SHRM Blog

There are some lessons that HR professionals can draw from the saga of Gen. David Petraeus, who resigned as head of the CIA after an FBI investigation found that he had an extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.

The importance of choosing leaders with integrity--and the realization that there is virtually no privacy when it comes to electronic communications--jump out as key takeaways for HR. However, how HR staffs can apply these principles in their day-to-day work isn’t cut and dried. And the scandal illuminates aspects of human nature that will challenge HR professionals for decades, researchers...

(The third in a series.)

You have probably heard the phrase:
 “A person’s eyes are the window to their soul.”

I have another version:
 “How an organization makes decisions is a window into its culture.”

How does your organization make decisions? How do you deal with disagreement?

“We simply decide without thinking much about the decision process.”
 -Jim Nightingale

Decision making is an incredibly important thing that happens in our organizations, maybe the most important thing. Yet, most organizations take a very hands-off, passive approach to decision making. While your organization...

It’s that time of year again.  The annual opportunity to plan, scheme, and build a budget.  Generally, this is the time of year when we think about what new programs or technologies we could add in the upcoming year.  We dream of slick technology or powerful new programs that we could implement if we are lucky enough to be given the budget to do it.  It’s a fun time of year.  Planning and thinking big thoughts is important.

But, this year, while you plan and dream and budget, set aside a little time for another powerful exercise that...

I was born in July 1963, several months before a defining moment for the Baby Boomer generation occurred—the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  I was a “latch key kid” – I walked home from elementary school to an empty house because both of my parents worked.  In fact, I started walking to school by myself in first grade after everyone else had left the house. I wasn’t supposed to use the record player but nearly every morning I used those few minutes before school to play a 45 of Tommy Roe’s hit song “Dizzy” over and over again. [If...