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To Socialize or Not
I am often asked by students if it is a good or bad idea for a leader to socialize with subordinates outside of work. There are a lot of tradeoffs, and this is a complex question. I break down the variables in this article.

The Pitfalls of Delegation
Delegating has become a major marker of good management skills, but overtime the effort has lost its connection to reality. Delegation is not always the answer, but rather an important tool to be combined with staff management and strategies that bring out the best in people without risking the quality of work outcomes and results.

A Topgrading Tool
What tools can I use to select the best employee?

Buying Help at Discount Pricing
Do you always pay the lowest price for labor?

Dealing with Difficult Employees
Managing people is never easy, and some employees make it even more difficult. These challenging employees can try your patience and take a lot of your time and energy. It requires skillful management to turn these employees around and make them into productive workers.

Listen to Your Employees
If you do not listen to your employees, you are probably making a major mistake.

Listen to Your Employees
If you do not listen to your employees, you are probably making a major mistake.

Performance Appraisals
All organizations should have formal performance appraisals. The following is a guide for a good appraisal system.

Topgrading
How do I chose the best employees?

The Balance of Managing
How many small business owners say they don't have time to manage? They must do it themselves.

Pay-For-Performance
Still facing the realities of this recession? Contemplating laying-off employees while knowing that doing so will further hurt the business? Using pay-for-performance plans may just save your employees and better position your business for the recovery when it finally arrives.

Are your employees spending too much time on Twitter and Facebook?

When the internet was introduced to offices over a decade ago, employers were worried that employees would spend more time surfing the internet than they did working. The expression “cyber slacking” was born. In 2009, social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have taken the internet to a whole new level. No longer is the internet just used for reading content, now people can interact with their friends in real time whilst sitting at their desks. To further promote interaction, developers have come up with a vast array of applications where users can play games, send virtual gifts or compare themselves to a celebrity. Hey, you can even run your own virtual farm from the comfort of your office cubicle. Therefore, it is not surprising that employers are worried that no work will get done.

Is slash and burn the right strategy for your business?

When the economic downturn first started to impact John’s business he was quick to act. First signs that turnover was dropping caused John to focus on his biggest overhead – the wage bill. A swift round of redundancies gave immediate relief and he was able to sustain profit levels on an even keel. Six months later, however, turnover had dropped even further and he was facing a personal grievance claim from one of his employee’s with a possible payout of $1000s.

10 Simple People Skills To Successful Management
Getting the best from your people is vital if you are to make the best progress in your business or organisation. Much comes from the way you interact personally and there are just ten key actions to take to build great, fulfilling and productive relationships...

10 Steps When You Need Help in Your Business
You start off alone. Be it as a solo business owner or a manager looking after a part of a larger business. It gets busier, you get distracted from what you want to do, because there's only one of you and you've only got one pair of hands.

Are your employees holding you hostage?
Ever had an employee who made outrageous demands (for salary, promotions, time-off etc) and you gave it to them because you felt you ‘had no choice’? As a leader, it’s important to manage your business strategically. Here’s ten tips on managing those who try to make themselves indispensible…

How to Burn Out Your Employees during Tough Economic Times
Tough economic times can create the perfect storm for job strain but managers have more control over their employees' stress than they realize.

Hire Only The Best People
Are you interested in learning about ten keys to hiring and retaining ONLY the top 10% performers of high character and commitment? Do you want customer-satisfying employees one and all? Read on to discover the steps you can take to hire only the best!

Keep your employees motivated
Keeping up your staff morale is important whether things are going well or not so great with your business. Motivated employees make for better business all around. Let's look at various ways you can keep your employees motivated.

Setting goals for your employees
When it comes to setting targets for the financial year, most SMEs think "operations, growth, expansion, profits" and so on. These are all necessary elements of successful planning, but what about setting goals for your employees? Is it necessary, and if so, where do you start? This article can be used as a guide for individual goal-setting and measuring achievement.

Everyone is in Marketing
This is critical. Most of us are not aware of the impact all of our employees can have on the customer.

Happy Employees = productive employess
As the owner of a small business, you may wonder what your employees' emotional or mental health has to do with you. Well, not only does an employee's mental frame of mind impact directly on his or her ability to perform, but also on your organisational productivity and profitability.

New Year’s Resolutions (part two)
These 12 resolutions are suggested for employees... How to improve themselves & their workplace.

How to Make Your Customers Feel Welcome

In this excellent article the author shows you and your employees how to create the kind of atmoshphere that makes your clients and customers prefer to do business with you over the rest of your competition. Too often small business owners blame the economy and the government for their slumping business. If they would only look a little further they would identify a major cause of their business decline-their own attitude towards their clients and customers.

How to Start Thinking Outside the Box by Looking Outside Your Business
When it comes to growing our business, you don't have to be as original or smart as you think. By simply observing other successful businesses you can learn how to makeyour small business more successful and profitable. The following example will show you how one company is being successful.

Treat Little Customers Like Big Customers
Learn how to create lifetime customers by using some simple but critcal strategies.

The 4 Things Your Customers Want
Here are four things your customers really want. If you can provide them consistently you will make theme them life-time customers. So easy to do, yet so often not done.

