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“In your business decisions, risk only money . . . never people or relationships.”

Business is all about relationships, isn’t it?  We need strong relationships with: Employees.  We set policies and give direction, but it’s our employees who do the work and get stuff done.  We will get their best, most energetic, most creative efforts only if we’ve nurtured the right relationships with them. Vendors.  If we’ve taken the

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How does your leadership style make people feel?

Bruna Martinuzzi is a consultant who specializes in teaching leadership and presentation skills.  She is also the author of two books, and while I have not read either book, I have read an article she published recently with the rather long-winded title, “If your leadership aura could use some polishing, try these 7 tips for

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What is your employee disaster plan?

As we’ve said here before, there are two keys to developing an outstanding workforce.  First, you have to get the right people on the bus.  That is, you have to hire people who have the right attitudes, behaviors, and values to fit well within your organization.  As the bus driver, you can’t let just anybody

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“Profits Aren’t Everything. They’re the Only Thing.”

Legendary coach Vince Lombardi admonishes us, “Winning isn’t the most important thing.  It’s the only thing.”  Now George Cloutier, CEO of American Management Services, has taken a page from Lombardi’s playbook with his own book titled, “Profits Aren’t Everything, They’re the Only Thing.”   As hard-headed business  people, it’s pretty difficult for us to argue with

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“There is nothing permanent except change.”

We’ve talked here previously about change (see https://rocksolidbizdevelopment.com/ourblog/if-there-is-no-change-theres-no-need-to-manage/) . . . about the inevitability of it and about the need to adapt to it.  But since our previous talk about change, guess what’s happened!  Yep, everything has changed . . . our markets, our competitors, our banking relationships, our people, the technologies we use .

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“Whoever said, ‘If it ain’t broke . . . ‘ “

It’s easy to get a little lax about taking care of your car.  That is, you get in, it starts right up, and then you’re zipping down the road.  No worries, right?  But then, warning lights start appearing on the dashboard or the brakes start to squeak, and you realize you haven’t had it serviced

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“The occupational disease of a poor executive is an inability to listen.”

If I had to pick one business skill above all others, I’d picked listening.  Not hearing.  Listening.  Hearing is passive, listening is active.  Actually, listening isn’t just a business skill, it’s more of a life skill.  And it’s a critical skill because whatever problem you’re facing, the clues to its solution are all around you

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Thinking of starting a family business? Better think twice.

In a recent edition of the Daily Herald’s Business Ledger, the focus was on family businesses.  More specifically, the focus was on succession planning so that the business could remain in the family and continue to benefit family members for many generations.  One of the stories discussed Klein Tools, a business that has been in

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“Everyone has a number.”

While monthly financial statements are essential to effectively managing your business, they are historical documents.  They tell you what’s already happened when it’s too late to do anything about it.  So in addition to monthly financial statements, you also need measurements that are predictive in nature to serve as early warning signs that something may

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Are you a Visionary or an Integrator?

In his book, “Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business,” Gino Wickman envisions an organizational chart with the guy at the top as the “Visionary” and the guy immediately below him as the “Integrator.”  In Wickman’s model, the Visionary is the company’s creative sparkplug, the guy who sees opportunities and possibilities and is always pushing

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