Lack of Respect and Kindness
Harassment, Discrimination and Bullying. If you are like me, when you hear these words you cringe. Currently here in Illinois only two of these are against the law the other is not. Regardless, the reason it makes me cringe is not because the law. It has to do with respect and kindness. This has […]
Is your company stuck?
When I talk to potential clients about what they hope to achieve in their company and what’s holding them back – I hear a lot of “in the future” or “once we finish with x” or “we are not organized enough for that” as an answer to “when”. You can sense the frustration in their […]
Sex, Politics & Religion
What do sex, politics and religion all have in common? They should never be discussed in the workplace, unless of course your business is a political or religious institution. I did an informal poll with friends/colleagues about topics which shouldn’t be discussed at work – these three were among others mentioned. We all have a […]
Productive Conservations
We have conversations with our employees everyday. Would you consider them productive? Do they move the employee, you or the company in the right direction? When we talk to our employees it can be about the good (congratulations/well done), the bad (a mistake was made and we need to correct) or the ugly (this […]
Your Impact On Your Team
I have had the pleasure over the last couple of weeks of speaking to a couple great leaders in small business. There was a common theme running through the various conversations: The impact the leader has on the team. This may seem obvious, as in “of course the leader has an impact”. And I […]
5 Uses for a Job Description
You may be thinking about creating Job Descriptions or have some that may need updating. The thing is that every time you think about it – you find something else to do. It’s just not that exciting and you think – why bother, people look at it once then never again. What if that one […]
Handbooks – why they matter
I get a lot of questions about employee handbooks. Do we need them? What purpose do they serve? How many pages should it be? What do you put inside it? Will it cover all situations so we just have to look it up and know what to do? Do you need one? Short answer – […]
Are you giving it away?
It is something everyone wants. I have had business owners ask for it. Yet, they are the same ones who are consistently giving it away. It’s accountability. It’s true we all want people who make decisions, are responsible and accept the good/bad outcome as a result. Yet at the same time, without realizing it […]
Expectations
You hear it in everyday conversation and in business. “I had the expectation…” or “I thought this was going was going to happen…”. It is typically and normal for each of us to have an expectation of what is happening or what a result will be. However, while we have a clear picture of […]
Attracting the Right Employees
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Jim Kendall of the Daily Herald (local newspaper) on the various struggles of small employers to find quality employees. There is so much you can do. Read here to see what I shared with his audience. http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20150126/business/150129375/ Don’t forget you need to focus on the planning to get […]