Why Do Performance Appraisals?

My almost three year old has just learned to ask the question, “Why?” He loves it, and uses it ALL the time. For example, I’ll say, “Don’t climb on that.” “Why?” He asks as he continues to do it. Or he says, “Mommy, where is the moon?” “In the sky,” I’ll say. “Why?” he asks. “Because it’s in space.” “Why?” he asks again. It can go on forever, and quite often I have no idea how to answer his “Why?” I think too often we neglect to ask “Why?” when it comes to evaluating employee performance or any other talent

3 Steps to an Internship Game Plan

Internships are a must these days. Internships are becoming the best way to strengthen your job prospects.  With statistics showing high rates ofunemployment and underemployment (in other words, you have a degree and you’re working in a job that doesn’t require one) for recent college grads, a key way to distinguish yourself in the job market, beyond pursuing an in-demand field is to get relevant experience.  Interning is a great way to do this. 3 Steps to an Internship Game Plan I highly recommend the book, All Work, No Pay, to help you get an internship game plan, but here are

July Leadership Carnival

Welcome to the July 1st, 2013 edition of the Leadership Development Carnival! We hope you enjoy these great posts from 32 of the best leadership bloggers from around the globe. Dan McCarthy from Great Leadership presents How to Overcome the 3 Organizational Barriers to Leadership Development.  “Why is it that more organizations and executives don’t fully embrace the effective development of their leaders? It all comes down to 3 barriers: They either don’t understand why it’s important, how to do it, or they just won’t. This post reviews each barrier and provides tips for overcoming them.” Dana Theus from InPower Women presents Activating the

Hiring Slow

3 THINGS THE PROS DO I think we’ve all at one time or another been on the side of the recruiting process where it felt like a hurry up and wait game.  Applying for a job and jumping through the hoops to get it always seems to be a mind-numbingly slow process.  Even in my days as a recruiter, I often became frustrated with the slow process, particularly when I had a candidate that was perfect for a job and I was anxious to hire him or her. Despite the snails pace of hiring that can become frustrating, I was

4 Actions for Planned Happenstance

We’ve been following the career decision-making path of Graham by looking at his talents, passions and values to find appropriate job matches.   Much of what we’ve done so far requires matching personal characteristics with specific occupations. This is a very helpful process, but it doesn’t negate the reality that life happens and sometimes you’ve got to jump start your career pathway with action that may or may not lead to the specific careers targeted in your career exploration activities. John Krumboltz’s, (who with Ed Levine wrote, Luck is No Accident), career development theory is one of “planned happenstance”.   Basically, this view is that people