For years I've been working on helping companies to see how work, home, community, and self (mind, body, and spirit) can be mutually reinforcing; this is the "four-way wins" approach I describe in Total Leadership. I often encounter skepticism, but some companies get it. My experience with Target should bolster anyone's case that you can be a committed A-player executive, a good parent, an attentive spouse, a healthy person with time for hobbies — yes, hobbies! — and a community life.

In this post I describe a couple of case studies from Target executives who have been experimenting with creative ways to integrate the different parts of their lives — and how they're teaching others to do the same.

In just a few short days I’ll be launching a DIY personal branding and marketing outreach kit for job seekers and career changers. The kit is packed full of uber-useful tools, including detailed “How To” guides for writing and updating your resume, cover letter and LinkedIN profile, tips to get the most out of personal branding, multiple resume and cover letter templates, and 14 different email marketing scripts that you can customize for all of your outreach, submissions, connections, follow ups, and other job search-related communications.

Internships at start-ups offer unique advantages over their corporate counterparts. Interns often have more responsibility, are exposed to a wider range of business functions, and many receive more one-on-one mentoring than often takes place at large corporations.

Perhaps most important, many start-up interns work directly with, and learn from, company founders and executives. Start-up internships present unique challenges as well.

Like… working directly with, and learning from, company founders and executives.

No one knows for sure how many graduates go straight from university into starting up their own businesses, but evidence suggests it’s a growing trend. According to the annual Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) study, increasing numbers of graduates are freelance or self-employed six months after leaving university, a category that includes entrepreneurs: 7,000 of 2011 graduates (5% of those in full-time employment), up from 4,190 in 2002–3 (2.9%).

So how do you tell if entrepreneurship might be right for you, and how do you go about it? Even if you’re wary of setting up your own venture straight away., it’s worth asking yourself the question, because so many companies look for entrepreneurial skills and flair when recruiting.

On game shows like “American Idol” or “Dancing With The Stars,” industry pros judge performers, and largely determine their fate. But audience members who use the show’s mobile voting systems can tip the scales in favor of a given competitor.

Mobile voting will now figure at business-pitch competitions, hackathons and demo days where startups seek funding, and investors scout future deals, with the launch of MicroVentures’ mobile app.

Yesterday, Zendesk was hacked and the personal information of an unknown number of Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr users was stolen. Last year, 12.6 million U.S adults were the victims of identity fraud.

Who’s committing these crimes?

Most of them are between 29 and 49 years old, and three-quarters are male. They work in organized groups, half of which have six or more members. And they live all over the world, but especially in Asia, notably China and Indonesia.

During the past 25 years of consulting with some of the most forward thinking organizations in the world, I've noticed a curious trend.

My clients' efforts to innovate, no matter how sincere or well-funded, usually undervalue one of the key drivers of innovation -- and that is the ability of their workforce to successfully collaborate with each other.

In their singular rush to accomplish the extraordinary, they have forgotten that innovation is a team sport.

Influencers -- those well-connected, knowledgeable voices to which others listen and respond -- are coveted connections. They can provide insight, recommendations, introductions and opportunities.

Most people already know who the influencers are in their industries, says attorney and entrepreneur Steven Babitsky, co-author of The Street Smart MBA: 10 Proven Strategies for Driving Business Success (Apress, 2012). They're often popular authors, speakers, bloggers, columnists or successful businesspeople. Babitsky has an effective formula for connecting with many of them. Here are his six steps to connecting with influencers in your industry.

Companies consistently pass up or cast out those who create friction, cause insecurity among leaders, or make other employees uncomfortable. It's their loss--since those mavericks are often their best shot at true innovation.

Innovation is vital for the growth, success, and wealth of firms. Yet the source of innovation is not so much investment in R&D, filing of patents, or clever market research but the recruitment, empowering, and retention of talented people, who may appear at times as mavericks. Innovators are not necessarily geeks with super high IQ or long-haired, unshaven individuals, as some stereotypes suggest. Rather, innovators may be mavericks, who come in a variety of personalities.

We are thrilled to announce this year’s 26 semi-finalists (out of a pool of 140 teams) advancing to the next round of the Wharton Business Plan Competition. By the time Phase II wrapped up, 155 judges had provided nearly 1,000 business plan reviews for the participants, including written feedback on each submission.  Thank you so much to all the volunteer judges who helped us in Phase II! We could not have done it without you!

This year’s semifinalists represent students from four professional schools at Penn:  The Wharton School, The Perelman School of Medicine, the School of Engineering & Applied Sciences and the School of Arts & Sciences.  The Wharton representation includes students from the MBA Program, Wharton Executive MBA in Philadelphia and San Francisco, and the Wharton undergraduate program. 

The National Science Foundation said today that it will fund a major expansion of its Innovation Corps program, an effort to teach NSF-funded university researchers how to build profitable startups around their technologies.

