http://www.nicktasler.com Author Nick Tasler's latest research, writing and random thoughts Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:33:43 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en How do you motivate employees when your cash cow is low on milk—when there is no longer room in the budget for the usual financial incentives like pay raises and bonuses? The answer is simple: Make work meaningful. Build on your people's natural desire to see how their work fits in ... http://www.nicktasler.com/2009/12/the-roi-on-meaningful-work/ The question came from a guest lecture my colleagues and I gave last week to an undergrad Organizational Behavior class at Wharton. While I was there a fun debate erupted about why the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is still so widely used despite it's extremely suspect validity statistics. The argument against the ... http://www.nicktasler.com/2009/12/is-it-time-to-kill-the-myers-briggs/ In my last article, I explained why people who believe they control events in their life are such an asset to the companies they work for. Good leaders also wanted to know what about everyone else? How can they get other team members to adopt that same proactive mentality, even ... http://www.nicktasler.com/2009/11/prime-your-mind-for-action/ Do you have what employers want?  That's a tough question. After all, different jobs require different skills, different knowledge and different experience.  It seems like there's  roughly half trillion answers to the question of "what employers want." But there is one thing that holds true across all jobs and industries.  I ... http://www.nicktasler.com/2009/09/what-employers-want/ Despite all the debating and politicking over the future of the American economy, hardly anybody seems to be asking the famed, and often parodied, question What Would Jesus Do?  Why does Jesus gets so much press when discussing war, but not when talking about some of his favorite topics like ... http://www.nicktasler.com/2009/08/was-jesus-a-socialist/ Psychologists Jean Twenge and Keith Campbell think so. They are so convinced that they wrote a whole book about it. But not everyone agrees. Richard Robins, director of the Personality, Self, and Emotion laboratory at the University of California, Davis is one of those dissenters. Robins told me that solid evidence ... http://www.nicktasler.com/2009/07/is-there-really-a-narcissism-epidemic/ The one thing middle managers and executives alike from companies of all shapes and sizes agree on is that credibility comes from speaking up. In the knowledge economy where information is worth more than its weight in gold, it is critical to be an active participant in the knowledge exchange. ... http://www.nicktasler.com/2009/05/trophy-to-shot-caller-rule-1-speak-up-without-talking-down/ Last year a few smart, ambitious Gen Y employees at TalentSmart asked me about the things I’ve done and learned that might help them steer their careers. These conversations plus the fact that I have a younger brother finishing college in the fall got me thinking and eventually researching. Here ... http://www.nicktasler.com/2009/04/how-to-go-from-trophy-kid-to-shot-caller/ The tea parties have brought out a lot of heated debate about the role of government and biased media. As a devout centrist, I'm glad these debates are happenning b/c they are the best weapon against tyranny on either side. I just want to clear the air on two arguments I've been hearing a lot lately: 1. DON'T SAY ... http://www.nicktasler.com/2009/04/what-the-founding-fathers-really-wanted/ Obviously, we’re in a crisis. Obviously, it sucks. But this might be just the crisis Gen Y has been groomed for...if not destined to overcome. Nine years ago, in their book Millennials Rising Neil Howe and William Strauss argued that every 4 generations a “hero generation” is born. The ... http://www.nicktasler.com/2009/04/will-gen-y-be-a-hero-generation/