Nine Women Can't Have a Baby in one Month
It is tempting to think that anything can be accomplished simply by throwing more people at it, but some things just can’t be hurried. When planning projects and scheduling, always keep in mind the...
View ArticleAre your employees “Homing from Work”?
Current work trends are that we emphasize flex time and encourage staff to work from home but most owners and managers do a poor job of stopping their employees homing from work.
View ArticleNever Allow Your People to Delegate Upwards
The more hours the business owner works, the less his business is worth. The curse that besets many business owners is that they think that they can do everything better than anybody else. It leads...
View ArticleDon’t let the “Wall Street No” become part of your new normal
Anybody who has ever tried to get financing has experienced what I call the Wall Street No. You learn that technique the hard way when you go for investment financing, and it is not a pleasant...
View ArticleSuccess relies on capturing discretionary energy from your people
Businesses owners focus on employee attendance, but how much of the employee are you really getting? You measure absenteeism, but many businesses have an issue with what I call “presenteeism”. This is...
View ArticleThe lion tamer never hits the lion with the whip
The lion tamer uses the threat of force and if he actually uses it, he has lost. If he hits the lion with the whip and the lion figures out it doesn’t hurt that much, he’ll eat him.
View ArticleHow Efficient is Your Management Style?
In working with business owners, there are four management styles that I see. Most CEOs tend to fit into either the Army, Enabler or Wheel category, but the more sophisticated and successful are...
View ArticleIf your employees were telepathic they wouldn’t be working for you
One of the things I hear most frequently from business owners is that their employees have no common sense. Next in line behind that is that they are not committed to the business because they don’t...
View ArticleAre You Guilty of Subsequent Engagement Syndrome?
How often do you make a commitment to meet somebody and then break it? How do you act when something comes along that you want to do more than what you have committed to do? Do you readily take the new...
View ArticleThe Three Golden Rules of Accountability
Many business owners complain about their employees and use words like entitlement and accountability to describe the problem.
View ArticleEnding Entitlement & Building an Accountability Culture
Holding people accountable has two major components, and neither one can be ignored. The first is setting clear expectations; the second is calling people out when they don't live up to those...
View ArticleCommon sense isn't so common
The universal complaint of business owners I work with is that their employees lack common sense. I usually point out that if their employees were better they wouldn't be working for them -- they...
View ArticleCBS March Madness Encouraging Homing from Work
I was surprised to hear on the radio that CBS had developed a special technique to encourage people to cheat their employers by watching the NCAA March Madness tournament on the CBS website while they...
View ArticlePartnership Lessons from 'Lennon-McCartney'
John Lennon and Paul McCartney were one of the most successful song writing partnerships in history. They worked together for a period of about seven years and were driven apart by their success and...
View ArticleThe Goldman Paradigm - What You Call Your Customers Defines Them
What you call your customers determines the way you think about them. The way you think about them defines the way you treat them. The way you treat them defines whether they will stay with you or go...
View ArticleDon’t let TLAs clog up your communication
All of us have jargon that we use as shorthand in our business, but if we aren't careful that can spoil over into our "communication" with our customers and prospects and be both confusing and...
View ArticleThe issue with people isn’t absenteeism but presenteeism
You need to put in systems to measure effectiveness rather than attendance. Your organization probably already knows who accomplishes and who does not. The problem is that they don’t tell you – and...
View ArticleDo you have Irritable Partner Syndrome?
While partnerships can deliver great value in running an organization, the behavioral styles of the partners are often very different. This can lead to irritation and confrontation that not only puts...
View ArticleMeetings are like alcoholism, you need a 12 step process
Meetings can be the curse of business, and if you are not careful they can be the single biggest impediment to productivity. The danger is that if you run meetings that are unfocused and don't...
View ArticleDon't Confuse Your Role With Your Ownership
One of the mistakes I most frequently see in business is owners not making a clear distinction between their ownership position in the company and the role that they fulfill, and this can be very...
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