My daughter, who is 8, refuses to learn how to ride a bike. Point blank refuses. What 8 year old does not know how to ride a bike?! It does not matter how I bribe her . . . she has her mind set on the fact she will be bad at it, and does not want to practice something that she will “fail” at.

I often joke that our job as recruiters is part-therapist, but it’s not really a joke. The truth is we are dealing with human beings at some of the most vulnerable points in their professional and personal lives: transitioning to a new job or adding a new person to the team.

Earlier this month, I had the distinct honor of speaking at the German-American Chamber of Commerce Gateway Awards. Forge has had the privilege of working with many German, Italian, and other European companies as they put down roots or expand in the United States.

Have you ever noticed the number of endless questions that children will ask? Without shame or embarrassment — just because they are naturally curious.

If you’ve found yourself asking, “Why is it so hard to hire right now?” or “Why are people quitting left and right?” but hear “Should I be worried about my job?” at your dinner table the next day—you’re not alone.

It is in most of our natures, I think, to seek certainty.

My kids beg for me to promise them that we will have a certain treat or trip or dessert, because they know I will try very hard not to break my word. So they attempt to balance out the uncertainty with a promise that is still, despite my best efforts, very human.

If I had a dollar for every time someone talked to me about how challenging it is to hire well, I would be a very, very rich person.

The truth is that hiring well is difficult, and there is not a magic pill that makes it easy (We do have an “Easy” button here in the office, but I can’t seem to make it work for this purpose!).

If you’ve been around the Forge community for any amount of time, you know we’re pretty intent on not giving up. It's part of our core values, and how we intentionally show up every day at home and at work.

But it is not without irony that we also talk to people . . . every day . . . about quitting their jobs.

We live in an age of “infinite browsing,” Pete Davis argues in the book Dedicated. If you’ve ever spent a night browsing Netflix for the best movie . . . only to find that it’s too late to even start, you know this is true. From our relationships to our Netflix to job hopping, we are always looking for something better.

In today’s volatile environment, where change is constant and uncertainty is the norm, companies are under pressure to adapt quickly. Priorities shift, teams stretch, and the demands of the day-to-day often take center stage. Amidst the chaos, it’s easy to overlook one of your most valuable assets: the people already on your team. In fact, the highest performers are likely those who receive the least attention from you as a leader.

It's the time of year when we're thinking about our goals-our ambitions, aspirations, hopes and dreams for the year. But all of your professional goals are dependent on who you have around you because you are only as good as your team.

A few months ago, I was reading a book on time management when my husband walked in. He immediately started laughing at me because I am (quote): “ruthless at managing my time.” To be fair, he is probably right. But I love the idea of self-improvement and believe that one of the things that makes humans so very special is our ability to iterate and change.

With the U.S. Presidential election just a few weeks away, you can feel the tension and the unease simmering just beneath the surface. Add to that the lingering emotional and physical exhaustion from Hurricane Helene that hit much of the Southeast, and nerves are, quite simply, frayed.

One of the benefits of parenting children through grade school is that you learn all the history that you might have forgotten along the way. Take Thomas Edison, for example. You may already know that he had little formal schooling—his teacher famously told him he was “too stupid to learn anything”—but you may not know that he was also at least partially deaf.

Over Labor Day weekend, we took our kids white water rafting on the Lower Saluda River. Even though the rapids were more like . . . rushing water . . . than rapids, the kids were understandably nervous and concerned about falling out of the raft and getting stuck on rocks. Our guide was fantastic, though, and in her opening pep talk, said something that stuck with me.

"The best way to predict the future is to create it," said Peter Drucker, the father of modern management. "Easier said than done," replies every small business leader ever!

Managers make all the difference. The difference between employees staying and employees moving on. Between teams who thrive—and teams who flounder. Between hitting business goals and missing the mark.

"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction," states Newton's third law of physics, and every HR leader knows this to be true.

Pay Equity — paying two people performing the same job comparable wages — has always been important, but the past three years have made the concept of pay equity a whole lot more complex.

If you’ve watched The Queen’s Gambit, or one of my personal favorites, Searching for Bobby Fisher, it’s easy to see why chess (and the players who are good at it) capture our collective imagination.

You’ve recruited the best Senior Accountant you’ve ever interviewed! The offer letter is signed, the background check is cleared, and the start date is set. Whew. Now the hard work is done.. Or is it? The reality is that your first 90 days with a new hire is crucial to their long-term success.