Related Articles

How to Get the Best from Outsourcing
There's a great little article ('Business Lifeforms') on the back pages of the UK's leading management magazine, Management Today each month. It's a spoof (at least I think it is!) about some fictitious key player in a fictitious organisation.

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The Dark Side of Help Desk SLAs
You just signed a Help Desk Service Level Agreement (SLA) and now think things will get easier. However, you may soon be falling into one of these traps:1) COVERING THE TRUTH WITH METRICSIn some companies, those under the radar of SLA compliance may resort to doing the minimum instead of really solving the problem.

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Print Buying Consultant
Ten Money Saving Tips for Print ManagersDespite their stated desire to realize savings from streamlining the various components associated with the print buying process, it's been my experience over the years, that many print managers neglect to do some of the easy things that can add up to significant cost savings annually. We all know these things, but we don't always do them.

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5 Creative Evolutionary Leadership Niche Strategies!
I have a short story to share with you about an important skill many leaders need to develop, use and perfect.Life is a journey.

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Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Senior Management and Directional Change
This article relates to the Senior/Top Level management of an organization, and how a huge vision of directional change translates into the day-to-day operation of the company. AlphaMeasure defines senior management as the team of individuals at the highest level who have the day-to-day responsibilities of operating the organization.

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Smart Choices: How to Hire the Best
Your organization's continued growth and success depend on making smart choices and hiring the best. Today's economy is exploding with talent, allowing you to be selective about the staff you hire.

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What to Ask When You're Invited to a Meeting
1) Where is the agenda? A meeting without an agenda is like a journey without a map; it will always waste your time. Once you have the agenda, make sure that it consists of more than a list of words because this is almost useless.

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Keys to Feeling Powerfull In An Uncertain World
Life has always been full of uncertainties. Over the last several years with downsizing, bankruptcies, scandals, crime, the economic environment, and the threat of war, people are feeling power-less, fearful, and stressed about their present and future lives.

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Five Essential Hiring Practices
Recruiting and hiring are often done in haste, leaving the company to repent in the long run. Today, there's a reason to be concerned about negligent hiring.

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The Inferno of the Finance Director
Sometimes, I harbour a suspicion that Dante was a Financial Director. His famous work, "The Inferno", is such an accurate description of the job that it cannot be otherwise.

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Communicating Effectively In The Workplace: Four Vital Steps
Ineffective communication is a major, yet avoidable, obstacle to business productivity. And yes, itcan be avoided.

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Lack of Operations Manuals Stunting Your Growth?
Lack of Operations Manuals stunting your growth?CONTENTS:1. Do you lack functional Operations Manuals? 2.

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The 5 Obsessions of a Passionate Employee
A recent report entitled "How Google Grows?and Grows?and Grows" stated that the 650 people that work at Google are the most passionate bunch of geeks in the high tech industry. Google was also recently called the fastest growing company in history.

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Business Relationship Germs
In management seminars I often compare debt to an infection. A reasonable amount of debt will not kill a business, but too much debt will.

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Good Idea Generation - A Process
It seems incongruous that good idea generation can be a process or that a process may lead to insight. However, if you examine the behaviour of people who regularly generate good ideas - such as creatives in advertising - you will find that common patterns of behaviour do emerge and it is possible to make insight more likely.

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Entitlement Programs Kill Productivity
In articles I've written over the years, I have used "laissez-faire," a term more frequently used to characterize governments than businesses, to describe a rather laid-back management style. When I use this term, I am referring to management personnel who put very little pressure on employees to achieve their full potential by pushing them toward peak performance levels.

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Making Your Workers Your Partners
There is an inherent conflict between owners and managers of companies. The former want, for instance, to minimize costs - the latter to draw huge salaries as long as they are in power (who knows what will transpire tomorrow).

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Create Your Dashboard for Success
Driving down the road our eyes frequently scan the vital instruments on the dashboard that monitor speed, fuel level, coolant temperature, and oil pressure. The modern vehicle also has many more devices that constantly monitor various systems for fuel mixture, exhaust gasses, timing adjustment and others.

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Reprimanding Marginal Employees
THE MARGINAL PERFORMER: Every manager must, from time to time, deal with a marginal performer - an employee whose work, for the most part, is satisfactory, but who regularly fails in some specific area or areas to maintain a satisfactory level of performance. The work of the marginal performer can be classified as substandard in some cases but not so poor as to warrant immediate termination.

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Problem Solving - Think Cleopatras Ass
Picture the scene. Anthony pops down to the guardhouse, partly because he wants a break with the lads, but also because he has a problem.

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