SHRM Blog

An employee (firefighter) is put on a last chance agreement for off-duty conduct. The agreement specified that the employee would be subject to mandatory random drug testing and could be subject to termination if he tested positive for “a controlled substance.” Nearly two years later, he tells some coworkers that he is thinking about applying to obtain a state certificate for authorized use of medical marijuana to help him with his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Despite some coworkers telling him that was not a good idea and unbeknownst to them,...

Breakthrough innovators (intuitively or consciously) apply the ALIEN framework, which stands for: attention,  levitation, imagination, experimentation and navigation. 

ALIEN thinking provides a blueprint to escape conformity and to devise truly breakthrough solutions to important problems. There are five strategies that must be considered in turn: 

• Attention is the act of focusing hard on a particular context or population to understand its dynamics and latent needs. 
• Levitation is the act of stepping back or “decentering” in order to expand and enrich your understanding. Having gathered insights into the realities of a situation, need or challenge, you need space to  make sense of
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What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?

To help you with your career path, we asked business leaders and HR experts this question for their best advice. From active listening to working on relationships, there are several tips that may help you be successful in your future career endeavors. 

Here are ten great pieces of career advice::

• Always Have  A Beginner’s Mindset
• Simplify
• Be Part Of The Solution
• Know What You Want, And Why You Want It
• Reverse Engineer Your Career
• Know Your X-Factor
• Communication Is Key
• Working On Relationships
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Looking at a wide range of leadership models (some going back 100 years), you will find that they usually refer to getting tasks done and dealing with people. The people side is a challenging aspect for most as relationships can be a maze. Even between leaders and followers, as with ALL relationships, both people are equally responsible for the quality of the relationship. Please do not make the mistake of confusing roles with relationship quality. 

Relationship is not a new concept, but very few researchers have focused solely on the leader-follower relationship...