Author: Debra Stewart

“WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US.”

The animal characters Walt Kelly created for his classic newspaper comic strip Pogo were known for their seemingly simplistic, but slyly perceptive comments about the state of the world and politics. None is more remembered than Pogo the possum’s quote in the poster Kelly designed to help promote environmental awareness and publicize the first annual…
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What Makes a Leader?

Drive down Main Street in Anytown, USA and you’ll see gas stations, restaurants, supermarkets, banks, and various office buildings.  For each of these entities, there is a single person who is ultimately responsible – a person who is in charge.  Are these people leaders or are they just people in charge?  Is there a difference?…
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The Importance of Specific, Quantifiable, Measurable, and Objective Criteria when Creating Performance Models

When using job match assessments to improve the selection and promotion process within an organization, success will depend largely upon how current top performers are identified.  Since the process is designed to help an organization select candidates who share the same job-related characteristics of their top performers, misidentification of those critical characteristics by misidentifying members…
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Ten Ways to Engage Employees

While we’re taking a trip down memory lane, here is the list from my 2007 newsletter on ten ways to foster employee engagement.  While some have stood the test of time, in hindsight one or two of them might appear to be a bit naïve if not antiquated: Ask employees for suggestions. Let them comment…
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Trends in Employee Engagement and Emotional Intelligence

As I began research for this month’s newsletter, I came across one of my old newsletters from 2007.  In that newsletter I made reference to Ken Dychtwald’s book, Workforce Crisis, which had been published the previous year.  In his book, Ken not only predicted the shortage of skills and talent in today’s workplace, he also…
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