What are the costs of poor management? Plantation managers––now as in the days of the Old South––view people as disposable objects. To the plantation manager, there is nothing wrong with stealing talented people from well-managed companies rather than investing, nurturing, and training the company’s own employees. According to an article in Manage, it is not… [Read More]
Company Politics Hurt More Than You’d Expect
How much time and effort is wasted due to company politics? How much time is frittered away grandstanding during meetings? How many e-mails do people write to cover their behinds? How much time is wasted trying to look busy? How much time is spent justifying yesterday’s actions rather than making today’s decisions? How much time… [Read More]
Reputation: You Can’t Run from Your Shadow
In a world where time is a precious resource, we often draw conclusions without examining all the information that’s available to us. We rely on shortcuts, such as someone’s reputation, to simplify the process. Did the job applicant have a good reference? What did my neighbor say about the contractor? How was the restaurant review?… [Read More]
Creating a Culture That Promotes Customer Satisfaction
If organizations want customer satisfaction, employees must learn the value of long-term customer relationships and understand the consequences of not properly servicing customers. They must abandon the view that customers represent immediate sales transactions and a quick buck. Instead, they must view customers as long-term relationships, keeping in mind the potential business that these relationships… [Read More]
Trust Me . . . Trust Me Not
Trust is the fabric that binds us together, creating an orderly, civilized society from chaos and anarchy. If we can’t trust our husband or our wife, if we can’t trust our children, if we can’t trust our boss or our colleagues, if we can’t trust our preacher or our senator, then we have nothing on… [Read More]
Leadership: Promoting Beliefs and Values
Because beliefs and values form the heart of an organization’s culture, great leaders never miss an opportunity to reinforce them. They know that once internalized, these beliefs and values affect the norms that influence day-to-day actions, determine what’s important, reinforce appropriate behavior, and change attitudes. How are you promoting beliefs and values in your organization?… [Read More]
Leadership: Creating a Vision
Leaders must create a shared vision that shapes the way employees feel about their organization. They must accept responsibility for making “the company,” “our company”–– a place where people work together instead of “doing their own thing.” The vision may be precise or vague; it may highlight a specific goal or a dream of a… [Read More]
Are You Working at Cross-purposes?
Are you working at cross-purposes? If you randomly selected 50 employees and asked them basic questions about the heart of your organization, would their answers be similar? For example, ask them: What is our organization’s mission? What are our core values? What factors are most important to our future success? What are our core competencies? How… [Read More]