Articles by Irving Buchen, Ph.D

Most prominent professional and motivational speakers do not use warm-up introducers to prepare the audience. Rather, they employ research teams. The research team’s task is to serve as advance scouts to size up the audience--to learn what their hot button issues are, what recent local events are on their minds, and what the audience expects to hear about the proposed topic,...Full Article »

At a time when employment is chancy and occasional--when  the  nature of work is often belittling and unfulfilling—when going  to work each day is for many fearful and anxious—we have hanging over us employee  termination policies which are frequently dated,  punitive, careless, and unexamined.  And like all hang-over documents that are still in force,...Full Article »

In the last edition of Next!, we discussed how orientation blunders of new hires may jeopardize retention.  On-boarding is the critical bridge between recruitment and retention; it makes or breaks the talent management system. Accordingly, what appears below is a set of ten principles which should guide the development and evaluation of orientation programs. Principle #1: Seamless Bridge...Full Article »

Orientation of new hires may jeopardize retention. Here is a quick list of five orientation blunders: 1. Intimidate Them: “We are distributing a policy book and manual. We call it the bible. It totals 639 pages. We will go through it, page by page, line by line.” 2. Control Them: “We take the organizational chart seriously around here. It documents the chain of command from...Full Article »

In the last month alone, I have been invited to attend four webinars on collaborative and social learning. At the same time, articles have exhorted me to embrace blogging and twittering, lest I lose the opportunity to engage my obviously already engaged employees. Although I am generally not reluctant to jump on bandwagons, this one [social media] bothers me. It tends to be too rapid, glib,...Full Article »

We may have sold diversity short, especially as a version of talent. Largely responsible for that is its somewhat coercive origins, the appearance of favoritism, and the various personnel dislocations that followed in its wake. But a case can be made to converge diversity and talent recruitment. The strongest argument is the familiar and powerful claim that the diverse composition of the...Full Article »

Performance review and coaching seem joined at the hip. Both are critical but burdensome, promise much but do not deliver enough, share the same problems but not the same solutions. Indeed, it may be helpful to pause at this point and parallel the limitations of each. Performance Reviews 1. Scheduling Although traditionally designated as an anniversary event, it is now all over the place,...Full Article »

A new CEO brought his coach with him to his new job. A good thing, too—the first week involved a steep learning curve and the inevitable prospect of mine fields. But all was managed or postponed except for one unexpected, immediate and major problem. The new CEO met twice with his executive team and they were at each other’s throats. Not content to be openly and publically hostile,...Full Article »

Companies use various means to create and stir the workforce to be engaged, productive and happy.  Left alone or to their own devises, the administrative assumption is that they would just drift, be undirected, and lack purpose.  So clearly, interventions are called for. HR has to find the means and ways to animate and align employees with company objectives to achieve unity of focus...Full Article »

It is required to identify a unique source of direction and to search for developmental options which are incremental—that stretch existing managerial levels and roles beyond current limits and even job descriptions—but which also break new ground horizontally. Although a number of such options are available, the four examples below may suggest the range of what mentors can genuinely...Full Article »

One of the unintended consequences of virtually all leadership development programs is discontent. Conceived as a journey only to the top, when it falls short—as numerically it has to—many are unhappily left behind. Their now less-than-exalted positions or states often, in turn, beget resentment and even a deep disappointment which may compromise future performance or hasten...Full Article »