How Not to Communicate with Your Customers
This article will give you the "don'ts" of not participating with your customers. A must read for all employees and managers.

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Problem Fixing
How to prevent problems with customers by doing things that will help your organization gain new business not lose it.

Best Practices for Sustainability and Communicating Sustainability

A sustainable best practices program involves a comprehensive and holistic approach that encompasses everything a business does that impacts the environment. A successful sustainability initiative demands the willing participation of employees. Businesses also need to understand how to communicate sustainability in a way that conveys their environmental initiatives while enhancing their internal and external brand.

Solving Your Hiring Dilemma
Hiring new employees in your new franchise can be a stressful experience.

Organisation structure and job specifications
It's important that in any business, people know what everyone's roles and responsibilities are. Developing your organisational structure is best done by drawing an organogram that can help you visualize your staffing structure.

How to Motivate Your Staff and Employees to Do Their Best
While it’s true that you can’t really motivate your employees; they have to motivate themselves; there are some things you can do as an owner or manager to create the proper environment for employees to provide their own self-motivation, i.e., to do what is expected of them. To do this, you need to find out what motivates your employees.

Culture Shock
Do your People align with your Corporate Culture? Why do people stay with organizations and why do they go? What prompts someone to join a company or move to a new one, particularly if there isn’t much difference in salary or position? Thinking about these questions, I began to reflect back on my recent vacation.

Health Care Reforms - How Are You Dealing With Them?
Health Care Reforms are beginning to roll out now. Do you know how to deal with them? How are your employees responding? Betsey has some advise for you.

Managing Bad Employees
This article discusses techniques entrepreneurs can use when faced with difficult employees.

Getting Ready To Hire Your First Assistant
There comes a time in every entrepreneur's life when they realize they just can't do it alone. They realize they're maxed out - either on time or ability - and there's no way their business will grow until they start delegating some tasks.

Benefits of Intranet
Benefits of Intranet:- There are various benefits of intranet to business which can be broadly classified as under:

Team Building Tips for Proactive Leaders
Team building can help organizations get more done with less effort and create happier workplaces. Find out key ways to develop a culture of team building that helps your leaders lead better and your employees be more productive. Practical team building tips for proactive leaders.

Entrepreneur Development: What to Give Your Staff:
Leadership education is not simply a cookbook list of "how to's".

Notes to Boss
So in the interests of helping that boss "see what it looks like" to be a winning at working manager, I have a few notes for him, and others like him.

A Remedy to An Attitude of Entitlement
Younger workers often portray an attitude of entitlement. Should you organization feel fortunate to have you as an employee? Read about four ways to eliminate the attitude of entitlement in your organization.

5 Practical Ideas to Keep Your Employees Motivated
Many leaders are skilled at getting results and productivity from their employees but are at a loss about how to keep people motivated. Learn five key things you can do to motivate your employees and reap the rewards of a happier workplace.

A Brand Fit for a Princess
Brands are created and brought to life by people.

Soft Skills for Business Success
Employers focus too much attention on technical ability and know-how, little realizing that sometimes it is the "soft skills" that can mean the difference between a mediocre employee and a great employee.

How Individuals And Teams Get Aligned Fast With A Process Of Questioning, Energy Shifting, Self-Esteem Raising, And Confidence Building
How the Meeting alignment process benefits your team and your objectives.

Combating the Effects of War
Employees with family fighting overseas are the hidden quantity of employees for whom usual morale boosting techniques might not be enough.

How to Choose Office Cubicles

In determining what type of office cubicles will be the best choice for a business, it is important to consider a variety of factors. The nature of the business and the potential need for additional employees will impact a business’s decision about the type of cubicles to purchase. It also is important to keep in mind the nature of the work in which the business’s employees will be engaged as well as the need for a pleasant working environment. Before the installation of cubicles, a business needs to carefully design its floor plan. The amount of floor space available, the number of work-stations, and the quantity of space an employee needs to accomplish his tasks all must be thoroughly thought out. All of these considerations will impact the size and type of cubicles a business should purchase.

8 Tips to Tune Up Your Business
A business service adviser can help your business run smooth and avoid future breakdowns. Whether it's preventive maintenance or a major repair, get an expert to fix it right the first time. Here are 8 tips to perform a business tune up.

How to Motivate Employess - Without Breaking the Bank

They are age-old management questions: how to motivate employees for higher productivity and how to get them to produce over and beyond established goals without busting the budget. Fortunately, there are several solutions. We must remember that while employees need money to survive, they often are motivated by other elements in the workplace. As humans, we all have different motivators. In my consulting practice, I've found that - besides money - there are eight primary employee needs which, when satisfied, become motivators for higher productivity. When management can determine and then best satisfy its employees' needs, it will create a process that promotes productivity without going over budget. Following are the eight needs with some tips on how to best use them to motivate.

13 Important Training Issues For Retailers

Have you ever been a customer somewhere and had someone take care of you with such care and interest that you just assumed they were the owner? Isn't this the kind of person you really want taking care of your customers? You also want someone who actually cares for your customers and who will take ownership of a problem and make it their goal to take care of that customer as your personal representative. It's all about having people who want to deliver a memorable experience, as opposed to having people who are indifferent to customers and just want to put their time in.

