The most important thing I've learned in the last five years is the value of community. Growing up, I didn't have much of one. We lived in one of those diffuse suburbs about twenty miles outside of Washington, D.C. My family wasn't religious so we didn't attend a temple, and...

In this economic climate, everyone wants to avoid getting laid off. The number one way to do this is to have a strong relationship with your immediate manager. Here are some strategies that have worked well for me over the years:

• Be humble. Don't approach your boss with a...

In life, we get many chances to reinvent ourselves. Remember when you first arrived on campus for your freshman year of college? The most exciting thing about it was that no one knew what a (insert negative adjective of choice here) you were in high school. You taught yourself new...

Most bestselling nonfiction authors are men. The most successful online personalities are men. The people who have made it the biggest in the motivational speaking field? Yup, men again.

This is not to say that there aren't lots of accomplished women in these areas. There are. But there are more...

In this totally unstable business climate, everyone is under a great deal of pressure. People are more prone to snap at each other, and office altercations aren't unusual. Nevertheless, no matter what your job or situation, having a bonefied meltdown at work diminishes your credibility and intrudes on your reputation....

We've all heard that people get jobs based on who they know, but what if you aren't lucky enough to be acquainted with someone in the field you're pursuing?

Your first step is to tell everyone you come across -- including family, friends, neighbors, the people in the doctor's office,...

When I lived in the east, I thought tailgating was a Big Apple thing. After all, that gelled with everything I'd ever heard about New Yorkers. Imagine my surprise when I moved to Chicago and discovered that tailgating is just as bad here.

There are the traditional tailgaters -- those...

I admit it. Other than my training business being a bit slow, I thought that this so-called recession wouldn't really affect me or the people I love. Then, two of my good friends got laid off in one week and I was forced to remove my head from the sand....

Have you ever noticed that most people who have reached the top of a profession only stay there for a little while? I call it "pinnacle-itis." Box office bombshells usually have a few years of massive celebrity, and then they fade into the background of other working actors. High-profile CEOs...

"Paying your dues" might be defined as doing work that may be considered grueling and demeaning because you are the newest or youngest person on staff. Or, it could involve working longer hours with less time off or taking less desirable assignments so that you can gain seniority. If you're...

I didn't have the most stable "American" childhood in the world. My mother suffered from severe mental illness, and I was forced to behave like an adult at a very young age. Add to that the fact that I'm a card-carrying member of Generation X. Our parents handed us keys...

In the past, becoming a boss for the first time was a rough transition. You were expected to take the reins with no training or preparation whatsoever, and your team would suffer the consequences. Fortunately, in the twenty-first century, it seems that organizations have woken up and realized that poor...

The World Health Organization calls job stress a worldwide epidemic. It costs global companies billions annually - and what does it cost you? During the first few years of my career as a corporate freshman, I was so stressed out that I came home from work and collapsed on the...

Millennials, Millennials everywhere. As the largest generation in American history, they're entering the workforce by the millions, and the blogosphere by the dozens. Today's twenty-somethings are ambitious, empowered, and outspoken, and they want personal and professional fulfillment right now. In the years since my friend Abby Wilner first coined...

I am one of those people who has the tendency to never be satisfied. It is like a disease. When I was in college, I wanted a communications job in New York City. Once I had that job, I wanted to get ahead quickly. A couple of promotions later,...

As a topic of discussion, career change is white hot. I get more requests for advice on this than anything else. It seems that in the twenty-first century, new college grads aren't content just to earn a paycheck anymore. They want personal AND professional fulfillment, and they want it now....

So it's official. I'm somebody's mother.

My journey began nine months ago and stepped up in intensity when I went into labor three and a half weeks early in the wee morning hours of March 2. My water broke at 4:30AM and my son, Jonah Vincent Shankman, was in...

It doesn't add up. The workday has been roughly the same length of time - eight hours - since the early part of this century. Today, though, we have access to a variety of technological advances designed to increase our productivity, from fancy schmancy office software to search engines that...

This woman just came on board as a vice president in my department. She told me she was only with us for 90 days initially, that she was doing a trial first to see if she was a good fit for the job and the job was a good fit...

The holidays are over, and so is your six month, self-imposed hiatus from the real world. It seems like just yesterday that you devoured the leftovers from those graduation barbeques and sanitized your senior year apartment for the next lucky inhabitant. But now, it's time to get down to business....