The fourth of July is a special time for people to picnic and celebrate family in the United States. Everywhere you go, there are fireworks in the evening. I love watching fireworks. I love the rumble and bang. I love feeling the earth shake. I just love fireworks!

My Dad, on the other hand, hates fireworks. He doesn't want to be anywhere near them. He doesn't want to hear them or see them. Yet you wouldn't blame him at all because he has experienced war - the Korean War. After what he has experienced, I suspect that I wouldn't want to see or hear fireworks either...I would have seen and heard them in a more frightening, life-changing form that I would never want to experience again.

Ah, fireworks!

Feedback is just one aspect of coaching. Coaching can take many forms. In fact, feedback situations can turn into coaching situations. Feedback is just one more way to help coach a person to be the best they want to be.

For more on feedback, check out the Giving and Receiving Feedback eWorkbook and module.

July always starts on the same day of the week as April.

July and August are named for emperors Julius Caesar and Augustus. The months had been called Quintilis and Sextilis because they were the fifth and sixth on the Roman calendar.

July is traditionally the busiest month for air travel in the U.S.; while August is traditionally the slowest month for new-car sales and Web traffic.

A study in The British Medical Journal has shown that happiness actually spreads from person to person, up to three connections away. "So if your friend's friend's friend becomes happier, it ripples through the network and affects you, even if you don't know that person," says author Nicholas Christakis, MD, a medical sociology professor at Harvard Business School.

Proximity plays a part: A happy sibling who is a mile a way can increase your probability of happiness by up to 14%; a nearby friend by 25%; and a next-door neighbor by 34%.

The effect also applies to smoking and obesity. According to Christakis, "If people around you gain weight, it changes your expectations about what an acceptable body size is. Our work strongly suggests that when one person quits smoking, loses weight, or becomes happy, others around her follow suit. I am reluctant to suggest you pick your friends solely on this basis, but one could say that helping a friend do better is a roundabout way of helping yourself."

So, create a happy day and watch the ripple~~~~~~~~

Standards of performance define what employees are expected to accomplish within a defined timeframe and the end result. Standards of Performance are reviewed and updated individually on an annual basis, subject to interim changes for legitimate business purposes.

For more on performance management, check out my eWorkbooks on Performance Management 1: The Cascade and Performance Management 2: The Details and my Performance Management module.

I hate to be late. Today I'm late providing my blog because there was a tremendous storm last night and we've been without power until just now.

We experienced hurricane winds (without rain that lasted for several hours) last fall. That was amazing...but nothing compared to the storm I experienced last night. I think it was the worst storm I've ever seen. It not only had the wind; it had the rain, too. It may have been short-lived as compared to the winds last fall, but it was destructive. For much of the time I thought I was Dorothy on her way to Oz.

Nell Merlino, in Stepping Out of Line: Lessons for Women Who Want It Their Way in Life, in Love and at Work (Broadway) says, "In bathrooms, boardrooms, buses, bagel shops, and everywhere else, we all need to imagine a little girl following us around, repeating everything we say and everything we do. Think about all of the things you want for yourself and your daughters, granddaughters, and girls everywhere - and teach them by living it yourself."

Hmm...something to consider.