How to Tell if Your Employees 'Get' Your Brand
These eight questions help determine if your people are a differentiator for your organization.

Lessen the Stress for Those Employees You Manage
In a world where it seems just about everyone needs 25 hours a day to get things do, what are you doing as an employer to make sure your employees are not overly stressed on the job?

Am I Communicating With Respect? 10 Steps To Communicating Respectfully
In order to improve communication with others you need to make sure you are always conveying that you respect them as a person. Sadly, I must say I often see this trait missing especially between employees and managers. Here is a quick test

Customer Service – One Critical Step to Get Employees on Board!

All the money in the world, all the the best experts and all the latest ideas and techniques will never do as much to help you improve customer service as taking the one critical step you need to get your employees on board. Customer service begins on the front lines of your company, and taking this one critical step will make sure your front line staff has the same goal in mind as your top Executives.

7 Tips to Prepare for the New NLRB
While there is little or nothing that individual employers can do to stop the anticipated shifts toward union-friendly rulings identified by Board Chair Wilma Liebman, there are legal and ethical actions you can take to mitigate any negative effects they may have on you and your employees.

What You Don’t Know about the NLRB Could Hurt You and Your Employees
It is safe to say that relatively few employers and even fewer employees can accurately identify the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and describe its role. Yet this five-member panel is about to transform the nature of the workplace.

Fire-Up Your Employees

Do your employees need a boost of energy? Are they lacking motivation or inspiration? Could they use some fire underneath them? Sometimes motivational words just won’t cut it. Employees are looking for much more. Investing in the good ones can go a long way, today and in the future. If you can truly energize employees, they will drink the company kool-aid and your bottom line will be better off for it.

6 Critical Organizational Success Factors for Embracing Volatility
Organizations no longer have the luxury of allowing their employees and leaders to sit back and enjoy the tranquility of a stable environment, which required relatively little upkeep to maintain the status quo.

Why is a company culture so important
I was reading a book call The World is Flat and the author was discussing the importance of a country’s culture in making changes in adapting to changes in the world’s economy.

Face to Face With Fear
Fear is one of our most powerful emotions. In this article, I would like to discuss the positive aspects of fear and how that relates to our personal safety.

Confidentiality Agreements... Ticking Time Bombs?

How many times have you signed a new contract which included "confidentiality" or "non-disclosure" provisions and simply assumed that it was not a big deal? After all, you're a business owner with honor and integrity; you have no intention of disclosing your client's confidential and proprietary information, right? So, why worry about it? Simply sign the thing and move on to the work. Well, not so fast. Let's delve into the small print a bit and see what you just agreed to...

Mistakes to Avoid When Opening Your Own Business
Starting a business can be rewarding but you need to be aware of these common mistakes. Avoiding them can help you and your business be a success.

The Art of Delegation

Ask any good entrepreneur what separates a skilled manager from an unskilled manager and they will tell you: the ability to delegate. Many entrepreneurs fail miserably at business because they never quite learn the art of delegating, which is the ability to strike a balance between micromanaging and ‘hands off’ management. If you have worked in a leadership or managerial role for any period of time, you know that either extreme is a disaster.

Execute Your Business Idea
Are you self-driven and knowledgeable? Have you ever thought of owning a business? I am sure that you have, most Americans have thought about owning a business. I am going to outline a few ideas and objectives, which you might want to consider when going into business for yourself.

Don’t forget about Service Franchise Opportunities
What do you do if you want to own a business that provides a good income while reducing your overhead and time commitments? Take a look at service franchises!

Don’t forget about Service Franchise Opportunities
What do you do if you want to own a business that provides a good income while reducing your overhead and time commitments? Take a look at service franchises!

Don’t forget about Service Franchise Opportunities
What do you do if you want to own a business that provides a good income while reducing your overhead and time commitments? Take a look at service franchises!

Don’t forget about Service Franchise Opportunities
What do you do if you want to own a business that provides a good income while reducing your overhead and time commitments? Take a look at service franchises!

Don’t forget about Service Franchise Opportunities
What do you do if you want to own a business that provides a good income while reducing your overhead and time commitments? Take a look at service franchises!

Effecting Successful Change Management Initiatives
In too many situations the carnage of change has resulted in a significant amount of waste and anguish in organizations. Useful change tends to be associated with a multi-step process that creates power and motivation that is sufficient to overwhelm all the sources of apathy.

Effecting Successful Change Management Initiatives
In too many situations the carnage of change has resulted in a significant amount of waste and anguish in organizations. Useful change tends to be associated with a multi-step process that creates power and motivation that is sufficient to overwhelm all the sources of apathy.

Effecting Successful Change Management Initiatives
In too many situations the carnage of change has resulted in a significant amount of waste and anguish in organizations. Useful change tends to be associated with a multi-step process that creates power and motivation that is sufficient to overwhelm all the sources of apathy.

