I was doing a brain storming session with a client recently and an issue they were having with the inaccuracy of their website was identified. Several office managers complained that no one was asking for their input, and as a result, the organization had a website that was improperly informing their customers about new services that were being provided.

Good public relations begins at home. Happy staff equals happy customers. Meaningful and regular staff meetings can be a very powerful tool in helping your company meet the needs and expectations of your customers. As situa­tions come up, mini-meetings and brain-storming sessions that quickly solve problems can also be used very effectively. Read More »

I read two different newspaper stories the other day. One suggested that, if you are a manager, you’re probably working longer and harder than ever before. The other suggested that only a small percentage of us do a job that we really love.

Which makes me think that, as suggested by Henry David Thoreau, there are a lot of people out there – including managers who manage others – who are “leading lives of quiet desperation” and will “go to their graves with their song still in them”. Read More »

A business owner puts an ad in the local paper for some additional help. After interviewing several applicants, she hires a young man, who appears on the surface, to be well groomed and able to do the job.

A few weeks later she starts receiving complaints from some of the other workers and the customers that this new employee is not very friendly, doesn’t smile much, and alienates the people with whom he comes into contact. Eventually, this employee is terminated and the owner realizes she wasted a substantial amount of money and time in hiring and training the wrong person. Read More »

I was consulting with one of my small business clients last week and she explained to me how some of her new employees “just didn’t get it”. Didn’t get what?, I asked.

She replied, “one of my employees comes to work late on a regular basis”. She added, “just  the other day I looked at the clock at it’s eight minutes past 8:30 a.m., and here comes this employee waltzing into the office”. Read More »

A few weeks ago was the Spring equinox, I got up at 6 o’clock and watched the sun rise over the sea.

The sight was so beautiful that I decided to repeat it the next day. Only to find that the sky was cloud-covered and the sea a forbidding grey. Read More »