Related Articles

Tales From the Corporate Frontlines:The Importance of a Competitive Wage and Benefit Package
This article relates to the Compensation and Benefits competency, commonly evaluated in employee satisfaction surveys. It tells the story of a company that needed to attract new employees and discovered how a competitive wage and benefits package was integral to this process.

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Managing People - Why Is It So Difficult?
Managing, supervising, being a team leader is the hardest job in the world and I'll tell you why. Imagine what it's like to drive a car.

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10 Ways To Work Through A Business Slowdown
In running any kind of business, it's inevitable that sometimes business will slow down. This might occur due to an upcoming holiday, seasonal variations, or uncontrollable circumstances.

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10 Steps When You Need Help in Your Business
If you think ahead and plan, many nightmare panic and chaos situations can be overcome. By ensuring that you have a great group of people around you, there will be more to fall back on when the going gets tough - because that, as they say, when the tough really do get going.

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One Crazy Cookie
In order to survive, you have to be happier than if you were in your right mind.Chinese Fortune CookieWhen orienting someone new to the company, the last thing I tell them is to, "have fun.

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Effective Meetings - Quick Survey
Here's an easy quiz to check the health of your meetings.1) Who leads your meetings? a) No one, b) Everyone, c) A facilitator2) What happens to the ideas in your meetings? a) If we had to think of ideas, it would be work, b) We make fun of them, c) A scribe writes them on a chart pad3) Are results obtained in your meetings? a) We eat all the donuts, b) And we drink all of the coffee, c) Yes!4) Do your meetings have an agenda? a) Is that some kind of cabinet?, b) I saw one once in an article, c) Yes!5) Who attends your meetings? a) We have bleachers to hold the spectators, b) The entire staff plus any homeless people in the neighborhood, c) Only those who can contribute6) How long are your meetings? a) I'll let you know when this one ends, b) All day, c) An hour or less7) During a meeting do you: a) Break a foam cup into bits, b) Prepare for the next meeting, c) Focus on the topic8) How soon after the meeting do you issue minutes? a) If you think I want to publicize how much time we wasted, you're nuts, b) Within a few months or so, c) As soon as possible, if not faster9) While someone is speaking, do you: a) Wonder about the strength of plastic foams, b) Plan a way to change the subject, c) Listen empathetically10) What structured activities do you use in your meetings? a) We sit on chairs, b) Everyone leaves at the same time, c) Process tools designed to gather information, make decisions, and manage participation.

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Technology & Communication
A study a couple of years ago found that 63% of executives were making fewer business trips because of technology.Instead of a plane trip, face-to-face meetings and a plane trip back, they used email, videoconferencing, or online meetings, according to the Accountemps study.

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Train Me -- But Follow Through
My mechanic has me trained. When I take my car in for an oil change, he places a sticker in the upper left hand corner of my windshield to remind me what date and mileage I should have my next maintenance completed.

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Great Groups! - Getting a Group to Think Like a Genius
Great Groups! - Getting a Group to Think Like a GeniusWouldn't it be great to have an Edison or Einstein, or Mozart at your next meeting?  If you had a genius at your meeting, do you think you might come up with better results?  Let me be the first to tell you that those people won't be at your next meeting.  But there are some things you can do as a facilitator - some techniques and tactics that you can use with the group that will help them work better.

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The Golden Key to Meeting Success
We all attend many meetings. I'm sure you have been to some great meetings and some poor ones.

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Balance Your Managerial Life
We have only one life, but we live in three overlapping worlds-our business world, our family world, and our other social world. Imagine bringing your spouse and kids to a meeting with seven of your salespersonnel.

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Understanding How Change Has Changed
There seems to be an assumption that change is a single traumatic event that is thrust upon us and over which we have no control.In the recent past this was definitely true, in industry there would come a sudden realisation at the end of the financial year that unless we did something radical we were going to the wall.

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Narcissism in the Boardroom
The perpetrators of the recent spate of financial frauds in the USA acted with callous disregard for both their employees and shareholders - not to mention other stakeholders. Psychologists have often remote-diagnosed them as "malignant, pathological narcissists".

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How to Create Trust
People buy from you, offer help, and grant rewards based on trust. Here are ways to increase your success by creating trust.

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Bar Charts Brought to Life: Index of Interactive Information for HTML and PDF
Bar Charts and the Information ChallengeWhether one is an unknown entrepreneur or Donald Trump, an elementary school teacher or a university president, a 6th grader researching other countries or a government leader visiting them, each person in any capacity has at least one thing in common: information.Let me explain why I use bar charts as an example.

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Sending Documents Through Email? Dont Get Burned by Metadata!
During a recent seminar I gave located in the suburbs of Philadelphia, I discussed something called, "metadata". When I asked whether anyone ever heard of metadata, I was confronted with blank stares.

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5 Surefire Ways to Bring Your Business Objectives Full Circle with Technology
All small to mid-sized company owners want to know where their dollar is being spent when it comes to computer technology in their organization. The challenge is for them to get the information they need to make the right purchasing decisions.

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The Red Phone - Management Consulting in 30 Seconds or Less
Modern business faces complex problems; management often calls upon highly-specialized consultants to help them address these difficult problems. If you're ever called to help identify these most pressing issues, one of the easiest and quickest ways to start is to talk about the "Red Phone".

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Give Yourself a Boss' Day Gift
Become a better boss and reap the benefitsAnother interesting study was done. One that should really catch our attention.

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Managing Creativity - An Oxymoron! Not
Interrogated on a beach in Barbados by friends insistent that there was little validity to my speciality, I have felt compelled to answer the most common objections in the field of Managing Creativity and Innovation.a) Managing Creativity and Innovation is an oxymoron!When ideas are required, leaders tend to herd people into a room with a flip chart and conduct (usually an ineffective) brainstorming session.

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