Effecting Successful Change Management Initiatives
In too many situations the carnage of change has resulted in a significant amount of waste and anguish in organizations. Useful change tends to be associated with a multi-step process that creates power and motivation that is sufficient to overwhelm all the sources of apathy.

Effecting Successful Change Management Initiatives
In too many situations the carnage of change has resulted in a significant amount of waste and anguish in organizations. Useful change tends to be associated with a multi-step process that creates power and motivation that is sufficient to overwhelm all the sources of apathy.

RETENTION OF STAFF

Why is retention of staff such an issue these days? Surely staff are lucky enough to be employed in a full time job without you having to worry about whether or not you’re going to keep them? Retention of staff is an issue that should be ranked priority number one. Regardless of the current economy - we do not have enough skilled staff with the appropriate skill base to fill all the available jobs – and it’s not going to improve. Simply put, the workforce growth rate is declining. In the long run there will be more jobs than workers. The future will be that there is increased competition for fewer qualified workers, which will necessitate an enormous emphasis on the need to retain the workers we already have.

Leadership empowerment: what is it and how do you do it?
There is a significant amount of talk about the need to empower staff, but what do people mean by 'empowerment?' This article defines two different types of empowerment, and revealing the benefits. It also gives a quick snapshot of one way to implement it in the workplace.

How to Calm Disruptive Workplaces
Recently I was reading a letter to the editor in a business publication directed at small business owners. The letter, from a business owner, stated that he had two principals, a CFO and VP who seemed to always be at odds. He was concerned over the disruption in his business even though these two individuals were very productive.

How to Calm Disruptive Workplaces
Recently I was reading a letter to the editor in a business publication directed at small business owners. The letter, from a business owner, stated that he had two principals, a CFO and VP who seemed to always be at odds. He was concerned over the disruption in his business even though these two individuals were very productive.

Creating a Vision and a Mission: A Co-Created And Co-Shared Experience
The VM Vacuum process works because all the employees are involved in co-creating the vision and are all a key and equal part of the visioning process. When a vision is co-created in this way, it becomes co-shared and people believe in it… it contains a part of them, so naturally, it becomes believable, realistic and do-able.

Creating a Vision and a Mission: A Co-Created And Co-Shared Experience
The VM Vacuum process works because all the employees are involved in co-creating the vision and are all a key and equal part of the visioning process. When a vision is co-created in this way, it becomes co-shared and people believe in it… it contains a part of them, so naturally, it becomes believable, realistic and do-able.

Creative Ways Your Boss Can Help You Build Your Business
Can your boss help you build your home business? With a little creativity on your part and by ensuring your employer reaps rewards, a win-win situation can be created.

Telecommuting Five Ways To Find Your Next Job
The trend of telecommuting is on the rise as employers begin to see the savings involved in both gas and office space. The question for the job seeker is now how to find these opportunities. Below are five methods you can use to find a telecommuting position.

Telecommuting Five Ways To Find Your Next Job
The trend of telecommuting is on the rise as employers begin to see the savings involved in both gas and office space. The question for the job seeker is now how to find these opportunities. Below are five methods you can use to find a telecommuting position.

Go From Desperate To Total Financial Success
Recognition motivates. Thoughtlessness produces just the opposite affect . . . a slap in the face. When we lose a single customer, we do not lose a single order but a lifetime opportunity of profitability with that individual. It's our people who help us build our businesses.

The Right Way to Give Promotions
There is a right and wrong way to promote employees. Being too lax in your decision making could be disastrous for your company. Read how to successfully promote your employees.

Trust Comes First
I had the rare and wonderful opportunity to meet with Stephen R. Covey and his two talented sons, Stephen M.R. and Sean Covey. I asked all three of them to talk to me about how trust is built--how do they build trust as a Covey organization?

Ten Top Tips For Staff Inspiration From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach

Do you have a happy and highly inspired staff in your business? Have you made a commitment to create an enjoyable and productive environment at work? If you answered NO to either of these questions, then it is time to wake up and learn some tips about how to inspire your workforce and to keep them happy. If you want to attract and retain valuable employees, then you must recognize the need to make your place of business a better, more enjoyable place to work. So what can business owners and their management teams do to keep the staff motivated and happy and achieve a better and more enjoyable place to work? Here are ten (10) top tips from your strategic thinking business coach to help you.

The Truth About Who Can Really Motivate A Person According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach

One of my executive coaching clients was talking with me about how complacent and apathetic his employees had become and how lackluster the company’s performance has been this year, compared to the potential that really exists within the staff. This led us into a discussion about whether a leader should be held accountable to, and for that matter, should the leader be expected to “motivate” others. And our discussion led us to agree that it is not the leader’s job to motivate the staff. What? Did that surprise you when you read that? I can imagine that a majority of readers of this article will be surprised. Now, what role does that leave for a leader in business regarding motivation? An effective leader must commit to some primary actions regarding motivation. Here are five (5) actions a leader must commit to do.

Examples Of Strong Corporate Cultures
Corporate culture has become increasingly important to firms in the past 20 years. Despite its intangible nature, its role is meaningful, affecting employees and organizational operations. And while culture is not the only factor guaranteeing success, positive cultures offer significant competitive advantages over rivals.