In its initial stages, the two-year-old “I-Corps” program has been flying researchers to Stanford University, the University of Michigan, and Georgia Tech for prototype versions of the “Lean Launchpad” course originally developed at Stanford by serial entrepreneur and startup guru Steve Blank. Now the program is spreading to nine more universities, which have been singled out for three-year grants totaling $11.2 million.

Leaders of several Richmond-area biotechnology-related companies said Thursday that they foresee personalized medicine as a major force driving the industry's growth, but access to capital for small firms with good ideas remains a challenge.

"Life sciences is really the big, huge growth industry," said Mike Grisham, the chief executive officer of GPB Scientific, a Richmond-based company focused on using microchip technology in health and life-science research.

Researchers at the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute have identified a genetic program that promotes longevity of roundworms (nematodes) in cold environments — and this genetic program also exists in warm-blooded animals, including humans.

“This raises the intriguing possibility that exposure to cold air — or pharmacological stimulation of the cold-sensitive genetic program — may promote longevity in mammals,” said Shawn Xu, LSI faculty member and the Bernard W. Agranoff Collegiate Professor in the Life Sciences at the U-M Medical School.

Scientists had long assumed that animals live longer in cold environments because of a passive thermodynamic process, reasoning that low temperatures reduce the rate of chemical reactions and thereby slow the rate of aging.

The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

Create Training Modules

I always make time to build a training module for the task I want a potential employee to complete before hiring. That way, if he doesn't work out, I already have materials in place to train the replacement. If you want a trial period, it can last for a few training modules as the employee proves his capabilities before gaining access to everything. - Kelly Azevedo, She's Got Systems

The Angel Capital Association (ACA), the world’s leading professional and trade association for angel investors, today announced the expansion of its membership to individual accredited investors and accredited investor portals. Angel investors who belong to ACA member angel groups will continue to automatically receive membership in ACA’s North American wide association.

“ACA’s mission underpins three essential pillars of angel investing: professionalism in seed‐stage funding; deal flow and portfolio company services; and public policy advocacy,” said David Verrill, chairman of ACA’s board of directors. “Since ACA was founded, we’ve served angel groups and their members well, and have grown to be the world’s largest association representing accredited angel investing, with nearly 200 groups and 8,000 member angels. In the current exciting time in which the ecosystem of private accredited investing is rapidly evolving, we must broaden our base to better serve all angel investors – whether working in groups, through portals, or acting individually. We also plan to open membership for family offices in the near future.”

The health care industry is undergoing major surgery. At the center of these operations is Rock Health, a startup accelerator dedicated to the intersection of healthcare and technology. Today, at a demo event at the University of San Francisco, 14 startups presented their ideas on how to transform and improve healthcare in the U.S..

Dr. Aenor Sawyer, an associate clinical professor at UCSF, said during her opening remarks that these companies are changing “how we take care of patients and how patients take care of themselves.” Whether it is managing secondary care, untangling the confusing labyrinth of insurance, or encouraging healthy lifestyle habits, these startups are holding the scalpels.

Silicon Valley is still the epicenter of the tech startup world, but there's a long list of cities looking for a piece of the entrepreneurial pie.

Not surprisingly, San Francisco and San Jose, Calif. — both within the Silicon Valley region — are the top two cities, respectively, for venture capitalist investments in tech startups, according to National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), based on data from Thomson Reuters and the MoneyTree Report by PwC. The rankings were first posted to CIO.com.

A 15-foot-long (4.5 meters) great white shark unexpectedly veered toward California last week, an unusual winter trip never before tracked by researchers. Scientists monitor the sharks using satellite tags.

The female great white shark, called Arden Grace, swam around Southern California's Channel Islands, visiting San Miguel Island and San Clemente Islands, beginning Feb. 14. Arden Grace, who has a satellite tracking tag on her dorsal fin, was likely hunting seals that live on the islands, said Michael Domeier, president of the Marine Conservation Science Institute, the Hawaii-based nonprofit research organization that tagged Arden Grace.

1. Begin With the End.

Spouses considering going into business with each other should first ask themselves, “What happens to the business if we get divorced?” This will help them create an ownership structure that will work for both of them now and in the future.

2. Decide Who Decides.

At home, both spouses may have to agree on something before it happens. This might not be the best way to run the business. That said, there is no right answer. The partners should talk about who has responsibility for what, when it’s ok for one to make a decision, and when both must be involved.

Allos Ventures is pleased to announce the final closing of Allos II, a $40 million venture capital fund targeting investments in early-stage technology companies in the Midwest. Allos II is led by Don Aquilano, John McIlwraith, and Dov Rosenberg and builds on the success of our first fund, which invested in AssureRx Health BidPal Networks, Scale Computing, and Weblink International.

The investment strategy of Allos II continues the successful Allos I strategy, including:

Industry Focus.  Companies in high-growth sectors where the managing directors have operating and investing experience - primarily software and technology-enabled business services, but also specialty healthcare providers, later-stage medical devices and diagnostics, and advanced manufacturing.  No pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies.