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Tom Bolt

What Job Seekers Really Want

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This is the article that shouldn’t be written. At least the timing is absolutely wrong for so many reasons, but the frustration of “paying it forward” when nobody cares eventually grinds the true caring person inside of me to a halt. I spent last weekend reading Harvey Mackay’s book Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty because it is one of those classic networking books that I have quoted without having read the book from cover… Read More »What Job Seekers Really Want

Look For the Eureka Moments

The ancient Greek scholar Archimedes was wrestling with a problem. Hiero II, king of Syracuse, suspected that he was being cheated by the goldsmith who had cast a votive crown for a temple. He had asked Archimedes to confirm or deny his suspicions, but substituting other metals for gold in an irregular object was not something that was easily done in the days before laser scanning and 3-D imaging. One day while lowering himself into… Read More »Look For the Eureka Moments

The Grapevine Knows

Millions of dollars are spent each year by companies trying to find out information about their competitors. Business intelligence is big business. Reversing that concept puts the whole idea of knowledge management in a different light, “What do my competitors know about me?” More important than the aggregate numbers are what individual people think and say. Walls, firewalls and fences can’t stop people from talking with each other. In-house perceptions are probably more critical to… Read More »The Grapevine Knows

Coping with Irritable People

Is there any more overcooked analogy than the one about the lowly oyster taking a grain of sand and making it into a pearl? If we were to believe all of the motivational quotes, shallow platitudes, flowery poems and religious themes about creating something of beauty out of a painful irritation we would be surrendering our humanity. The oyster opens its shell to be able to gain access to microscopic food and dissolved oxygen through… Read More »Coping with Irritable People

From the Archives of Make HR Happen – Those Times We Challenged Mediocrity

An inside joke is one shared by a few people that will instantly draw howls of laughter… but only if you happen to be an insider. One such incident was in my Army days when a bunch of us smart but rebellious officer candidates banded together as a protection against indiscriminate harassment by the TAC officers. One day we were called out for being a group of the “…most mediocre soldiers I have ever seen!”… Read More »From the Archives of Make HR Happen – Those Times We Challenged Mediocrity