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
intelligence,” […] Continue Reading…
“Empathy is about standing in someone else’s shoes, feeling with his or her heart, seeing with his or her eyes.”
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 […] Continue Reading…
“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 […] Continue Reading…
“Employee Engagement may have been optional in the past, but it’s pretty much the whole game today.”
Fully 70% of American workers are not “engaged” with their company’s mission, vision, values, and purpose. They will give their company sufficient effort to stay out of trouble and to continue collecting a paycheck, but that’s about it . . . they’re not going to give their company much, […] Continue Reading…
“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
In 1998, Dr. Spencer Johnson published “Who Moved My Cheese,” a business fable that would remain on the New York Times best seller list for almost five years. Its message is as relevant today as it was when it was published over 20 years ago, and it remains a […] Continue Reading…
“Create a company that’s a great place to be from.” (Part II)
We are experiencing an embarrassment of riches in this country . . . sort of. The rate of unemployment in 2018 was just 3.9%. To find a lower rate than that, you’d have to go all the way back to 1969 when it was 3.5%. Good for employees, but […] Continue Reading…
“Create a company that’s a great place to be from.”
Small companies face a unique problem as they try to minimize turnover and hold onto their best and brightest employees. Namely, they don’t have enough places to put them. In practice, it looks like this. A small company hires a young, ambitious person to do a certain job or […] Continue Reading…
Motivation is all about passion. Discover what people are passionate about and you’ll understand what motivates them.
As business people, we invest a lot of time thinking about motivation. How do we get our employees to work more efficiently, effectively, and productively? Since the dawn of commerce, the favorite solution to a motivation problem has been to throw money at it. The most obvious examples of […] Continue Reading…
“We respond to the environments we’re in. If you get the environment right, you get the right behavior.”
Keynote speaker and bestselling author, Simon Sinek, tells a story about an experience he had at the Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas. Sinek had stopped at the lobby coffee bar for a cup of coffee, and there he met a barista who was charming, engaging, funny, and just […] Continue Reading…
Leadership is a privilege to better the lives of others.
Strong leadership is crucial to any organization. Whether we’re talking about a commercial enterprise, a civic group, a church congregation, or a military unit, strong leadership is key to its success. But leadership is not a one-size-fits-all proposition . . . there are lots of commonly recognized leadership styles, […] Continue Reading…
