Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Dan Oswald, CEO of Simplify Compliance, writes about management, leadership, and the workplace. Occasional guest articles are written by other leaders and C-Suite executives from BLR.
I ran across a number of things this week that I thought were worthy of comment. Instead of choosing one, I thought I would try to get them all in. In the “It’s About Time” category, the board of BP negotiated the departure of Tony Hayward as CEO of the oil company and replaced him […]
Wow! It could only happen in Washington, D.C. I’m talking about the dismissal and, ultimately, attempted rehiring of Shirley Sherrod. You’ve likely heard the story by now, but it goes something like this. Last week on Monday, conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart blogged about a speech given by Sherrod, a mid-level Department of Agriculture employee. He […]
The other day a colleague here at M. Lee Smith Publishers suggested I take a look at a video that’s posted on YouTube. The video he wanted me to see was an animation adapted from a speech given by author Daniel Pink. The title of the video was the same as Mr. Pink’s latest book, […]
How hard can it be? I’m talking about BP’s apparent lack of ability to get out of its own way. Time and time again BP has been able to say or do exactly the wrong thing. Forget about what the oil company could or could not have done to avoid this whole tragic mess. Let’s […]
Forgive me for bragging, but I’ve got a group of fantastic coworkers. Many of them were in action again this morning. You see, some of our people volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House here in Nashville today. As I write this, they’ve already served breakfast to the families staying there and another team will be […]
Legendary basketball coach John Wooden died on June 4 at the age of 99. During his coaching career his teams won more than 80 percent of their games. At UCLA, his teams won an astonishing 10 NCAA national championships during his final 12 years of coaching, including seven in a row. Wooden was a talented […]
I hope I don’t disappoint when I tell you that what you’re about to read isn’t about Tiger Woods, the OctoMom, or anything remotely salacious. Instead, this is about you. Let me share with you a story that Jim Stovall tells in his book You Don’t Have to Be Blind to See. It’s about two […]
I saw an article the other day with the headline “Shareholders vs. Customers: Who Comes First?” That got me thinking. What was the answer to this question posed by the author of the article? My conclusion: You don’t have to choose. If you want to create long-term shareholder value in any business, you must meet […]
In the movies the leading man often was portrayed as the strong, silent type. A man of few words, but those words carried a lot of weight. Think Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry muttering, “Go ahead. Make my day.” But as I was reminded recently, in business being a man of few words isn’t such […]
The greater Nashville metro area, where our company is headquartered, experienced widespread flooding during the first days of May. The devastation was significant. In fact, Tennessee’s governor asked that 53 counties across the state be declared federal disaster areas. When something like this happens, everyone is affected by it in varying degrees. Some of us […]