Examples Of Strong Corporate Cultures
Corporate culture has become increasingly important to firms in the past 20 years. Despite its intangible nature, its role is meaningful, affecting employees and organizational operations. And while culture is not the only factor guaranteeing success, positive cultures offer significant competitive advantages over rivals.

Technology Versus Managing
This article is probably going to step on some toes. Many business people are becoming so focused on the “new” tools related to the internet/cyber world that they are no longer focused on the “old” solid management principles.

How A Business Coach Can Help You Build Success, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach

The professional services of a business coach are really very similar to that of an athletic coach. One major difference though is that business coaching is undertaken for the benefit of a business or an organization. Business coaching focuses on improving individual performance and on improving team performance. And with improved individual and team performance comes success. But how can a business coach help your build success in your business? Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach offers a few thoughts.

Incentive Compensation Plans that Work

A carefully designed, well executed incentive compensation program will enable a company to attract, motivate and reward top-notch employees. It will also sustain a creative, performance-driven work environment, as well as support behaviors that align with the organization's business objectives, marketing goals and overall strategies. The article reviews the characteristics of a successful incentive compensation program including the requirement that the plan be integrated into overall business objectives, business processes, and financial/accounting practices. Areas discussed include setting up a compensation program, aligning it with multiple strategies, determining quantifiable results, and linking it to a clear payout formula and timeline.

Getting Employees to Focus
As a business leader, you know how much time, money, and energy is spent trying to bring in the best team members possible. Now that you have them on board, how do you keep them engaged? Getting employees to focus is all about providing clear communication using every available tool.

Fostering Truth Telling: Six Tips for Developing A High Integrity Staff
When you foster truth telling in your company, it creates the critical trust needed to enhance the productivity of your staff members and the loyalty of your customers. Read on and discover six tips that will help you develop a high integrity staff.

How to Sink a Brand
All the advertising, branding and marketing you do is at the mercy of your employees.

Increasing Your Company's Competitive Intelligence

The resources are likely within your reach to gather and distribute competitive intelligence throughout your organization if you desire to make this important for your organization. Smaller companies simply don’t devote enough attention to expanding their competitive intellectual capital, and this is a creative way to get more people involved in your strategic efforts and team build while maintaining some cost control. This article outlines a few ways to help get you started down the path to greater competitive intelligence across your entire firm.

Human Resources Jobs

Human resources jobs are like the pearl in an oyster – they are not extremely visible to the outside world, but without them, few companies would be what they are today. Indeed, they are often a secret weapon of the corporate world. Though they don’t directly make any money for the company, you can be sure that they are helping to build up its overall revenues. If you think one of these positions is for you, then read on to discover what they mean out in the real world.

Human Resources Career

Hiring and firing employees, creating benefits programs, managing employee communications, training and compensating workers – these are just a few of the tasks you could be in charge of with a human resources career. As employees become considered more and more of a competitive advantage in the world of business, the human resources industry has grown in strategic significance. It is a highly competitive industry, but if you have always dreamed of a human resources career, there are a number of steps you can take to get ahead.

Human Resources Software

We’ve heard it all before: it takes almost three times as much money to recruit and train new employees than it does to retain and train the ones you already have. As such, small business owners are often willing to do whatever it takes to streamline their operations and ensure they are looking after their staff. Productive and efficient employees are those that are not only well qualified and trained, but also managed. To achieve that, many entrepreneurs turn to human resources software to help them better understand how their company’s human resources are performing, and where improvements need to be made.

Do You Want Happy Employees?
A good business needs good employees. Good employees become better as they become familiar with their jobs and atmosphere. The way management addresses employees has an impact on their progression. Read how to make a positive impact.

Do You Want Happy Employees?
A good business needs good employees. Good employees become better as they become familiar with their jobs and atmosphere. The way management addresses employees has an impact on their progression. Read how to make a positive impact.

Solving the Staff Retention Puzzle
Never before have companies been so severely challenged in the area of staff recruitment and retention. Not only are associated costs skyrocketing, and growth and development being hampered, but in some cases a company’s very survival is at risk!

The Art of Leadership: Rewarding Excellence

Great leaders know that they cannot expect their employees to do their best work, day after day, year after year, without some sort of meaningful acknowledgement. They understand that to get the most from their people, they’ve got to recognize their accomplishments in ways that have an impact, that serve to reinforce hard work and encourage continued creativity and innovation. Here are a few effective ways to reward employee excellence.

Collaboration & Team Building for Sales Force Management Growth
Collaboration & Team Building: Adding Value to Your Employees

Twelve Strategic Leadership Actions To Fire Up Your Employees During Change

Many people and their companies they work for fear and resist change. Some literally detest any change. It is very important to realize that with the application of some solid strategic thinking, change can be a catalyst to energize and fire up your employees. One needs to recognize that change has the ability to open doors, hears and minds that otherwise may remain closed and/or locked forever. Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach is a change agent and has learned many lessons from coaching through change. After reviewing those lessons learned from the business coaching experience, here are twelve (12) strategic leadership actions recommended to fire up your employees during change.

