What have you learned from the past year about your teams, and what lessons can you apply moving forward?

When a leader communicates clearly to employees, everyone from research and development to sales and marketing understands the same vision and the same values of the organization’s culture.

Smart leaders and managers at all levels must realize that because talent is fluid, their most critical responsibility is the retention of key talent throughout a project.

Your success often depends upon networking; getting yourself out there, making connections, and enjoying face time with peers and potential employers.

In a world obsessed with speed, it’s no surprise that HR professionals feel the pressure to help new hires quickly become fully productive employees of an organization.

Many of the best, most effective leaders are introverts by nature, schoolyard nerds who grew up to be outstanding at drawing out the best in the people who work for them.

When HR professionals talk about rewards and recognition in the workplace, it’s easy to hit the default button that leads directly to bonuses or  “attaboys.” After all, every employee appreciates a nice check or a public pat on the back for a job well done, right? Incentivizing workers this way definitely has a long-standing place in generating goodwill and improving morale with employees.

When the workforce consisted mainly of baby boomers, organizations were able to get away with a broad, blanket approach to workforce management.

Taking all the risk out of inherently risky situations has never been an easy task and probably never will be. (And no, I’m not talking about the Seahawks throwing a pass at the goal line instead of just running it in Super Bowl XLIX.) But for some industries and businesses, managing risk more successfully than others has become almost second nature.

Screenwriters know there is a magic formula called “structure” that must be adhered to when writing a successful script. A key element is what occurs at the nine-minute mark in a film. That’s when the hero’s life undergoes a change that forces them to take action and regain their footing, which catalyzes the triumphant conclusion.

In the past few years I’ve heard more and more phrases like “work spouse,” “work bestie,” and “office neighbor.” In fact, it’s not uncommon for adults to meet at least one of their close friends through work. With work imitating life these days, “breakups,” no doubt, can affect us on the job, too.

Every workplace has at least one of them: the person who is smarter, the person who knows how to fix a problem better than you can, the person who is surely going to leave you in the dust on his or her way up.

The concept of a “diverse” workplace gained traction in the ’80s and ’90s, but it was framed largely in cultural and sociological terms.

If you don’t have good people working around you, chances are you won’t have good results.

Accessing the right talent at the right time to best support your business strategies