“Are you considering changing your career? Are you bored, fed-up, lost, or otherwise unhappy in your current career? Are you facing a crossroads at which you need to decide between staying in your current field and moving to a new one? Do you have skills that you are not using in your current career? Have you been promoted to a point where you are no longer doing what you love? Changing careers is one of the biggest decision job-seekers face, and with many possible outcomes and consequences. Before you make that jump to a new career field, consider these common career change mistakes so that you can avoid them as you make the transition from one career to your next.” (Thanks The Occupational Adventure)

“Yes, benchmarking is terrific. Benchmarking is the reason that cars got so much better over the last twenty years. Benchmarking has the inexorable ability to make the mediocre better than average, and it pushes us to always outperform. But it stresses us out. A benchmarked service business or product (or even a benchmarked relationship) is always under pressure. Itís hard to be number one, and even harder when the universe we choose to compare our options against is, in fact, the entire universe.”

“A friend IM’d me this morning to tell me that a friend’s boss surprised her team this morning with iPod Minis and $20 in iTunes credit as thanks for ‘pushing through some tough deadlines.’ That’s a nice surprise, no? Now, while the days of extreme perks and foosball are largely gone, it’s still possible to perk up your workplace with a well-timed expression of appreciation. When was the last time you bought a colleague a thank-you present? Recognized your team in a way that wasn’t fake or frivolous?”

“When used appropriately, the word why can enable people to look beyond themselves, to consider alternate points of view and to begin to change their own notions about self and others. Here are ways leaders can put why to work…”

“People, or better yet your prospects, learn in different ways. Some need lots of specific details, some need pictures, and some just need to look into your eyes and shake your hand. The point is, you must give your target market information in many forms. One of my favorite forms of education is the case study.”

“An industry that owes its existence to making managers sharper has now created a business environment where managers are not only insulated from the rigors of the market but unwilling to make tough decisions too. One consultant says managers have hired consultants simply to do their dirty work.”