Working with someone who drives you nuts can range from the co-worker who is simply too loud to the one who has no control over their “personal habits” (Did he just hack up a hairball?) to the person who is an outright ogre to be around. Every one of these employees obviously make some contribution […]
In the age of over-reaction and ever-present cameras, every decision is tested under the bright lights of scrutiny. While watching a football coach get grilled by the press immediately following a crushing loss by his team, I wondered how most business leaders would be able to handle that type of close inspection for their day […]
Most family-owned businesses are small businesses, and inherent in most family businesses are a unique set of challenges. Be careful to avoid these common pitfalls that can plague a family business owner. You can’t escape the stress of your job. The line between the family business and the family get blurred easily. Unplugging from the […]
Experience can be very helpful in many ways when leading a workforce, but not changing with the times can make that experience obsolete quickly. Following are four ingrained managerial habits I see being used in my client organizations that need to be broken immediately. Bad Habit #1: Going with what you know Tried and true […]
Dealing with entitlements of customers and employees is a growing concern for business leaders. For example, in an online discussion, a person was upset about a restaurant wanting to charge for extra lettuce on his sandwich. How dare they! I watched the thread as people grew angry because a restaurant dared to charge for requested […]
Determination is your ability to align your energy and attention into a sharp focus. Want to deepen your resolve? Try these three steps: Choose practice over luck. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about the need for devoting 10,000 hours to performing a task to master it. How many of us have heard how it takes 15 years […]
Recently, we’ve seen employees come under social attack for video-recorded incidents of horrendous customer interaction. This is a trend that will grow. Are you ready? Follow these three ideas to better prepare yourself for the Facebook “Live” era. There are no secrets. The overshare culture has taken hold of our society. Nothing is off limits. […]
I recently read with horror about employees at a North Carolina restaurant serenading a group of police officers with a foul-mouthed rap song degrading these customers. http://nypost.com/2017/05/01/restaurant-employees-sing-f-tha-police-rendition-for-cops/ I’m sure most of my readers who saw that story shook their heads and thought, “Who thinks that is considered acceptable behavior?” Many executives I work with are […]
Do you think your small business is successful because of your quality products? You might be missing the most important part of success for your small business: the charisma. Charlotte had an amazing restaurant many years ago called Dikadee’s Front Porch, where people would line up into the parking lot to enjoy dinner. It was […]
To be a successful entrepreneur, you only have so much bandwidth. Most people don’t understand the plight of successful entrepreneurs — how the company is a full life-consuming project. For the vast majority of these business leaders, you have to pick 3 from your life’s menu of work, sleep, family, fitness, and friends. You can […]