Peggy Klaus · Career Coaching & Development Expert

IMITATION ISN’T ALWAYS FLATTERING:
Lessons From The Land Of Youth And Cool

While standing in line at the bank last week, I overheard a 20-something employee talking to his boomer colleague about a concert he had attended over the weekend. “It was bad-ass!” he exclaimed, loud enough for the entire line of waiting customers to hear. I couldn’t believe my ears when the decades-older banker replied, “Yeah, my weekend was bad-ass, too!”

In fact, my reaction to this conversation was so negative that I thought about it and talked about it for days. Okay, maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I don…

What if ethical behavior had been taught to employees and reinforced as a must-have soft skill, could we have prevented the current economic meltdown?

We explored this question in a recent Klaus and Associates survey and the results are in. Although 87% of respondents believe that a lack of ethics led to the current economic disaster, there’s hope for the future: a reassuring 80% think that ethics can be taught.

Sixty-seven percent of the survey respondents pointed a finger at the profit-hungry business environment as a contributing factor to a rise in unethical behavior, with 59% agr…

It looks like 2010 is off to a cautiously optimistic start. We’re told the economy is rebounding. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is above 10,000 points and many Wall Street banks are expecting a blockbuster year. On the flip side, 85,000 jobs were lost in December, unemployment figures hover at 10 percent, and Main Street business owners remain frustrated, unable to secure loans that would in turn create jobs. So what gives?

As we kick off the new year against this discordant backdrop, employers feel like they’re stranded in uncharted territory. Many new workplace obstacles have emerged…

Thanksgiving is the one holiday where Americans get to take a break from the daily grind and reflect on their blessings, both at home and at work. This year, though, leading up to the big day, my thoughts have been revolving more around how I am going to squeeze a 25-pound bird, stuffing, rolls, green beans, and a sweet potato casserole into one oven! At least that’s what I was thinking about until last weekend, when I decided I’d been doing more than my share of grumbling about the state of the world (unemployment at 10.2%, the congressional circus around health care, a retirement portfoli…

Numerous studies tell us that collaboration, empathy, listening and just plain getting along well with people — the types of soft skills associated most with women — have finally started to count in the competitive, bottom-line world of the workplace. Yet these very qualities often come with a huge downside, hinted at in the following comments:

“I was so humiliated.”

“I felt so betrayed.”

Wait a second, you might ask. Have we just tuned into a daytime soap opera? No, these quotes come directly from the women I coach in corporate America, where I’ve noticed a curious gender differenc…

The phrase “no news is good news” is more spot on than ever before. Tune into any media outlet and you’ll hear a lot of really bad news—the latest unemployment figures, the situations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, struggles over health care reform, and, of course, the impending swine flu pandemic. With so much fodder to choose from, I’ve been observing with curiosity and bemusement as our political leaders deliver these bad tidings in a variety of dramatically different styles. I’ve found that concentrating on how they’re delivering the message rather than focusing on the message itse…

While recent economic reports suggest that the Great Recession might be coming to an end, few of us have time to celebrate this hopeful news. To quote a recent Newsweek article, “The Recession Is Over! But Not For You—Yet!”

As employers continue to downsize the work force, remaining employees find themselves shouldering more responsibilities without a corresponding fatter paycheck or even adequate training—a formula for anxiety and stress. I’ve been hearing complaints from many employees who are feeling stretched too thin with no relief in sight. Meanwhile, their bosses are asking me f…