Entrepreneurs and small business owners need to take ownership of worklife balance discussion

The mantra of the late 90’s and the first decade of the 21st century is “Be proactive.” And corporations are doing a fine job of being proactive in claiming ownership of the “work-life” discussion. They’re doing this because when they launch the discussion first, they get to define the parameters—they get to make the rules. Entrepreneurs and small business owners should not try to emulate what large corporations do. Instead, you should look towards owning your own work-life discussion.

Management Training Tip - What Makes A Good Boss?
Want to be an inspirational leader? Want to be a good boss? Read on to find out how!

Keep It Simple
The world is a pretty hectic place these days, and things are moving faster and becoming more complicated every day. The more we can step back and break down the complexities of everyday life into some basic, simple steps, the easier it becomes to manage them and to excel at them. This article explains some of the basics on how to do just that, Keep It Simple!

Make It Personal

How I learned to loosen the reins, take my own medicine and ensure that my employees and customers develop an emotional bond with my company. The author, a small business owner, describes how he was able to take the consulting principles that his firm expounds upon to external clients and turn them within to help his own company grow stronger. The lesson, as always, is that engaged, empowered employees will help a company grow more than any infusion of capital. The article is written in the first person.

Make It Personal

Identifying Poor & Pathetic Leadership Styles and Related Impacts

There seems to be a real deficit in good leadership and a large surplus of poor and pathetic leadership in many businesses today. One can easily find example after example of poor and pathetic leadership and the resulting impacts on employees, in particular, and the health of the business, in general. So what are these poor and pathetic styles of leadership? Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach offers a list of ten (10) styles of poor and pathetic leadership.

Improving the Performance Gap of New Employees
The news is full of stories about talent management, the importance of getting and keeping the “right” employees, and the impending lack of employees as the workforce changes. With these dire warnings come many ways to select and retain employees.

Car Insurance

For any entrepreneur who owns a car, or whose employees use company cars, you need to read this. Fewer things are more important to your company and its financial longevity than protecting those assets you use on a daily basis. Even more important is to understand exactly how to do that. Car insurance is a complicated business, but this article is here to help break it down into its most basic form; understand what you are dealing with, what kind of protection you need the most, and how to keep your costs down low.

Why 'Hiring Now' Is A Sign You May Have Problems
The sign was hanging behind the service counter on the McDonalds nearby. 'Hiring Now', meant they had places to fill and this was potentially a great way to draw employees, with their throughput of customers. Yet what other message did it give?

Six Tips for Developing Your Employees

One of the most important qualities of a good leader is the ability and desire to develop their employees. Although talent development should be part of a company-wide initiative, most of the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the supervisors. Unfortunately, development coaching doesn’t come naturally to many leaders. By following these tips, you can prepare your employees for success at the next level.

Mastery can be a valid sales goal - what is your mission?
Mastery is a valid goal. Creating a mission statement that focuses your energies and professional development as a sales professional will help you become a master.

The Real Cause of Business Management Failure is More about Ethics than Skills
There is an adage that people leave managers not companies. A recent study confirms this, but the real cause is not management skills. What do you think it is?

It's The Way That You Say It That Makes The Difference
Sometimes in business there are constructive ways you can develop your people and ways of saying things that will only contribute to their decline. How will you do it?

What Is A Solo Entrepreneur?
Learn what it means to be a Solo Entrepreneur.

“Strategic Business Tips On How To Deal With The Departure of Key Executive, From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
One of the events that occurs in business is the departure of a key executive. This has the potential to be very disruptive and can have a significant emotional impact on employees. So how do you deal with these feelings? Your strategic thinking business coach has some tips on how to deal with the departure of a key executive.

Creating a Better Place to Work

In our evolving global economy, we tend to look to capital and technology for competitive advantage. Effective organizations are also critical to global success. The realization has led us to various approaches for redesigning our operations. However, in the processes of "restructuring" and "downsizing" - tactics that provide our companies with leaner structures and flatterer hierarchies - we often tend to overlook the fact that our people are the most important source of competitive advantage.

Creating a Better Place to Work

Solving Priority Problems of Work Teams

Business is avidly embracing all kinds of teams as the fading century relaxes its grip on its ideals of scientific management and rugged individualism. But business teams, however robust they appear are still delicate organisms, at risk of succumbing to any number of internal and external threats. And sometimes, just when a team-or a plant full of teams-seems strongest, unanticipated problems can arise that range from time stealing and energy sapping to life threatening.

Finding Meaning & Purpose at Work
More and more employers need to provide work that employees find meaningful and interesting. Here are some of the motivation factors.

Organizational Success Hallmarks
Companies that wish to compete successfully in a turbulent business environment characterized by global competition, exploding information technology, fast-paced change, and new employer-employee relationships will inevitably be forced to make significant adjustments in the way they operate.

Organizational Success Hallmarks
Companies that wish to compete successfully in a turbulent business environment characterized by global competition, exploding information technology, fast-paced change, and new employer-employee relationships will inevitably be forced to make significant adjustments in the way they operate.

Stress Causes and Impact
Stress is a fact of life. It goes with us to the office, follows us home, waits with us in traffic jams. A visit to the dentist, an upcoming exam, a boss's bad day, an approaching deadline, or company for dinner are all part of what we call stressful.

Embezzlement: Beware of an Inside Job
Many small businesses have been victims of embezzlement by one of its key employees but perhaps what’s even more disturbing than those crimes is that embezzlers caught with their hands in the till typically aren’t prosecuted. Instead they are fired and end up surfacing at another business where the cycle perpetuates itself.

Embezzlement: Beware of an Inside Job
Many small businesses have been victims of embezzlement by one of its key employees but perhaps what’s even more disturbing than those crimes is that embezzlers caught with their hands in the till typically aren’t prosecuted. Instead they are fired and end up surfacing at another business where the cycle perpetuates itself.

Tracking The Value Of Diversity Programs: Organizational Perspectives

The shortage of documented financial or performance results for diversity programs makes it difficult to determine what works and what doesn’t. Are there any models for companies to follow? "Not yet, says Guillermo Hysaw, vice president of diversity for Toyota Motor Sales, USA. Hysaw, who is managing his company’s newly announced 10-year, $7.8 billion diversity initiative, freely admits that he’s not sure whom to benchmark against. "Nobody is doing an outstanding job in diversity," he says. Here’s a brief look at how five companies--all among the largest and most successful in their industries--structure and evaluate their diversity programs.

Trust and Profit
It should be a surprise to no one that trust is the foundation of a harmonious, synergistic and efficient work environment.

Liberate your Time by Developing your Company Organization Chart

Your company’s organizational strategy is centred around the development and communication of your Organization Chart. The Organization Chart takes the form of a graphical representation of the positions in your company. The top Position in the company (i.e. CEO or General Manager) is placed at the top of the Organization Chart. The various layers of management and supporting Positions are then arranged under the relevant management Positions right down to the lowest levels of the Organization.

Five Tips on How Your Small Company Can Avoid Labor Law Problems in California
Internet Resources on Employment Compliance for California’s Small Businesses

Great Places To Work For

If we ask a random sample of employees in any organization what causes them to like to stay with their the organization, we will get tens of different reasons that are all valid, but vary to reflect the personal views of the respondents. While some employees will focus on tangible explicit motivators, others will focus more on intangible implicit ones. That's, too, is natural as people's motives are driven by their different needs which again vary from one person to the other.

Five Steps to Entrepreneurial Success - Personality Matters!

Bill Wagner, owner and CEO of Accord Management Systems, Inc., has been at the forefront of entrepreneurial practice and research for the past twenty years. His recently published book, The Entrepreneur Next Door, defines the personality traits that affect entrepreneurial success and explains how to manage the gap between who we are and who we need to be to get the job done. Bill is heavily involved in the franchise community, helping both franchisors and franchisees alike to “get the right people on the bus!”

Ten Tips on How To Gain Outstanding Performance From Your Team Through Coaching and Mentoring

Are you witnessing outstanding performances by your employees? If not, are you providing some feedback to your employees as to their level of performance and your satisfaction with their performance? Are you doing any coaching or mentoring with your employees? Let's presume that many of you are not providing feedback, coaching and/or mentoring of any kind or are doing so at a level that is not producing positive results. You need to institute some form of an ongoing program to monitor, mentor and coach your staff on a regular basis if you want to have outstanding performance. The age-old argument that there is not enough time to mentor and coach and give feedback is dysfunctional and not acceptable. Here are 10 tips from your strategic thinking business coach to help you use coaching & mentoring to gain outstanding performance.

A New Perspective Of Organizational Culture
One cannot help wondering sometimes whether major problems in organizations are due to lack of effective communication at all levels. These problems can range between bad morale, declining performance, non-compliance with safety regulations, or destructive conflicts. The root cause may be the same for all these complicated problems: miscommunication.

Designing A Performance Management System
The design of a performance management system requires you to think about the features that would make performance management effective in your workplace. The goal is to design a performance management process that provides an accurate picture of each employee's accomplishments.

Being Accountable for Accountability.

Everywhere I go in my consulting practice, performance "accountability" is among the top two or three concerns of senior executives. Accountability has various definitions, but the word is usually used to denote personal responsibility for getting desired results. It's an admirable idea, and all good managers and leaders want their people to be "accountable." Of course accountability doesn't apply only to rank and file employees. Managers and leaders should be accountable for holding others accountable. After all, isn't getting good results with and through other people the very reason we have managers and leaders?

People Concern Developing a HR Competitive Advantage
Do we really walk the talk when we constantly emphasize the importance of human resources quality to the enhancement of organizational performance and the development of a competitive advantage based on People concern?

People and Risk

A risky business … Business is risky; the less static the more risk, thus the more successful the business the more risk in must embrace and benefit from. In this article, Lisette Howlett shares her thoughts and experiences in the area of risk and people. Without people you have less risk; but you also have no business. Risk is unavoidable but not insurmountable. Indeed taking your people risk seriously will improve your business; the successful management of risk has a positive impact on business success.

People and Risk

Whats Your Management Style
All in all there are 6 managerial styles. Now what I am not saying is that there are any right or wrong answers here.

