“AGB” Will Ensure Your Company is Always Getting Better?
While on vacation at a resort last week we noticed a unique looking individual having unfettered access to the dining room and the kitchen areas.
We commented that he looked like he was doing official duties, but that his dress and grooming was anything but official-looking.
A couple of days later on a snorkeling excursion …
The Right Questions to Ensure “Training” Gets An ROI
Last summer I received this email inquiry:
Hi Skip –
My boss would like to train our entire IT department (36 people) on Communication.
We are trying to improve the way we manage projects and we are finding that communication is our biggest weakness.
We would like to have training that would focus on the …
How Solo-Entrepeneurs Can Take Guilt Free Vacations
You are reading this while I am with my wife on a beach in Belize.
It’s our first vacation (or “holiday” as the Europeans call it) of 2014.
As a solo entrepreneur vacations stress me out.
If I’m not connecting with clients and prospects I’m losing touch with my business and may not have one …
Countering the Damage of Sarcasm in Workplace Communication
At a specific time within my seminar on “The 7 Deadliest Communication Sins,” I take on the topic of sarcasm at work. Firstly, I ask two very important questions about audience members’ experience with regard to this specific issue as it impacts interpersonal communication and workplace communication.
These two questions are:
How many of you…The Small Business Polar Vortex
Waking up daily the past three weeks to single digit temperatures has me seeing the current Polar Vortex I’m living through as a metaphor for many small business work environments.
Many suffer from their own Polar Vortex in the workplace as co-workers and business leaders freeze out each other from communicating about vital issues.
The …
Great Leaders H.A.V.e What It Takes to Lead
People follow leaders for just one of two reasons. It is either because they have to, or because they want to.
The difference is that leaders whose followers follow because they have to, apply position power. Position power is that granted them by their title in the organization and how it relates to those that …
The Magic Ingredient that Creates a High Performing Workplace
Developing a high-performing workplace is not as mysterious as small business owners make it seem.
So many struggle with getting employees to:
do more than the minimum job requirements to take initiative on their own to get things done to make decisions for which the owner feels they are paying them for to show up…The Holy Grail of Workplace Motivation
Human motivation is complex.
Motivating humans in the workplace seems be a question business owners continue to struggle with.
I’ve also have found two key factors that motivate consistently across all generations in the workplace: autonomy and transparency.
AutonomyHuman beings are autonomous creatures. We all want to have autonomy over how we live, work …
The Power of Expectation Management
My wife and I arrived at a very popular resort restaurant without a reservation last summer while on vacation. Our names were put on a list, we were given a pager and told the wait would be about 15-20 minutes.
With time to kill, my wife and I decided to visit the restrooms. On my …
Workplace Drama: Easier to Eliminate Than You May Think
Meeting with a prospective client last week, the first words out of this business owners’ mouth, the owner of a three million dollar small business were, “I just want the drama to end.”
Whenever I hear a statement like that I get the impression that the “drama” permeates the environment through multiple sources.
Yet, upon …