There are scholars who study group dynamics . . . that is, they study the way people behave and interact with one another in a group setting. These scholars sometimes talk about a thing called “the Messiah Complex.” This is a phenomenon that takes place when a group must confront a problem that is so
“Your company’s culture is defined by what it tolerates.”
Every organization has a culture. The only question is, has the organization’s culture evolved on its own without any real thought or guidance from the organization’s management? Or has it been carefully crafted and nurtured as a guide for how the organization intends to conduct itself? Most organizations will claim to have a strong corporate
7 Leadership Practices That Will Reduce Employee Turnover to a Minimum.
In our previous posting, we talked about the key role you and your management team play in retaining the best and brightest of your employees. We noted that the main reason, by far and away, that people leave their jobs is because they can’t stand working for whoever their boss is. That “boss” could be
Employee turnover is not a human resources issue. It’s a management/leadership issue.
The beginning of a new year is a time for reflection. It’s a time to consider what’s working and what’s not . . . what needs to stay the same, what needs to change. If there is one thing we did last year that we could do over again, what would that one thing be?
“You manage things. You lead people.” ~ Peter Drucker
Hamza Kahn is an award-winning marketer, successful entrepreneur, and keynote speaker. We watched a TED talk of his wherein he talked about Theory X vs. Theory Y. To be honest, we weren’t familiar with either one of these theories. But Theory X, he explained, holds that employees are lazy, can’t be trusted, and dislike work.
“I’ve never seen a business fail that delights its customers.”
Obviously, a marketing plan must be in alignment with the customers it hopes to attract. But because marketing is equal parts skill and artform, achieving that alignment can be deceptively difficult. What do our customers really want? What are they really willing to pay for it? How do they really want us to communicate with
It’s lonely at the top, isn’t it?
You may be (or you are) the smartest guy in the room, but are you smarter than you plus everyone else in the room? Collectively, your employees have more experience than you do, and because they’re immersed in the nitty-gritty details of daily operations, they know things about the business that you don’t. They know
“Empathy is about standing in someone else’s shoes, feeling with his or her heart, seeing with his or her eyes.”
According to Wikipedia, “emotional intelligence (EI), is the capability of individuals to recognize their own emotions and those of others, discern between different feelings and label them appropriately, use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, and manage and/or adjust emotions to adapt to environments or achieve one’s goal(s).” Science journalist David Colemen, who popularized the term “emotional
Unpatriotic? Go back where you came from? Huh?
This is supposed to be a blog for small business owners and operators, right? So normally, we steer clear of political topics, but we believe some current political events have parallels in the business world. Be patient, stay tuned, and we’ll eventually get to the business point of this. Unless you’ve been in a coma
“Much of what we call management today consists of making it difficult for people to work.”
Gary Hamel is a management expert and author who talks extensively about the need to update our management systems. He points out that most of the management systems in place today were “invented” over a hundred years ago at the dawn of the industrial revolution when 90% of the population was still involved in agriculture