Whats Your Management Style
All in all there are 6 managerial styles. Now what I am not saying is that there are any right or wrong answers here.

Your Greatest Asset
Most business owners overlook their greatest underutilized asset. Read this and radically improve our bottom line profits.

Age Discrimination Review
A generalised review of the new Age Discrimination Regulations and what they mean for employers.

Executive Career Coaching: Providing Solutions to Succession Planning Challenges
Are you prepared to replace departing leaders? Implementing a succession planning initiative will give you a pipeline of future leaders while Executive Career Coaching will offer them the support they need to be successful.

Are You a Leader, Manager or Both?

Much has been written about leadership – what it is, what it isn’t, how to be better at it, how to be the best at it. In today’s world, where the pace of change is so great, where the slightest mistakes make headline news, where only the best of the best truly survive, the role of the leader is important to understand. Strong leadership is critical for business success. The difference between a manager and a leader, although sometimes subtle, is extremely important. A successful organization requires both strong managers and effective leaders.

If You're Looking for Dedication Hire the Disabled
People with disabilities are almost three times more likely to live in poverty than people without disabilities. The disabled with jobs has remained steady at 35% for roughly twenty years. Employers complain about employees who don't care about their jobs, and yet there is a vast resource of workers who are ready, willing, anxious, determined and able just looking for an opportunity.

Workplace Leaders Don't Need Leadership Titles
I'm always surprised by managers that don't understand the relationship between leadership and the workforce. Managers and supervisors have titles, but leaders quite often don't.

Job Satisfaction: I Can't Quit; I'm A Star

Job satisfaction comes in many guises. Perhaps, some workers feel connected, some receive recognition for jobs well done, some believe in what their company is accomplishing in their community, in their industry, or in the world, perhaps they have a manager who has inspired passion in their performance. In Roger Miller’s Country-Western song, Kansas City Star, the story has a hero that believes his job has almost all of that. He is the host of a kid’s television show, where he has admiring viewers, he’s recognized for what he does, and he is sought after in the community.

Employment agency franchises
Searching for new employees can be an arduous, time-consuming task, and many businesses wish they didn't have to bother. There are CVs to trawl through, interviews to conduct and competence tests to carry out. That's why many companies turn to recruitment agencies to do the hard work for them.

Employment agency franchises
Searching for new employees can be an arduous, time-consuming task, and many businesses wish they didn't have to bother. There are CVs to trawl through, interviews to conduct and competence tests to carry out. That's why many companies turn to recruitment agencies to do the hard work for them.

Plain English Guide to Employee Handbooks

The company employee handbook is one of the most important communication tools between your company and your employees. Not only does it set forth your expectations for your employees, but it also describes what they can expect from the company. It is essential that your company has one and that it be as clear and unambiguous as possible. Make certain that it is written in an understandable language which makes the company's policies accessible.

Employees vs. Contractors - What's The Difference?
Whether a person is an independent contractor or an employee generally depends on the amount of control exercised by the employer over the work being done. Dictating how a job is to be done or limiting the actions of the worker may establish an employer-employee relationship.

Quiz For Small Business Success

We at Small Business Success Magazine conducted a survey of more than 100 California business owners. Their comments about small business success guided us in creating the following quiz. Choose the answer you think is best for each question. Use the sheet at the end to determine your total point score and then see where you stand in the Success Quotient Ratings. There are no "wrong" answers. Each answer listed represents a segment of the responses we had to questions in our survey--and the final rankings correspond with the importance successful owners gave to different answers.

Change Management - It Starts at the Top

Change is a common occurrence in business today; because of this, it is important that you possess strong change management skills if you want your business to be a success. Change management skills include leadership development (to get people to believe in you), marketing and sales abilities (to promote your case for change), and communication skills (to help build support for the decision to change). It will also help if you know a little about the stages people go through psychologically when they are dealing with change so that you are able to tell if you have managed a successful transition or if there are additional problems that you need to address.

Training Or Education
The biggest challenge is how to make the training become effective, results oriented education.

Training Or Education
The biggest challenge is how to make the training become effective, results oriented education.

How to Use the Right Questions to Define Your Goals
When it comes to inspiring your employees, ask yourself, "What motivates me?" When you're passionate about achieving your goals, your employees feel the same way. Here are questions to help you identify your own professional and personal goals while helping your employees achieve theirs.

Motivation Techniques: Eight Ways to Motivate Part Time Employees
In most cases, part-time employees present a special challenge when it comes to motivation. They do the “grunt” work, have little career choices, are often focused on other goals outside of your organization (college, hobbies, etc.), and are treated as outsiders by full-time employees. So what’s a manager to do? How do we turn our part-time employees into outstanding employees?

My Give a Damn’s Busted!
Is it possible that your employees are singing “My Give a Damn is Busted”? A common complaint of many business owners is that their employees lack motivation. However, the real problem is that employees are under-engaged, and there is plenty of research to support this.

Retention Of Your Best Employees
Good employees are hired through your most effective recruitment strategies and finding those employees takes time, effort and money. But once you have them, how do you hold on to them? Retention of the best employees is one of the largest challenges faced by many organizations today.

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