Commitments. Commitments. Commitments. They fill our days, our heads and our lives. Most of us are in the commitment business. Of course, that's not what we call it. At work, we're making commitments to customers, suppliers, bosses, coworkers and staff. At home, we're making commitments to family, friends, neighbors, community and organizations. Not to mention commitments to pay taxes, credit card bills, mortgages and car l...

It didn't take long while on safari in Botswana, to begin to recognize the animal calls heralding a predator roaming in the area. What intrigued me was the pass-along path those calls took, from animal group to animal group. The shrieks of baboons, the trumpeting of elephants, the screams of francolins, the cries of impalas were picked up by adjacent animals and sent out for as long as the threat remained.In that predator-p...

"You ain't going nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck." What if Elvis believed this Grand Ole Opry manager's critique after his l954 performance? Or the Beatles listened in 1962 when Decca Recording Company responded, "We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out."What if Rudyard Kipling quit writing when the San Francisco Examiner told him, "I'm sorry, but you just don't know how to use...

Seated in the courtyard of a sports bar during a playoff game in the home city of one of the teams, it was an energetic crowd that Sunday. While we'd come for a quick bite to eat, we caught a glimpse of a play now and then as home-team enthusiasts roared their approval during the first half. When a man sat down next to us with two friends, ordered a pitcher of beer and maneuvered around to glimpse the game, we barely notice...

"How could that be?" I muttered silently as I reread the message. This was not a person I wanted to encounter as I returned from a holiday vacation filled with family, friends, and fun. And yet, there he was on my calendar. My first meeting of the New Year was scheduled with my nemesis.I wish I could tell you it was a good meeting, but it wasn't. I got exactly the difficult, irritating, frustrating event I expected. Now yea...

I'm not a big fan of New Years resolutions. Sure I've made dozens of them, all with good intentions and a bit of magical thinking, believing this time the resolution will stick. Maybe a few have, but generally these wishful self-promises end up broken. And when that happens my self-esteem suffers.You see, every time you break a self-promise, your self-trust is weakened. Every time you give up on your commitments your self-c...

As a frequent conference speaker, I take advantage of other presentations when my schedule allows. So I was delighted, with three hours to spare before heading to the airport, to hear best selling author of "Built to Last," Jim Collins, address a group.It was the story he told about interviewing management guru, Peter Drucker, that I've thought of several times since. It stayed with me partially because I'm a Drucker fan, s...

Thirteen percent. That number should make you pause if you manage staff, lead a group, or own a business. It's a number recently released from an on-line survey reported by Reuters.According to Right Management, a subsidiary of Manpower Inc, only thirteen percent of employees surveyed said they "planned to stay in their current positions." Two-thirds reported they're looking to change jobs in 2010, and another twenty-one pe...

Once upon a time, a prince and princess lived in stressful palace, surrounded by a stressful village, inside a stressful land. They knew it was stressful because everyone said it was. Their parents, the king and queen, worked from sunrise to sunset hearing issues from their kingdom, weighing the requests, and appropriating the collective harvest to the people of their land.The people also worked from sunrise to sunset, doin...

"Red tape. Infighting. Office politics. Employee morale. Can't get things done. Lack of communication. Layers of bureaucracy. Not valued. Rude, difficult people. Indecision. Lack of support. Inconsistency. No clear direction." These are sample answers from readers to a Winning at Working survey that asked about the biggest problems at work. And then we wonder, as supervisors and managers, why employees aren't motivated?Work...