The Sawmill Jake and Justin, 23-year-old twin brothers, worked for a large sawmill not far from where they grew up. As a friend of the sawmill’s owner, their father was aware that even though both sons had essentially the same job title and duties, Justin was paid significantly more than Jake. Curious as to why, the father…
A disturbing trend I’ve noticed in the 60+ meetings, conferences, and conventions I attend each year is the increasing frequency of how many of these events get thrown off schedule. When attendees are still clustered around the coffee stations 10 minutes after the meeting begins or they refuse to disconnect from their smart phones in…
“If I had me for a boss, would I like coming to work?” Face it, the people who work for you have other options. (If they don’t, you not only have the wrong people on your bus, you’ve got a lousy bus.) Offering a competitive wage and benefit package may be enough to attract talent…
I returned home from a conference and got off the tram at Denver International Airport and took the escalator up to the top level, where the first person I saw was an elderly gentleman in a cowboy hat who greets arriving passengers with a hearty “Welcome to Denver!” This is followed by an earnest, “How…
“Do as I say, not as I do.” There was a time when a parent who smoked, drank excessively, cursed, etc. could demand – and often expect – a different standard of behavior from their children simply by telling them ” I want you to have a better life than the one I’m living, so…
Most readers of this blog are business owners, execs, leaders, and managers looking for ideas and strategies for engaging and developing the emerging workforce. This particular post, however, is written for the emerging workforce, i.e. millennials. While this generation is not lacking in talent, many are somewhat deficient in the revered social skills, primarily because…
One of the questions that I am asked most frequently by business leaders after a presentation is this one: “With all I am pushed to do already, how am I ever supposed to find time to implement your ideas and tactics?” Time is, of course, the great equalizer. It’s the one resource that business owners,…
In a well publicized cross-generational study, researchers asked 355,000 high school seniors about their feelings on wealth, material goods and work. They discovered that, compared to older generations, today’s teens expressed a stronger desire for the finer things in life but less of a desire in working to acquire them. Wanting nicer things is nothing…
If you’ve ever brought on a talented and highly-skilled employee who did not measure up to your expectations due to a lack of work ethic, drive, or character values, you’ve experienced a zebra problem. This metaphor will make perfect sense to you when you consider the unique talents and abilities of a zebra. Like human…
Dickens may have penned A Christmas Carol back in 1843, but the ghost of bad management is still haunting workplaces in 2013. Nowhere is this more prevalent and on display than in industries that boom in Q4 (i.e. retailing, food service, hospitality, transportation, entertainment, etc.) The make-or-break pressures of managing a business during the holidays can…