Diversity: It’s Good For Business, the Workplace, and All of Our Lives

It’s OK if the formula does not make sense.

I have watched with amusement these past few weeks the reaction in the sports world to the phenomenon called Jeremy Lin.

Not being much of a sports fan (especially basketball), I had to delve a little deeper than the normal fan. Chinese-American and Harvard-educated does not normally equal star in the NBA — or at least, that would have been the thinking before Lin.

But it goes back to show how we humans have certain mindsets, and how we have all painted our own picture of what utopia would look like.

Do You Know “When” It’s Time to Go? Here Are 8 Tell-Tale Signs

How do you know “when?”

When I went away to college, my father told me that if you are thinking of getting married, college is the perfect place to find a wife. Since he had been right about everything else in life, I took his advice.

Six months in I saw a young lady across campus and I knew then that she was the one. Fast forward, two kids later, and I knew it was the best decision I had ever made.

On one of my previous jobs, employee morale had sunk to such a low point that it was almost unbearable to go to work. My dream job had morphed into an atmosphere that was unrecognizable. In both of these situations, I knew “when.”

Giving Hope For All Those Impacted by the Social Media Onslaught

Last Saturday, I was an invited guest on a panel discussion during Social Media Weekend at Columbia University.

This is their second annual Social Media Weekend hosted by Prof. Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Student Affairs, and a big social media fan. My panel guest were Maggie Mistal, nationally known career coach and former co-worker, along with David Gaspin, Head of Talent Acquisition at the Ladders. The name of our panel was "Social Media and Job Search."

The weekend consisted of workshops, panels and keynotes to help journalists, media professionals and others understand social media. Our current crop of social media tools are talked about constantly and get a lot of press.

The Quest for Excellence: It’s Why Learning Never, Ever Ends

“I will be glad when this is all over. I will never have to study anything anymore.”

That was a statement from my daughter during finals week in her senior year of college at Penn State. She sounded worn out. As I listened on the other end of the phone, I looked at my watch and realized it was too late to respond to that. I knew she was not in the mood to be receptive.

Last week, I was in Pittsburgh leading two seminars for the Human Capital Institute (I am a faculty member). As I spoke, I kept emphasizing the need for constant learning

As I thought of that statement I realized the model for professional learning and development has changed tremendously. There once was a time when I would choose to attend a couple of learning events per year. When I returned from them, the vast majority of the time the courseware would eventually end up in the credenza in my office.