tools Everyone Could Use” whether a job-seeker, employer, or organizer … see what you think.