No matter where we work unless we are hermits you will share work space with coworkers. It could be physical space at the office, hyperspace as in telecommuting or virtual office. Without fail, there will always be a difficult coworker or difficult boss who challenges your people skills and ability to cope with difficult people. […]

“The Next Gen Leader” –Cutting Edge Strategies to Make You the Leader You Were Born to Be- by Robert C. McMillan – The PracticaL Mentor’s book review I am thankful for the invitation from Career Press to review: “The Next Gen Leader” – Cutting Edge Strategies to Make You the Leader You Were Born to […]

Its Not You Its Your Boss! The PracticaL Mentor’s Guide On How To Cope With A Difficult Boss has something for everyone. Go to Buy Now There are few jobs where there is not someone in a supervisory capacity overseeing the work. Even if you are a supervisor you have someone supervising you. More often […]

This too shall pass, is a very common mantra for those who work for a difficult boss. While conditions may very from a nuance to sever, the effects are very similar. Day-after-day the situation with the boss occupies the majority of the workday, and for most of us most of waking hours. Stress is difficult […]

This week the news media focused on the threatened government shutdown. Politics aside there were some great strategies and tactics employed by all sides to advance their goals. Soon you will see subtle variations of these strategies and tactics in the workplace. The political arena is the crucible where the art of organizational and personal […]

This week I engaged in a discussion on how to best to demonstrate self-confidence.  Before we even got started there was a big discussion on what self-confidence really is.  The difference came down to the comparison between two widely held definitions.   The classic dictionary definition – confidence in oneself and in one’s powers and abilities, […]

If the question “Should I attend the holiday office party?” even rises to a    conscious level you may have more issues than just the office party. Depending on your office culture, office parties may vary from very wild to    extremely dull. Most fall somewhere in the middle. Very few office parties leave  office […]

Many of us are caught up in situations that are less than ideal, and sometimes Thanksgiving highlights the negatives rather than accentuating the positives. So instead of giving thanks for all we have, we dwell on the negatives. Perhaps I am an idealist and think that Thanksgiving should be like a Norman Rockwell setting in […]

Networking is one of the most fundamental elements of success and one most of us neglect the most. There are many axioms relating to the importance of building personal and business relationships. If we take a few minutes and think about it, almost everything we want must come from someone else. In this tightly interwoven […]

This week there were several questions on Yahoo Answers related to working under adverse conditions. There were several categories, bad boss, nasty co-workers, critical adversaries, and the list goes on. Although the scenarios differ the common thread is a toxic situation with no apparent remedy. The most common answer posted in response to these questions […]

One of the greatest clichés is that there are no mistakes or failures only learning opportunities.  While I do believe we learn from our mistakes, I am not sure that we always learn the most beneficial lessons.  More often the lesson we take away is DON’T TRY THAT AGAIN!, instead of learning how to succeed […]

Most of us spend more time working than at any other activity, but we manage our working relationships less than in any other situation.  In our personal relationships we usually seek and obtain a level of interaction that permits us to enjoy ourselves and grow our skills.  Even in our casual relationships, like recreational activities […]

This week there was a lot more bad news for the economic recovery. Although some companies reported huge profits, the overall conclusion is the U.S. economy is sputtering, and there could be even more lay offs. For those of us already unemployed the hopes of finding work seems to be fading even more, and those […]

The July – August edition of Psychology Today (psychologytoday.com) has an article on six office top gripes and how to fix them. The six topics chosen are: Procrastination; Difficult Boss; Really Difficult Boss; Projects not going well; Feeling Negative; and Working too many hours. I am not sure how they came up with the list. […]