Articles
Employee Engagement
The Care and Feeding of Employees
7 Rules for Cultivating a Workforce of People who Like their Jobs by Ann Tardy
Drew Carey once joked “Oh, you hate your job? Why didn’t you say so? There’s a support group for that. It’s called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar at 5:00 o’clock.” We laugh out loud because it smacks of familiarity. When 75% of the people in corporate America are chanting the I-hate-my-job mantra, we have to acknowledge that there are two common denominators: employees and employers. Let’s look at the latter and see how we can impact the former.
Diversity
The Evolution of Inclusion
by Wendy Willow Wark
"In the beginning there was Affirmative Action. Affirmative Action was all about making amends for past discriminatory practices in the workplace and the academy. Women and people of color, as well as manyothers who were not white, heterosexual, Christian males, were historically barred from many jobs in the United States both systemically and institutionally.
How Co-Mentoring Contributes to Inclusive Environments
by Wendy Willow Wark
One of the greatest barriers to inclusion in the workplace is the lack of direct communication with people
who are different from us. Too often I hear people refer to ‘them.’ “Who is ‘them’?” I ask. “Apparently, someone not like me,” is the awkward response. It’s human nature to classify those who are different as “them,” but once we develop meaningful relationships with “them,” we discover that they are real people with whom we have much in common.
Co-mentoring offers us a unique opportunity to develop those meaningful relationships between us and “them.”
Mentoring
7 Ways to Put Mentoring to Work at Your Organization
by Ann Tardy
Mentoring is a powerful tool because its foundational purpose is to help people triumph. Based on this premise, there are seven ways that any organization can employ mentoring to drive its own goals while contributing to its people.
Catapult the Employees in Your Company with Mentors
by Ann Tardy
Give an employee a mentor, guide them for a day; teach them how to find one and guide them for a career. Young professionals are always given the advice, “If you want to succeed, you need a mentor.”
5 Ways to Mess up Mentoring
by Ann Tardy
Whether you are creating a mentoring program, launching a mentoring initiative, or working on a mentoring culture, mentoring requires three components to be successful: strategy, scalability, and sustainability.
9 Best Practices for Creating Powerful Mentoring Programs
by Ann Tardy
Implementing a corporate mentoring program can be your wildly successful legacy or your administrative nightmare. The difference lies in creating a powerful, employee-inspired, effective program.
Personal Empowerment / Moxie
Learn the Art of Bouncing
by Ann Tardy
"In spite of past failures, criticisms, and a myriad of character assassinations, Hilary Clinton is
aspiring to be the first woman President. That’s moxie. After beating the cancer that ravaged his body, Lance Armstrong trained for and raced in the Tour de France. That’s moxie. When 16 literary agents rejected best-selling author John Grisham’s novel A Time to Kill, he went looking for the 17th agent. That’s moxie." So what is Moxie and how can you bounce back to be the next Hilary, Lance or John?
by Ann Tardy
"What does it take to do anything you want? What’s the secret to getting unstuck and finally making the first move on your new business, career change, product or service launch, closing of a sale, move to a new city? The freedom of a “Do Over!”
8 Ways to Make 2008 Your Benchmark Year
by Ann Tardy
"Imagine looking back on December 31 this year and thinking 2008 was so fabulous that it’s
now the year for all others to beat – your new benchmark year. "Discover 8 ways to bolster your moxie, to make this year your most memorable ever.
Missing the Passion in Your Work? Create Moxie!
by Ann Tardy
76% of all Americans are not happy in their jobs, stating that their work lacks passion. Does it lack passion or does it just lack moxie? Unfortunately, most people believe that the only way to be passionate about their work or their employer, is to find a new job or change careers. But if you keep chasing “passion,” you’ll never find it. Margo similarly felt a lack of passion in her marketing job . Then one day something changed.
Turn up the Volume of Your Life - Create Your Own Moxie!
by Ann Tardy
"Have you ever had a friend quit their job to start a business, change careers or sail around
the world and wonder how they got the guts to do that?" What do they have that you need?
How to Find the Moxie In You!
by Ann Tardy
“I call myself ‘Book Smart. Life Challenged’. Looking back, over the past 13 years, I realize how many life experiences I had to go through to learn all that I learned about money and my life. Why did it take so long and why did it have to be so painful? Why is it that so many of us know so little about life or our ability to make it on our own or the importance of having economic power?..."
Women in Corporations
Why Women Are Good for Corporations
by Ann Tardy
Women benefit corporations at all levels of the business. A recent study revealed a striking statistic: Fortune 500 companies with the highest representation of women in senior positions yield 35% higher return on equity and 34% higher total return to shareholders.
A Look at the Impact on Your Economic Power
by Alexandra Timbas and Ann Tardy
Summer 2005 was not only a summer of hurricanes, runaway brides, and the legendary Deep Throat--it was also a summer that saw many important changes in the United States and abroad that affect women’s economic power: Norway legislation impacting women’s participation on boards of directors; the resignation of Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor; and the new bankruptcy laws. What do these mean for women’s economic power?
Purchasing Power vs. Economic Power
by Alexandra Timbas and Ann Tardy
There is a common market statistic floating around that women buy 80-85% of consumer goods. This statistic indicates that women hold an incredible amount of influence over the consumer market with their extremely prevalent purchasing power. But does purchasing power suggest that women know how to make their money work for them? Is influence over the paper towel market really the only type of influence that women want to have in the economy? The answer is a very emphatic no. Women need to understand that buying the groceries or balancing the household checkbook does not equal the power in investing their money for future gain.
Professional Development
Achieving Work/Life Balance
by Alexandra Timbas and Ann Tardy
Can we really do it all? For some, being successful means having a challenging and rewarding career. For others, being successful means having a family and perhaps raising children. For many women, however, they want to do both, and so success becomes a workable merging of the two. For all, it is the balance of work and home life that is crucial to finding happiness.
10 Tips to Negotiate Anything
by Alexandra Timbas and Ann Tardy
One of the best skills a woman can have is the talent to negotiate—be it the price of eggs, the price of a car, or the price of your work—your salary. Being a good negotiator is a great skill both in business and at home. Women especially need to be good negotiators in order to create their own economic power. The art of negotiation takes practice and skill. Click on this article to read 10 tips to ask for anything.
Catapult Your Career or Business – Hire a Professional Mentor!
by Alexandra Timbas and Ann Tardy
Young professionals are always given this advice: “If you want to succeed, you need a mentor.” A mentor--an older and more experienced person who guides a younger or less experienced person throughout career challenges--it seems is the key to a successful career. People stand to benefit greatly from having a mentor to help advance their careers, transitions, and relationships and, in doing so, to gain power. But mentors do not just magically appear in a cloud of fairy dust to save the day, and people need to stop waiting around to be “chosen” by a role model who wants to be their mentor. What if instead people hired a professional mentor, a Maven, to guide them in any area of their career, business or life?