Being a Great Boss
Are you one of those bosses that people just love to hate? Maybe successful, maybe very intelligent, maybe organized and moving forward but just can't get along with people. Communication and other people skills are as important to the success of your business as your talent, knowledge and entrepreneurial drive. After all, you cannot do it all by yourself and you need good people.
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Business is About Making Money
Ask most people why they are in business and they will give you any number of reasons. Things such as wanting to improve the lives of others; make the world a better place; provide for their family; have more free time; the list goes on and on.
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Biometrics and "Return On Investment"
At this time of tight budgets, the mantra of business is "Return On Investment!" With few exceptions, expenditures are measured against the bottom line. Outlays for capital expenses are strictly evaluated in terms of profitability and the total cost of ownership. The era of purchasing new gadgets due to their "whiz-bang" factor is long gone. How can biometrics provide the sought after
"R.O.I." in this environment?
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Are You in AWE of Your Employees?
Employers have become so concerned about seeming "unfair" or worse becoming the victims of lawsuits by unhappy ex-employees that they've stopped requiring minimum standards of employees. This can only lead to poor individual and eventually poor company performance. Your best employee performers will resent the fact that you use company money to pay people who aren't up to standard and will
reduce their own level of performance or leave.
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How Your Business Can Pick A Software Developer
Eventually, your business is going to need to have some software development. Your business is unique - you can't rely on a huge, faceless corporation to handle your unique needs with a shrinkwrapped, mass produced, production-line solution. You need custom software, and to get it, you'll need to pick an outside software developer. A hired gun.
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Bolster Credibility with Investors--Avoid These Phrases in Your Business Plan
Remember Papa John's commercial on TV with the slogan "Better Ingredients, Better Pizza"? Well its nothing more than puffery: general, non-provable, inane claims. The problem is puffery is not only acceptable it's often expected. Phrases like "the biggest," "the best," "the cheapest," and so forth are so over used most people simply ignore them.
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Budgets!
Budgets! There I've said it. For some the most hated and feared word in business. But it doesn't have to be that way. As a matter of fact, a well thought out and constructed budget can be the small business owners best friend. After all, a budget is just a laid out plan to produce profits and profits is what we are all after.
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5 Awesome Actions of Highly Creative Leaders!
How many times have you wondered why you are unable to"think-out-of-the-box" more often?
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Allan Kempert Discovers That Truly All You Gotta Do Is Ask
A year or so ago, I met Allan Kempert. Allan was the Quality Assurance Supervisor for a metal stamping company in Ontario, and just completed Norman Bodek's book, The Idea Generator, Quick and Easy Kaizen. As Allan explains, he couldn't put the book down because it was such a simple approach and he knew that it was going to empower the employees at his place of employment. In fact, Allan
had tears in his eyes a few times while reading the book because he realized that he had come across a jewel. He spoke to the people in his department and explained how the program worked. He convinced them that it would be beneficial to the company to start a pilot program within their department.
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The 20/60/20 Rule Of Leadership. Dont Go Solving The Wrong Problems
Several decades ago, a passenger jet approached a Florida airport with the pilot and co-pilot struggling to fix what they thought was a malfunctioning landing gear. The landing-gear light was on, signaling that the gear was deployed; but both men did not hear it actually deploy.
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Better Management Performance - The Easy 3-Step Way
Managers make three mistakes when they try to run businesses. They do too much, they don't trust their people and they don't have enough skills. Here we explore an easy 3-step process to get your business back on track and get a life.
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Boost Your Leadership Skills By Disciplining Yourself In The Way Of The Question Mark
I'm often asked to come in to organizations and give a motivational speech to their employees. I reply that I'm not a motivational speaker. Never have been. Never will be. Don't want to be. I do something else. I teach their people how to become motivational leaders. That's a far more productive endeavor.
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Are You the Culprit?
Are you a business, non-profit or association manager who pretty much ignores your organization's important outside audiences?
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Five Tips for Analyzing an Income Statement
In today's article, we'll be looking at the income statement, which is the most deceptively simple of the major financial statements. I say simple because it's just a list of all the revenue, minus all the expenses, to calculate what's left over in profit. It's no more difficult than putting your family budget together, right?
