The Drama Queens (and Kings) at your office need to be the center of attention. They’re provocative, emotional and reactive. And they are highly skilled at getting everyone around them worked-up, frazzled and emotional (that’s how they stay at the center of attention).
Did you know that it was Google engineers and not the auto industry that started the race to produce a self-driving car? While the concept of an autonomous car dates back to at least the 1920s, it was Google engineers that matched a well-documented human pain: driver error causes millions of traffic deaths, with the building blocks to a solution: Google Maps, Google Earth and Street View. 
Dealing With Difficult People: Drama Queens
We've all had to work with drama queens and drama kings, and dealing with difficult people can be incredibly frustrating. But there is a very simple way to calm down drama queens and kings. Four simple words: “Just the facts please.”
It’s nice to conduct an employee engagement survey, but is your survey actually delivering the results you want? There’s new research that suggests most surveys are falling far short.
More than 3,000 HR executives have taken the online quiz “How Good Is Your Employee Engagement Survey?”
The antidote to the excuse mentality is accountability where people take ownership, fix problems and bring solutions. Mentally and emotionally, accountability is where every leader wants their people to be. But accountability is not an either/or kind of phenomenon. Denial, blame, excuses and anxiety are all stages leading up to accountability that are part of the excuse mentality.
Here's a dirty little secret that falls under the heading of communication skills: Flattery actually does work. It is effective. Saying nice things to people is a really good way to build relationships (it's not the only way, but it is a helpful tool). Great sales people know this. 
The majority of organizations like to consider themselves at least somewhat collaborative (most CEOs don’t raise their hands when you ask them if they want to create a cutthroat or dictatorial organization). Because of this, when we ask leaders how they like to make decisions, a large portion say they like to reach consensus.
A few days ago, American Airlines announced that it was going to raise the pay of pilots and flight attendants to keep pace with competitors Delta and United. Currently, American’s pilots are paid about 8% less than Delta and United while flight attendants are paid about 4% less. In the words of American’s CEO, this is about “doing the right thing.”
Have you ever been talking to someone who’s going through a plan in such painstaking detail that your brain started to hurt? Giving you every nitty-gritty little step when all you really wanted was for them to cut-to-the-chase and give you the bottom line? 
One question I get a lot is how many interview questions to ask when you're interviewing candidates. Five to six is about the right number, assuming your interview is about an hour long. 60 minutes is the median time that most interviews go right now. If you can do longer than that, great, that's super, but most people do about an hour-long interview.
