Category Archives: Uncategorized

What do millennials really want from work? How do we engage them?

We have all heard the stereotypes of millennials: the horror stories from the workplace, the self-entitled attitudes that breed laziness and poor work ethic. A survey by CareerBuilder.com found that more than 85% of hiring managers and human-resource executives feel that millennials have a stronger sense of entitlement than older workers. Continue reading →

If you are the Executive Director or CEO of an organization, the following may sound familiar: It’s “evaluation time” and the Board President meets with you for a perfunctory, check-off-the-box meeting that lasts maybe 10 minutes, in which the he/she tells you that everything is going well, that the Board members are pleased, and that a new compensation figure has been approved. The end. Continue reading →

In early May The Singer Group provided me with a great opportunity to act as a table facilitator at the American Library Association’s Future of Libraries Summit held at the Library of Congress. Last month we provided the first of the top 10 reflections on the Summit. Here are the remaining 5! Continue reading →

By Katy Berube

In early May The Singer Group provided me with a great opportunity to act as a table facilitator at the American Library Association’s Future of Libraries Summit held at the Library of Congress.  As a table facilitator my experience of the summit was slightly different than that of a participant. Paula Singer, CEO of The Singer Group and lead facilitator, worked with myself and my seven other colleagues to ensure the deftly designed two day meeting process worked in the room with the participants enabling engaging participation while ensuring summit objectives remained on target. Continue reading →

Judy Vogel, Guest Columnist
President, Vogel/Glaser & Associates, Inc.

Since the middle of the last century, leaders and managers have been told that one of their primary responsibilities is to motivate their employees. This is a myth! People can only motivate themselves – no one can do it for another person! Continue reading →

By Meredith Schwartz on July 1, 2013
Article originally published on LibraryJournal.com
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Library consultants Donna Fletcher of Donna E. Fletcher Consulting and Paula Singer of The Singer Group shared their tips and tricks for reaching citizens that don’t use the library to a packed house at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual conference in Chicago. They were joined by librarians Su Bochenski, director of Lincolnwood Public Library, IL, as well as Elizabeth Stearns, Assistant Director, Community Services, and Carmen Patlan, Community Engagement & Outreach Manager, Waukegan Public Library, IL. Continue reading →

Accurate and up-to-date job descriptions are integral parts of successful human resources initiatives in organizations, including recruitment, compensation and classification programs, performance management, development of competencies, retention efforts, employee on-boarding, succession planning and organizational development. With an impact on this many areas within an organization, you’d better be able to actually write one of these things! Continue reading →

When describing competencies to employees, we talk about competencies being how they work.  Job description responsibilities and goals they may be working to accomplish are what they do; competencies are how they do it.  Competencies are not special skills or knowledge, which just qualify a person to do a particular job.  Competencies are the qualities that distinguish outstanding from average performers in any job.  Their presence can be determined by the behaviors excellent performers engage in: Continue reading →

Everything we’ve covered in our first two leadership articles (five practices of progressive leadership and self awareness and authenticity), make one thing perfectly clear:

When it comes to leadership, how book smart you are doesn’t determine success.

So, what does?

Research over the last decade or so has shown that while IQ is valuable to organizations in many ways, what really gets results, and what’s needed far more than smarts or even genius, is EQ or Emotional Intelligence. Continue reading →

The five practices of progressive leadership provide much insight into the leadership behaviors required for high-functioning organizations in today’s world. But truly embracing and modeling the five practices requires more than learning a set of behaviors. It requires a fundamental shift from a focus on doing to a focus on being. Continue reading →