Recommitment With A 2 Month Head Start (Part 1 of 3)
October 29, 2015 | Self Help
Photo by American Baking Company on Flickr. The season is close. If you think I'm referring to the Christmas commercial season, I am not. That has already started. The Hallmark Channel just promoted that they were going to begin the Countdown to Christmas next week?! Seriously? We haven't even celebrated Halloween yet?! I digress. The season I'm referring to is the "eating season". I did not come up with this term. I first heard it from Dane King, an expert in the wellness industry. In the interest of full disclosure, Dane is also my 1st cousin. He says that the eating season begins…
Millennials: They Want Engagement, Not Entitlement
October 8, 2015 | Uncategorized
Photo by Ted Eytan on Flickr Without completely giving my age away, let's just say that I am slightly removed from the Millennial generation. That is to say, I am at the tail end of Generation X. Given the fact that most of my friendships and professional relationships are with Gen Xer's, I have not had a lot of direct experience with Millennials as it pertains to their professional lives. The complaint I hear from just about everyone including clients is that they have an entitlement problem. They want the top job and top money but don't want to work for it.…
Video Blog – Peer Interviewing
July 31, 2015 | Communication, Leadership, Trust
Want to lower turnover and build trust with your current employees? Include them in the hiring process with peer interviewing! [embed]https://youtu.be/eeo7sHSRFdU[/embed]
Work Environment Does Make A Positive Difference
July 29, 2015 | Communication, Employee Recognition, Trust
Photo by tifotter on Flickr When employees do not have the correct tools to do a job, they find "work arounds" to keep things moving. I have heard stories about nurse's using coffee makers to generate hot water to bathe patients because their facilities did not generate enough. I have seen workers shovel large amounts of gravel by hand for multiple days because the company's one payloader was broke down. Employees also clean their own work areas and empty their own trash because custodial services do not complete their tasks and management does not address the issue. I have seen crazy things done to a copier…
Managing a Work from Home Team
July 22, 2015 | Communication, Leadership, Teamwork
Photo by brendangates on Flickr More companies are now promoting the use of an "agile workforce". My previous employer reconfigured all of their offices to an open concept where there were many small workstations, tables for collaboration, and conference rooms for meetings. However, except for directors, there was no assigned seating, and there were not enough seats to accommodate every single employee if they came to work. This change in strategy was due to the fact that after studying the matter for many years, employers found that on any given day, 25% of their workforce was absent due to work travel, vacation,…
We’ve Always Done It That Way
July 9, 2015 | Leadership, Teamwork, Trust
Photo by Shannon Dizmang on Flickr How many times have we heard that? I am sure this was a common phrase at Polaroid and probably led to their demise. The great companies...the ones that have survived for more than a decade or two do not allow this to be part of their lexicon. IBM for instance could have said the phrase, "We've always done it that way", when their main frame business began to dwindle. They tried a few different business lines and kept trying until they found their new niche. To my knowledge, I don't even think they do much in…
Our Independence: A Byproduct of Great Leadership
July 3, 2015 | Leadership
Photo by Wendy on Flickr We all remember the stories from our US History classes about Paul Revere, Johnny Tremain, Patrick Henry, and George Washington. All of their words and actions were inspiration to lead 13 British Colonies to become their own independent nation. Democracy was quite the experiment in those days as most established governments had some sort of monarchy and/or class system. The courage and vision that our founding fathers possessed, I hope, is never forgotten. We have had great leaders since the birth of our country and I am sure we will have many more. On the eve of…
Business Communication Balance Requires Disciplined Email Use
July 2, 2015 | Communication, Leadership
Photo by wvs on Flickr The advent of email has unquestionably made our lives more productive. The days of putting inner-office memos in everyone's company mailbox with a new process or announcement are long gone. With this advancement, we can better communicate with teams and departments. Email has broken down barriers of when and where we can work and in some cases allowing us to achieve a better work-life balance. If our job requires travel, we can have access to and are able to dispense information in a much quicker manner. Now, trip reports, expense reports, quick correspondence between co-workers, and…
At What Point is the “Human Element” Needed? (Part 3) – Intense Pain
June 22, 2015 | Uncategorized
Photo by Stefson on Flickr Some have told me that real change doesn't happen in someone's life until the pain of keeping the status quo hurts more than the pain of changing ones habits. I am sure we have all experienced this phenomenon at some time. As it relates to the "human element" of ones organization, it is the point where the culture is so broken, so toxic that change must happen immediately and intensely. Not addressing the culture means the company will likely perish. The first "to-do" in this situation is the leader must own the problem. They must address all of their employees…
At What Point is the “Human Element” Needed? (Part 2) – Explosive Growth
June 10, 2015 | Communication, Leadership, Trust
Photo by LHG Creative Photography on Flickr This the second post in a 3 part series regarding establishing a point where the human element in a business or organization. If you have not read the first post, it can be found here. If a company has not established its "human element" at its inception, a key time to examine establishing it would be in the midst of explosive growth. This situation/opportunity is a critical crossroads where we should address these soft initiatives that can make a good company great. In late 2009 Ambulatory Care Solutions (ACS), a company that I helped found, doubled in…
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