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Footprints or Buttprints

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I am a boomer, the second of four children, produced the impulsive New Year’s revelry of tipsy parents. My brother, two sisters, and I remain close. Our parents are long gone but childhood memories are warm. The teen years, well, they’re fodder for another column. I was an awestruck, seventh-grade towhead when I flew on […]

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How to Deal with Conflicting Values

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One of the most troubling issues a worker may face is how to deal with a clash between personal values and business practice. When core beliefs conflict with company practices, an emotional reaction results. I’ve lived this one; it had a lot to do with why I left Xerox after 20 great years. My role […]

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Teenie-Weenie Pork Chops

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I left home at 17 and moved south a thousand miles to attend a small private college in northeast Florida. Needing to pay my way through school, I sought a full-time job. I was lucky to get one quickly, at a Winn-Dixie grocery store near campus. Roy Touchton, the regional manager, sized me up and […]

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Why Are So Many Unhappy at Work?

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Associated Press economics writer Jeannine Aversa recently chronicled the steady decline of workforce satisfaction, reporting that less than half of Americans (45%) are satisfied with their jobs. This is the lowest rating in the two-plus decades the Conference Board research group has studied the issue; and it represents a significant drop from 2008’s rating of […]

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Why Happiness is Math

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The mind’s accumulation of positive emotional experiences, minus its negative ones, determines a person’s happiness level. When happy thoughts outweigh brooding ones we will be happy. When the reverse is true—if we insist on seeing (and dwelling on) what’s wrong with things rather than what’s right—we’ll feel a bit down. Happiness Math hinges on two […]

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Why Good Salespeople Choose to Leave

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The three primary reasons good salespeople choose to leave are: 1.    They aren’t growing 2.    Friction with the boss 3.    Money. Proven top performing salespeople have two things that make them situational flight risks: egos and options. Bad salespeople often have the former but rarely the latter; if they were half as good as they […]

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One Giant Hammer

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A tidal change takes six hours, the moon shoving seawater far ashore before changing its mind and pulling it back out. During my final semester of college I invested hundreds of hours studying waves from atop the weathered and warped floorboards of an old wooden pier that extended from Jacksonville Beach into the sea. Day […]

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