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Helping business owners grow their companies and transition with confidence, added value and complete control.
Category Archives: Managing Employees
Regulation: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
True story: A fortune 500 company implements a new wellness plan for employees. It’s designed by consultants who use the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) as a template. Workers are incentivized to get regular exercise, quit smoking and lose weight; with … Continue Reading
Posted in Business Perspectives, Entrepreneurship, John's Opinions, Managing Employees, Politics and Regulation, Strategy and Planning
Tagged business ownership, business planning, business strategy, employee performance, employees, entrepreneurship, health care costs, health care reform, hiring, management, politics, sales, small business, small business advice
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Five Steps to Defining an Employee’s Authority
When we delegate authority to an employee, we are actually delegating the power to make decisions. We all want employees who think for themselves, at least when their decisions work out in a way we like. When they don’t, we … Continue Reading
Do Titles Make Leaders?
You’ve promoted a great employee beyond his capabilities. He is putting in long hours, but appears unable to keep up with the new responsibilities. In fact, he doesn’t even seem to understand what those responsibilities are, or what they should … Continue Reading
Posted in Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Managing Employees, Strategy and Planning
Tagged business ownership, business planning, business strategy, employee performance, employees, entrepreneurship, financial, hiring, leadership, management, promotion, sales management, small business, small business advice
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Do Leaders Need Titles?
When should an employee be promoted? Over the years, I’ve often had this conversation both within my own companies and with owner-clients. An employee is handling responsibilities above his or her official job description. We naturally want to acknowledge the effort, … Continue Reading
We Can’t Legislate Job Skills
“Why can’t we find enough good people to hire?” As a consultant to business leaders, I hear this complaint with increasing frequency. From tradesmen to programmers, and from executives to scientists, we seem to be lacking a workforce with the … Continue Reading
Posted in Business Perspectives, Economic Trends, John's Opinions, Managing Employees, Politics and Regulation, Strategy and Planning
Tagged Baby Boomers, business ownership, business planning, business strategy, economy, employee performance, employees, leadership, management, politics, recession, small business, small business advice
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Why Do We Hate Salespeople?
A recent episode of “Downton Abbey” included a new servant tasked with passing out canapés at a dinner party. “Try one of these,” he quietly suggested to a guest. “I’m told they are quite good.” He was immediately pulled aside … Continue Reading
Posted in Customer Relations, Entrepreneurship, Incentives, Leadership, Managing Employees, Marketing and Sales, Sales
Tagged business ownership, employee performance, employees, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, leadership, management, sales, sales management, small business, small business advice, trade
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How to Get Employee Buy-In for Your Values
There are few things more important than determining your company’s core values. I define an ideal core values statement as something you can frame and put on the wall so that, in your absence, any employee who has a question … Continue Reading
Goals are More than Just Resolutions
Most of us (at least those who don’t own retail businesses) are in low-power mode at this time of year. Double midweek days off and decompression following the holiday rush allows us time to think. For many, that thinking naturally turns … Continue Reading
Holiday Terminations: It’s Not “Just Business.”
Yesterday, I received a comment from a woman on my column from 2012, “Holiday Terminations: Scrooge or Chicken?”. She had been unexpectedly terminated from her position, and said in part “Employee termination during the holidays is an act of spiritual … Continue Reading
The Secret to Growing a $1 million company by 5X
In my work with hundreds of small business owners, I’ve noticed that there are two “danger zones” where an owner may, consciously or unconsciously, prevent his or her company from growing any further. The first zone lies at about $1 … Continue Reading
When Employee Incentives Don’t Work
My definition of an incentive is variable compensation designed to encourage specific behavior. The challenge is to make sure that behavior is really something you want to encourage. A home building company bonuses purchasing managers based on their ability to reduce … Continue Reading
Wageflation and the Talent Wars
Why are so many employers complaining about the availability of talented workers and the cost of hiring them? Government statistics indicate that real, inflation-adjusted wages are now below 1986 levels. In 2012, the Federal Reserve tracked both an all time … Continue Reading
Posted in Customer Relations, Economic Trends, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Managing Employees, Strategy and Planning
Tagged Baby Boomers, business ownership, business planning, business strategy, economy, employee performance, employees, entrepreneurship, leadership, management, public relations, small business, small business advice
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