Step Out. Step Up.
I give an “A” for effort to Ray Clark, Founder and CEO, of The Marketing Arm. He’s kicked off 2012 with a program that combines time and cash for his longtime employees. Not too bad so far, eh?
Anyone who has been with the Dallas-based marketing and promotions agency for at least seven years is being rewarded with seven [...]
While organizations disappear, wait out or struggle in this economy, you can guess a number of senior executives wouldn’t even venture a conversation about establishing a sabbatical program for their employees.
Apt responses in this group are: “Are you out of your mind?” “No way. We want them here and working, working working.” “Who’s doing that?”
So you might [...]
Driving home from a recent business dinner, I struggled to figure out just how my three smiling dinner companions processed the current business environment with such remarks as “turning the corner,” “looking better than ever,” “full of promise,” and, (the corker), “my best year ever.”
All three highly educated, high achieving business owners seemed out of [...]
A good friend is packing up to move six states to the east – closer to the ocean where it won’t snow. Without a job for over a year, she figures her spirit will get a boost in new surroundings where the sun shines more days than in Cincinnati. In no time she’ll be inspired to tackle a future [...]
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, written by Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter, outlines 20 habits to break to become even more successful. With an average of 4.5 stars from 288 Amazon readers, the book deserves your attention.
The 20 habits include clinging to the past, making excuses and winning too much. Goldsmith is “corporate America’s preeminent [...]
Who knew to call time out raising your kids a “parenting sabbatical”? Seems this touted option elicits opinionated responses from moms of the world.
In her column yesterday for the New York Times, Overcoming a “Planned” Sabbatical, Lisa Belkin features Barbara Hannan Grufferman’s suggestions for re-entering the workforce after taking time out to have a family. Ms. Grufferman [...]
Is the idea of a sabbatical program at your company a “squishy” one? Is there no perception that time out from a career boosts performance, career longevity and innovation?
Time to express your impatience with stodgy thinking and tell stories of how time off CAN result in extraordinary bottom line results.
From squishy idea to business strategy, [...]
Thomas Metzinger, a philosopher, argues that the Internet isn’t changing the way we think, but it is attacking our finite commodity of “attention.” Feeling strongly about our “attention management,” the philosopher worries. “Attention is a finite commodity and absolutely essential to living a good life,” he laments.
Given that, you and I won’t be living our [...]
Stephen Sondheim, the “the master lyricist of our generation” 80 years old and would forgo love to write lyrics.
How does a genius think? How does he approach work? As a prolific, high-achieving performer, does he ever want to stop working? Does he have a life? All the answers are in Sondheim’s new book (the first of [...]
Want to join a revolution that’s coming? No marches or petitions necessary. All you have to do is blow out your birthday candles and start thinking about how you can live a better life.
In his latest book Drive, best-selling author Daniel Pink describes the upcoming force to be reckoned with as demographically driven.
Every 13 minutes another [...]
Picture yourself an ascending star in your field, speeding down the highway toward success. Everything’s going smoothly and the road is clear. But one mile from arriving at your pinnacle, you stop the car, get out and walk home.
That’s what Andy Borowitz did – and he’s happier because of it.
In the 1990s, Hollywood comedian Borowitz [...]
Sunday night’s American Music Award show’s performances were replete with an underlying competition for the most fire, undulating loud acoustics, vampy outfits, and creative mechanisms for suspending singers.
It was repetitive and a little boring until the curtain went up and three men seated on stools with a backlit stage simply did their thing.
Dressed in jeans and black t-shirts, [...]
It’s one thing to go for an afternoon walk or hike for a couple of weeks. It’s quite a different experience to sleep in a different bed every night, eat alone or with strangers and put one sore foot in front of the other day after day after day.
Sometimes you are alone on the trail; [...]
Let me be clear, I do not think that this is the case at all, but now that we are back in Philly, in the midst of a full-time job search, during the worst recession of our lives, the market (employers and clients) have yet to make a definitive call on the matter. So I [...]
Last week’s news about Google fighting off Facebook and other fast-growing internet firms in the war for talent is a glimpse into the future as well as a substantial morale lift if you’re feeling stuck or looking for a brighter future.
Now hear this! You really can get a job somewhere else – if not [...]
I believe in being the best mom or dad you can be, just not at the expense of living the life you want for yourself. Asked when one plans to accomplish some of the things that he/she has identified on the “dream list,” here are familiar responses:
Just as soon as the kids get a [...]
Often the best outcome of the sabbatical experience is returning to your job uplifted, energized and recommitted. At the core of this payoff is re-discovering true passion. For it is passion that fuels creativity and energy, propelling us forward with a sense of purpose and self-identity.
Admitting we have lost passion for our work isn’t easy. [...]
Can you remember the last bad day you had? The one where the future seemed dimly lit and you felt frustrated not knowing what to tackle first? Well, today’s mine.
Bad mood and overwhelmed, I feel my life has a thousand loose ends and the dragon that will slay the fears of my future is at [...]
I’ve been seeing more people standing on street corners with signs in my small town. A couple of weeks back, a middle-aged woman on the median of a busy intersection held a one word sign – “Help.” It’s unusual to see a woman on the street holding a sign; mostly it’s men.
Most signs ask for a [...]
After a couple of falls and a hospital stay, my 94-year-old dad isn’t able to return to his assisted living apartment. He’ll stay at the nursing home when he complete his rehabilitation at the end of this month.
Sunday night in the hang-out room of the nursing home, “The Wharf,” Dad and I watched the baseball play-off [...]
Wrecking one’s life isn’t all that difficult. Coaching sessions with top-notch executives – talented, smart and good at what they do – reveal an extraordinary gift for giving momentum to the wrecking ball of life.
But once in a while, a leader has a come-to-Jesus meeting … with himself or herself (and perhaps a coach) to identify [...]
Toward the end of his August book review of “Exploring Happiness” by Swedish born philosopher Sissela Bok for the Wall Street Journal, Paul Beston, associate editor of the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, states:
“He who worries about happiness in itself has probably already secured his dinner.”
Oh I so disagree, Mr. Beston. Faced with poverty, disease, war and loss, people [...]
Where is it that you have a sense of belonging to the land? A place you feel rooted? What vista feeds your soul?
Some describe it as a place where they feel “home,” while others describe a place that stirs their mind and soul.
One morning this past June, I woke up in a Malmerby Hall in northern England [...]