There’s one thing you need to know about me: I get Jim Rohn and Jim Rome confused. (One dude is a leadership guru. The other dude is an ESPN guy or something.) And there’s another thing you need to know: I love Jim Rohn quotes, but I don’t always get them right. (Close enough, I…
I get calls on a regular basis to provide formal and informal references on people in my industry. First things first: reference checks are not background checks. Reference checks are subjective. Reference checks are unreliable and invalid ways of measuring someone’s knowledge, skills and abilities. Reference checks are what you do when you want to…
Got this note from a PR guy named Eric. In general, I’ve stopped picking on PR professionals. However, this one needs some work. Dear Laurie, Today I have some news for you that is incredibly inspiring and empowering and worth sharing with your reader audience. Lean Cuisine just launched an initiative to challenge women to…
I’ve been doing some video chats for CareerBuilder, and they’re pretty fun. We use a combination of Google Hangouts and Twitter, and what you end up with is a crazy and interesting mix of video and interactive tweets. We discussed talent management strategies and techniques in the last episode. Tim Sackett makes an offhanded comment…
I let my SHRM membership lapse in 2015 because my employer will no longer pay for it. My employer is me, and honestly, she wants me to spend $190 on spa treatments in Turks & Caicos because she believes in employee engagement. So I won’t be going to the 2015 SHRM Conference & Exhibition in…
You guys know that I’m just back from a trip to Spain. I had so much fun. (Side note: I am horrible with directions, and I burned a chunk of data using my iPhone to navigate the streets of Barcelona. Apple Maps should be free on all carriers/all countries, and subsidized by the legacy of…
Here are some questions that have come to me from events and via email. If a company has grown organically, how do you start to grow through acquisitions? I worked on the HR/M&A side of the house at a company called Kemper Insurance. I was the only HR kid who understood the internet, so that…
Ever since I entered the workforce as a kid, owners have been trying to find a way to pay people less. I don’t mean cutting salaries. Paying people less looks like this: Paying less than minimum wage. I had this happen to me at an ice cream store. I was fourteen and wanted a job.…
I spent some time with entrepreneurs and CEOs, last week, at a collaborative forum where executives can learn from one another in a tweet-free, blog-free zone. It was super fun and interesting. I can’t give you a ton of details from the off-the-record sessions, but I can tell you about my sessions that I chaired.…
I hate it when business travelers are all like, “The road sucks, man. You go to boring meetings in cities that have no soul. You never get to see anything, and if you’re lucky, you get a bite to eat before boarding a flight home. Business travel used to be exclusive and now it’s for…