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Customer Service Starts with “Hello.”
When asked what differentiates their businesses from giant competitors, most owners will describe their relationship with customers. “We give better service.” “Our employees know our customers by...
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What is Mentoring?
In a recent meeting of one of our groups in The Alternative Board®, the business owners discussed mentoring. One member, a partner in a large professional firm, has been tasked with mentoring a...
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After the Goal
Why do employees have to “rest” after accomplishing a goal? When most human accomplishment required manual labor, taking time to recuperate after a final push, whether it was harvesting a crop or...
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“We’ll Just Agree to Disagree”
A CEO was having a discussion with one of his top executives a few weeks ago. He felt strongly that the executive needed to take a certain course of action as soon as possible. The Vice President...
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Lots of Jobs – Where are the Workers?
The South Texas region has an unemployment rate of somewhere between 5.2% and 5.8%, depending on exactly where you are located. Employment in certain highly desirable professional technology...
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Employment as Video Game
In a recent survey of 20-something employees, the majority said that they expected a promotion in the workplace at least every two years. Most surprising to business owners, however, was that they did...
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Should a Small Business Have a Budget?
“I know that my company is doing OK,” the old joke goes. “I still have checks in my checkbook.” Many small businesses run on a version of checkbook accounting, where anything that isn’t paid out at...
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Ownership and Accountability
The managing partner of a professional firm is preparing for partner review meetings, where goals are set for each partner for the upcoming year. Each year, he surveys the partners prior to starting...
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Customer Service Starts with “Hello.”
When asked what differentiates their businesses from giant competitors, most owners will describe their relationship with customers. “We give better service.” “Our employees know our customers by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What is Mentoring?
In a recent meeting of one of our groups in The Alternative Board®, the business owners discussed mentoring. One member, a partner in a large professional firm, has been tasked with mentoring a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Employee Retention: From Thirty Years to Two
The United States has never been known for permanent employment. The flexibility of our job market, the ability of employers to hire the employees need and fire those they don’t, has always been...
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Employee “Rights” in the Workplace
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the “Due Process” amendment, is one of the most-litigated sections of that document. It is also the only one that specifically abrogates...
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Empowerment Requires Encouragement
We all want employees who are empowered to think. That doesn’t always turn out the way we hoped. Last week the news feeds carried a story about a Girl Scout in San Francisco who set up her cookie...
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The Disconnect Between Skills and Jobs
A Gallup/Lumina Foundation Poll released a few weeks ago is getting attention in the business community. In a survey of 623 business leaders, most said that higher education was important, but where...
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You Only have Two Hands…or not.
To paraphrase an old New Yorker cartoon "I love being self employed. You can set your own hours, as long as you don't mind working 24 each day." Many owners find themselves "too busy" running a...
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You Make Two Types of Decisions
The principle function of leadership is making decisions. Whether you own a business or direct the work of others, your employees come to you with issues they can't solve themselves. There are two...
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“We’ll Just Agree to Disagree”
A CEO was having a discussion with one of his top executives a few weeks ago. He felt strongly that the executive needed to take a certain course of action as soon as possible. The Vice President...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lots of Jobs – Where are the Workers?
The South Texas region has an unemployment rate of somewhere between 5.2% and 5.8%, depending on exactly where you are located.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Business Owners are Glubricants
Utility Infielder, Jack-of-All-Trades, Mr. Fixit, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer, Know-It-All, Do-It-All, Swiss Army Knife, Center of the Universe. There are many ways to describe the myriad business...
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Tell Me What I Want to Hear
Those of us who are Hunters tend to be in a hurry. Hunters are linear; we move from objective to objective in as close to a straight line (allowing for our ADD "squirrels") as we can. The completion...
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