Earlier this summer, I had an interesting discussion with some of my friends about our approaches to vacation time. Most of us work in a corporate environment, but we all had varied ideas about what a vacation really meant. For most of us, vacation simply meant time away from the office, but included checking back in and being tethered to our email. Only one in the group really and truly disconnected, leaving her laptop, iPhone and work brain at home.

Last week, Roslyn Courtney, an award-winning expert on leadership, business change and talent management, announced the results of her survey on leadership and careers in a business world that is radically changing. Courtney surveyed 320 leaders and managers and conducted in-depth interviews. The survey looked at the use of talent, innovation and more, with some interesting results.

Have you heard about this great new bestseller? “Who’s Your Gladys? How to Turn Even the Most Difficult Customer into Your Biggest Fan” by Marilyn Suttle and Lori Jo Vest is a great read about how tech-savvy customers, who have more competitive information than ever, but with this crazy economy, also have less money to spend. Call her Gladys. The book asserts that more than ever – if you don’t take care of your customers, you will lose them.

The July issue of Talent Management magazine recently ran a story on employee engagement evaluation that shared some interesting and compelling stats on why organizations need employee engagement surveys.

As I was reading the April issue of Talent Management magazine, an article by Tory Clarke, Volunteerism’s Impact on Talent Management caught my attention. As the title implies, the article looks at how organizations should encourage their employees to volunteer because it produces numerous, positive benefits to the organization.