Creating a Talent Strategy: Why You Need a “Hard Knocks” Approach

An organization’s business strategy should drive its talent management strategy the same as it does marketing and finance.

Try and imagine a business creating both long term and short term strategy and not including the latter two. Unthinkable right?

While watching the show “Hard Knocks,” which is kind of a reality show for the National Football League, I always enjoy the segments when all the coaches get together to plot strategy.

All hands on deck

Workplace Relationships: Just Like in Personal Life, You Want a Good Match

“You were too aggressive and I do not like aggressive.”

My wife and I laughed so hard that I almost had to pull over on the side of the road with laughter. On Friday, my wife Janetta and I celebrated 39 years of marriage. The line above was referring to when we first met at 18 years of age.

Here we are with two wonderful and funny kids who are now strong young adults, a stunning daughter-in-law, and most of all, our newest family member, Peyton, our granddaughter. It has been such a beautiful time.

People always ask what our secrets are. They ask this because anyone that is around us can feel the vibes that, yes, after all these years we are still in love. Yes, we got it going on.

Is Your Organization on a CD Player While Everyone Else Is Using an iPod?

The New York City subway is the fastest commute in the city. In a matter of a few minutes you can transverse the boroughs.

It is also an amalgam of characters — from the very rich to the homeless, from senior citizens to grade school kids, from well dressed to tattered jeans. More importantly you see both the latest and, the oldest, of technology being used. Gen X & Y, I have noticed, always seems to have the latest piece of new technology.

You name it and you can see the contrast on the subway. It has to be an anthropological utopia.

What Your Recruiters and Their Style Says About Your Employment Brand

“You are the best interviewer I have ever had!”

That is what my wife was told last week after she finished interviewing a prospective employee. She said that the statement made her day. However, my wife is not in HR; she was the hiring manager for this role.

Contrast that with a phone call later in the evening from a friend had gone on an interview. She told me how the recruiter was so terribly rude.

“The recruiter acted as if I had ruined her day,” my friend told me. She said the recruiter rushed her through the answers to her questions and kept looking at her watch. “Why did she bother to invite me to a face to face?” she wondered. She could just as easily rescheduled if she was having a bad day.