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What does it mean to be a leader? And can anyone be a leader? These are questions I’ve been asked a lot in school, interviews and workshops but until now I didn’t really have a definite answer. Leadership is a complex trait and it’s far more than “guiding a group of people.”

The modern-day workplace is much different than just a few years ago, and so are its people. Because new requirements have popped up and workers’ expectations have evolved, motivational models should be reconstructed to reflect these changes.

The past few years have seen sweeping changes for the medical industry as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which put in place comprehensive insurance and medical reforms. Now, as the insurance mandates go into effect, bringing millions of newly insured people into the marketplace, hospitals and clinics are faced with how to meet the need for additional staff while transitioning to a revised model of care.

According to a recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), “One out of four employees reported they have been or recently are involved in a workplace romance, and 43 percent of HR professionals reported current incidences of workplace romance at their organizations.” With those statistics, office couples don’t seem to be “breaking up” anytime soon, so to avoid risk, HR managers may want to prepare now for more issues related to managing Cupid’s impact.

ObamaCare will boost health coverage to the more than 48 million Americans currently without, opening the floodgates to medical facilities. With a shortage of doctors, where will all these people go? And so the problem ensues.

No one said forecasting talent and your budget was easy. It’s extremely difficult to try to see into the future and anticipate what your organizational budget and staffing needs will be in the coming year. It is, however, a necessary evil of planning for the future of your human resources department. Not only is it imperative to plan for spending but also it gives you a sense of what your department’s priorities are, what challenges you may face and what your staffing needs will be. In order to do so successfully, there are several strategies you can utilize along the way.

Being the best in a NFL is a tough feat, because a lot of “greats” exist in the league. Players work their entire careers trying to be faster, stronger and better-equipped than their competition. When entire teams play with the same inherent motivation, winners are made and championships are secured.

Ready or not, millennials are storming the workforce, most with a hunger to make it to the front lines and quickly. By 2020, they will make up almost half of workers nationwide. While arguably overeager, millennials aren’t a generation to overlook. Rather than dismissing these estimated 80 million Americans for weaknesses real or perceived, employers should consider leveraging their strengths in addition to developing those deficits.

Reading, writing, arithmetic – and assessments? School administrators find themselves struggling with not just how they can ensure students are meeting their goals in the traditional “Three Rs,” but also how they can make time for states’ newly mandated classroom teacher evaluations. For many schools, this new evaluation model replaces ones that have been in place for decades.

With the economy strengthening, businesses need to review their talent management practices or risk losing workers. According to a Career Builder survey, “21 percent of full-time employees plan to change jobs in 2014, the largest amount in the post-recession era and up from 17 percent in 2013." Regardless of your notion about the economy’s growth, the numbers suggest a positive outlook and companies should be cautious.

Times are changing, especially in the case of one of America’s staple tax credits, known as the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC). Since its inception in 1983 under a variety of different titles and officially pegged as WOTC in 1996, the federal tax credit has been modified and extended numerous times, including going on hiatus. Its last break was from Jan. 2, 2012, to Jan. 2, 2013, but it has expired yet again as we start 2014.

The holiday season can be filled with joy, but for many retailers and their employees, that feeling quickly subsides. With the new holiday tradition to keep doors open later than ever – and in some cases, for 24 hours – employees simply lose their drive and holiday cheer. The winter holidays bring big revenues for retailers, which is why it is important to have an alert and energized staff. Employees are the lifeblood of a company, so you want to ensure their needs are met first and foremost.