You can come up with an innovative marketing campaign, hire a celebrity spokesperson, or build the best product, but there’s truly nothing like word of mouth. Your existing customers will always outsell you 10 to one. After all, people will trust a recommendation from a next-door neighbor more than any promotional information you have to offer. […] Read more… Read More»
Technology and the internet have made telecommuting a convenient choice for today’s businesses and workers. The incentives are clear: for employers, lowered office expense; for employees, flexible work location. Businesses that utilize virtual teams know personal connections are important for team engagement and productivity. Several tactics can help virtual groups create the needed human connection…. Read More»
To many executives, involving rank-and-file workers in business strategy is a strange concept. Isn’t business strategy better left to those trained in it? Can’t the VP of operations provide all the insights a regular employee could — and then some? The reality, however, is that strategic planners tend to be a homogenous bunch, and organizational creativity thrives on diversity. Three-quarters of a strategy team might be ex-consultant MBAs or members of the executive suite. Sure, their ideas might look great in 2×2 or 9-box matrices, but they’re all several degrees of separation from the factory floor. Innovation happens when those executive-level ideas collide with equally valuable ones from everyday workers…. Read More»
Nothing ruins a productive workday like rushing around at the last minute. You’ve worked hard all day long, done a lot, and almost reached your daily goals. Then you glance at the clock and realize only 10 minutes remain. A panic sets in and you begin to rush through tasks. You find yourself attempting to finish your to do list without staying late. As a result, mistakes are made and details forgotten. You sacrifice your best work to the constraints of time…. Read More»
“Return on investment.” When a business has made an (often significant) investment in an employee training and development program, they want to see tangible results. But what type of results should we measure? Employee training and development is a ‘people’ investment just as much as it’s a ‘cash’ investment. The returns from an organization’s investment in their people can help improve talent recruitment, increase employee retention and engagement, and perhaps most importantly, contribute to a positive work environment…. Read More»
When it comes to hiring new employees, a bad hire can cost you up to five times the employee’s annual salary. Poor hiring choices set Zappos back $100 million, which is why the company began offering people money to quit. When Amazon bought Zappos, it adopted the “Pay to Quit” policy. Zappos and Amazon want to weed out the employees who are just there for the money—employees who don’t share the company values. Interpersonal skills, values, and cultural fit often are the best predictors of how long an employee will stick around. To find long-term, quality employees, let your company values lead the way…. Read More»
Business leaders are feeling the effects of the competitive job market. A drop in retention now could mean loss of business and heightened costs from extra hiring initiatives. This means the ability to engage employees is more important to your bottom line than ever before. Battling employee engagement pitfalls within your organization is a major challenge, but you have the power to make an impact…. Read More»
Some people are so disrespectful in their message delivery or unaware of how their actions negatively impact others that it is easy to get distracted by their bad behavior. Focus on the content of their message and try to understand what is important to them. You can do this by asking considerate and thoughtful questions which demonstrate respect for what they have to say. It will also help you to understand their perspective, and not be derailed by their antics. … Read More»
One of the perks as a resource speaker for training is the chance to meet people from different walks of life. I once had a discussion with a parenting coach about our children who where both starting at primary school at that time. I expressed my concern that my child was too timid to excel in school. Surprisingly, the parenting coach blamed me for not pushing my child to be more outspoken. Then I realized parenting is almost like managing a team. Since then, I started using the parenting analogy in my leadership training, teaching leaders to inspire employees…. Read More»
→