The Power of Saying Thank-You at Work

It’s the time of year when we gather with friends and family to give thanks for the good things in our lives (and to stuff ourselves with turkey and other goodies). But gratitude can also be helpful in another important setting: the workplace. Famed business leader and author Dale Carnegie believed that “the big secret

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(ARCHIVE) The Reliability and Validity of a Direct Writing Assessment Program

Abstract This series of three case studies describes a program of applied research on writing evaluation conducted in a large utility company. Two of the studies employed represented workers as subjects while the third utilized management employees. Reliability of ratings was examined several ways, including generalizability analysis, coefficient alpha, and Pearson r. Validity of writing

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Follow Your Calling To the Perfect Position

At some point in our lives, we come to a place where we long to uncover our mission — a lifelong assignment that evolves from deep within our soul. My father, the son of a New England minister, described one’s mission in life as a “calling.” A calling isn’t exactly a job; that’s something you

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Getting to the Bottom Of CEO Compensation

Since markets turned shaky, a new round of jawflapping about the unseemliness of executive compensation practices has gathered steam. One business magazine that shall remain nameless even called it “The Great CEO Pay Heist.” Of particular fanfare was Apple’s bestowal on Steve Jobs of a stock-option package valued at $548 million. Something clearly has come

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Your Job Search Can Be A Hard-Fought Campaign

In a recent edition of The Wall Street Journal, columnist Gerald Seib wrote that the campaign against terrorism is “slow and hard for good reason.” After spending a day providing advice to participants in a job fair in Fort Worth, Texas, I sensed that the nation’s other war — getting America back to work —

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Building Credibility: Key for a Fast Start

Having changed employers and roles several times over the course of my career, I’ve learned that getting off to a fast start in a new position hinges on building credibility in the new role. To do so, you need to deliver early but enduring results. Planning your first few weeks on the job is the

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Moving From the Military Into a Civilian Job

Switching from a military to a civilian career is a big step. It also can be extremely difficult. Military officers may be highly qualified for many business positions. However, their backgrounds are so different from those of typical executives that employers often can’t tell if — and where — they’d fit. To start with, military

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Get Career-Changing Experience By Temping

By payroll size, the biggest U.S. employer isn’t General Motors Corp. or Wal-Mart Stores. It’s Manpower Inc., a temporary services firm in Milwaukee, which employs 760,000. Manpower sends all types of employees into companies to fill temporary roles ranging from traditional filing and typing to complex computer, marketing or finance positions. Because these jobs aren’t

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Make a Living While Making a Difference

Wendy Brawer was an English teacher in Japan vacationing in Bali when she noticed how peaceful, rural hideaways were turning into tourist hotels. When she returned to the U.S., she was determined to shift environmental attitudes. She eventually hit upon the idea of helping communities create maps of their ecological and cultural resources. In 1995,

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