The open office design movement was intended to increase and improve collaboration. Evidence suggests that it has had the opposite effect. People are increasingly hiding behind their noise-cancelling headphones to concentrate. When we hear, “I go in early so I can get some work done before everyone shows up,” we know something’s gone awry with… Read more »
Business Management Blog
I’m Sorry! The Do’s and Don’ts of a Good Apology
You’ve probably apologized many times in your life. When we apologize (and when we actually mean it), it’s important to be direct and own up to our mistakes. However, it’s hard to do this properly because our instinct is to protect our ego. We want to maintain our self-image so much that, when we say… Read more »
5 Tips to Overcome the Mid-Career Crisis
If you are experiencing the mid-career crisis, you are not alone. In 2004, Blanchflower and Oswald (and the Gallup organization in 2008) studied psychological well-being as it relates to age. What they found is a u-curve, with well-being bottoming out around age 50 and then increasing to its peak when people reach their 80’s. A… Read more »
The Problem With “Constructive” Feedback
The traditional annual performance evaluation system has recently come under attack, particularly because of its ineffectiveness in helping develop great performance. A once-a-year snapshot forced down the throats of managers that doesn’t develop excellence? Shocking! 🙄 The research suggests that more frequent feedback provides better results. But what separates the inspired manager from the mediocre… Read more »
Are Emojis Okay for Business Email?
Have you ever experienced the scenario where a team member is lamenting their colleague’s lack of responsiveness? The email chain has gone back and forth ten times with clarifying questions and still there is no resolution. In your mind, the situation is ridiculous. The people writing the emails are sitting three cubicles away from each… Read more »
The Employee Development Path
Directing to Delegating A planned approach to employee development is the most effective way to get things off your plate and onto your team’s. Yet some managers only think of delegating when their work is spilling off their plate and they see no other option but to hand it off. While a more measured approach… Read more »
Bookkeeper, Controller, or CFO?
What Position Do You Need? When starting a business, the leader or a family member often “handles the books” given the sensitive nature of the information and the minimal time required for this task when a company has few transactions to process. While the leader sees this work as mostly administrative, the value of the… Read more »
How to Craft Outstanding Interview Questions
One of the first steps in crafting good interview questions is knowing what you are looking for in a candidate and, of course, this is different for every company and every position. To illustrate how to craft great questions, we’ll assume one of the strengths we want to assess is the candidate’s problem-solving ability. Use… Read more »
The Onboarding Process
The goal of an employee onboarding process is to improve company productivity by quickly increasing a new employee’s effectiveness. The process begins the day the offer of employment is accepted and lasts until the end of the 90-day probationary period. Once the offer has been accepted, it becomes the manager’s job to ensure that the… Read more »
A Different Take on Employee Engagement
Gallup defines engaged employees as those who are involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their workplace. To find a way to measure this, Gallup studied tens of millions of people and determined that just 12 questions (the Gallup Q12) can provide effective metrics on employee engagement. Yes, engagement can be quantified and yes, you… Read more »