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Helping business owners grow their companies and transition with confidence, added value and complete control.
Category Archives: Managing Employees
Mission, Vision and Values: Weighing in on the Definition War
The other day during a continuing education class, the old argument came up again. “These are the kind of things that belong in a company’s Vision Statement,” the instructor said. “I thought they were Mission Statement kind of things,” replied … Continue Reading
A Goal isn’t a Finish Line
I was going over some productivity numbers with a long term client. “Remember when our goal for this was 2000 man hours?” he said. “Now we are below 1200, and closing in on 1100, and with greater volume!” Everywhere we … Continue Reading
No! No! Bad employee! No!
A very successful plaintiff’s attorney once told me that there were two keys to getting a settlement in a class action product liability suit. The first was to find the smoking gun. Somewhere, an employee had told someone not to … Continue Reading
Posted in Leadership, Managing Employees
Tagged business ownership, employees, management, small business, small business advice
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Accountability vs. Guilt
While discussing oil rig disaster in the Golf Of Mexico the other day a friend exclaimed “Someone needs to go to jail for this!” While I understand his anger about the massive economic and environmental damage involved, his comment illustrates … Continue Reading
Penny wise
A client who provides Information Technology services to small and midi-sized clients was expressing frustration the other day. His company has a relationship with a business to support their employees’ technology needs. They were constantly delayed, however, by the network … Continue Reading
Another small business owner defrauded
I’ll be in Denver, sharpening my saw all weekend at the semi-annual conference of The Alternative Board®, so I’m posting early this week. I had an evening call from a client last night. He recently discovered fraud in a small … Continue Reading
Stoplight 360
I recently saw a fast and easy way to rate your employees that makes the high performers and low performers stand out in a way that can’t be ignored. It uses Stop light Methodology: a red-yellow-green marking system. The advantage … Continue Reading
Sales Comp III: Hunters and Farmers
Sales people break down into two subgroups- hunters and farmers. The purists will argue that in fact, only hunters are sales people. I can buy that. The farmers are more likely to be called Customer Service Representatives or Account Managers. … Continue Reading
Posted in Incentives, Managing Employees, Sales
Tagged business ownership, sales, sales management, small business advice
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The Ghost of Ebenezer
Last week three of my clients implemented staff reductions. All three are financially healthy service companies, but they had far more capacity than they had work to fill it. In a service company, of course, capacity means people. Naturally there … Continue Reading
Gifts are not incentives, and incentives shouldn’t be gifts
I knew a couple who owned a company with about 20 employees who had what may be the worst incentive distribution plan I’ve ever seen. The company gave out large holiday bonuses every year at the company party, which was … Continue Reading
A 35K guy is a 35K guy…
I had breakfast with a client this morning. He was planning a new training initiative for his sales team. “How much do the make now?” I asked. “About $30,000 to $35,000 a year.” he replied. “What are you trying to … Continue Reading
Posted in Leadership, Managing Employees, Sales
Tagged business ownership, employees, management, sales, sales management, small business, small business advice
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Attrition Opportunities
A client of mine used a great term in a conversation last week. Someone asked him if he had instituted any reductions in force (layoff, for those on the receiving end) in his company. “No,” he replied “but we’ve had … Continue Reading