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Budgets that Damage - The Downsides of Making the Numbers
In my organisational career, I had budgets from the age of 22 to 47. I lived and breathed them and many times, budgets, the gospel that they were, caused havoc, albeit within the corporate retailer framework that I worked.Here are two examples of the damage caused.
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How Bad Communication Can Hold You Back and How to Break Free of It
The reason jobs are often not done right and employees are fired is because of lack of skill. Right? Wrong! Poor communication and ineffective human relations are the major causes. Remember: Communication is a "meeting of meanings." It's getting through to the other person what you mean in a way that they understand. In fact, you want them to do more than understand, you want them to act on
the information in the correct way. Effective communication is talking and listening to create that understanding. The end result is to get things done in a way so that you, the organization, and the employee will all be satisfied.
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The Art of Motivation and Need Fulfillment
Industrial/clinical psychology and applied psychiatry have made tremendous strides in understanding human behavior. New discoveries and applications toward understanding human behavior are being announced with increasing frequency in these inexact sciences. Still, it is possible to become reasonably proficient in the art of motivating others. While this skill is indeed complex, the average
supervisor, through a comprehensive understanding of motivational elements (the dynamics of motivation, motivators, and motivational techniques), can become an effective leader of others in the workplace. With patience and applied practice, this skill can be obtained within a relatively short time span.
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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. 'Tell me in English why you think we need this technology in our company?' That question goes through every company owner's mind and mouth. Getting
the answer that makes sense to them is another story. How can the people in charge of your company understand what the value is of specific technology if their computer support people cannot articulate why it is so important?
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Your Blueprint For Business Success
Before you start your own business one of the first things you need to do is draw up your business plan. This is your blueprint for success. Your business plan states the purpose of your business. It never ceases to amaze me that so few businesses have any type of written business plan. Because without one, you have very little, if any, chance of success.
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4 Tips on How to Avoid Communication Lines Breakdown
For example, in a small, two-person company, there is often the greatest opportunity for direct conversation and discussion throughout the day. There are only two possibilities for verbal communication and it's usually quick, easy and descriptive.
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Bringing Ideas to Life: Seven Principles for Pulling Together
You're so excited you're practically bouncing off the walls. This idea-your best ever-is not only going to save the company tens of thousands of dollars this year, it's eventually going to be a moneymaker. However, following your presentation, your three colleagues sit staring at you like 'hear no evil,' 'see no evil' and 'speak no evil.' You stare back at them in idiotic wonder: Why don't
they want what you want-especially when it's so clearly the best thing for the company?
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Assessing Managers for International Competence
How do you select staff for international assignments? It's an important question because, no matter how effective and successful your employees may be at home, they cannot be guaranteed the same performance in a different culture-unless, that is, they can demonstrate some key competencies. But beware, these may be quite different from the competencies they need to succeed in their own
environment.
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Is A Bad Attitude Permanent
Today there is great weight put on a person's attitude.It is as if this is something for which they are individually responsible and should be held to account for.
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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. Sitting off to your left, Miss Wright asks the question on the minds of all her fellow sales colleagues, "Why did you bring your family to our meeting today? Will they be playing
any sort of role in our discussion?" You simply respond, "No, they're just here so I can tend to their needs."
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I Cant Use This Approach Unless My Boss Does - Power, Accountability, and Consequences
People who work with us often struggle with this dilemma: in theory, they come to believe that it would be very helpful to use our approach with people who have more power than they do, and in practice, sometimes it seems too risky to try. Some examples of things that feel too risky include raising questions with your boss about his or her performance, disagreeing publicly with people who
have more power , or otherwise sharing information that might lead you or the person in power to feel put on the sp ot.
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Are You in Control of Your Practice or Does it Control You?
One of the most common complaints that business owners have today is that they feel their practice is running them and that they're being pulled in every direction instead of really running the business themselves.
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Attract and Retain Positively Great Employees - An Action Plan for Employee Training
Everyday a business owner, CEO, or manager somewhere is complaining about the lack of good employees. On the same day, in a break room, employees are complaining about the lack of good jobs. Thinking that they can alleviate the problem with finding good employees, many employers have opted for lengthy applications and endless interviewing. In the process, the employee-to-be becomes
frustrated before even starting the first day of work. The employer has spent a bit of money and the orientation process hasn't begun yet. It becomes a vicious cycle that you or your company may be experiencing. Here are four suggestions from other managers that might help.
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