Author's articles

Simple Things

By Nan Russell · 13 years ago

I still have the email. It's been years since a highly placed corporate boss, who had the reputation and approach that things were never quite good enough, sent it to me. He was long on ...

Reading in the airport while waiting for a flight to Houston, a housekeeper was tidying around me when approached by another facilities employee. After a few minutes of easily overheard chit-chat, she received coaching from ...

Winning at Working--Notes to Boss

By Nan Russell · 13 years ago

As a conference speaker, I arrived a day early to get an up close feel for the audience's issues and challenges before my presentation. Waiting outside the large auditorium for the morning's general session to ...

Winning at Working--Don't Settle

By Nan Russell · 13 years ago

Chuck was the best of the twenty-four candidates. Still, he didn't have exactly what I was looking for and my instincts warned me of his unusual personality. Yet the skills required for the job were ...

Winning at Working--Maybe Scrooge Was Right

By Nan Russell · 13 years ago

Thirteen percent. That number should make you pause if you manage staff, lead a group, or own a business. It's a number released from an on-line survey reported by Reuters. According to Right Management, a ...

Winning at Working--Those Crazy People

By Nan Russell · 13 years ago

His voice was loud; his attitude hostile; his words caustic. Despite how rude he was, she remained calm, professional, and polite throughout the challenging encounter. Even from my close vantage point, I didn't detect a ...

Winning at Working--A Job Is Not A Job

By Nan Russell · 13 years ago

It only happened on Mondays. Sometimes I escaped the unpleasant ritual. But, more often than not, right before boarding I threw up in the ladies room of the train station. It wasn't the commute I ...

Winning at Working-- Words. Words. Words.

By Nan S. Russell · 13 years ago

They're only words. Some believe the school-yard taunt: "Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me." They're wrong. Words can hurt you in the workplace. I'm not referring to the ...

Winning at Working--It's Personal

By Nan Russell · 14 years ago

Off to dinner the night before I was the keynote speaker at a regional conference, I wanted something good, but casual; calming but moderately swift. So, my husband and I selected an interesting looking place ...

Winning at Working--Changing Your View

By Nan Russell · 14 years ago

Last time I was hiking in Montana's Glacier National Park, I stopped to view through binoculars, a mountain goat trekking atop a rock cliff. My husband, viewing the switch-back trail we'd just climbed, happened to ...

Winning at Working--Past or Future

By Nan S. Russell · 14 years ago

PAST OR FUTURE? Watching a rerun of "What Not to Wear" on The Learning Channel, I was struck by the dialogue between the individual being transformed and the cast of experts. While agreeing to follow ...