My Favorite Interview Questions

To me, hiring and developing an effective team is the most important part of a manager’s job. Here are my five all time favorite interview questions:

1. If you could land a dream job, what would it be? Believe it or not, someone once told me…

Internal Customer Service

When you are a customer, how do you judge customer service? Quality. Value. Speed. Help with resolving your problems. I like to think of associates as customers of the management team. How would your direct reports rate your management “product”?

The Dark Side of Email

Email, text messaging, and social media messaging are some of the greatest technological innovations of our time. But there is a dark side to these communication tools. One that destroys time and creates trouble for the unscrupulous user. Here are some of my tips to keep the dark side of…

Every Baby’s Different

My wife and I are expecting our first baby in March. We’ve shared the exciting news with everyone. The other night I was talking with a classmate, a father of two. As he told me about his kids, he shared a simple and elegant but powerful insight. “Every baby’s different,” he said. I…

Five Free Ways to Boost Associate Morale

You cannot have happy customers without happy associates.The real value in a company is created at the interface between the associate and the customer. Here are some best practices for creating and keeping happy associates.

You Never Know

You’re a young entrepreneur who’s just inherited his father’s burgeoning business. Dad passed away just as the business was getting on its feet and this makes you doubly committed to success, yet cautious of the mistakes the inexperienced (you!) are likely to make. One day a not-very-prosperous…

The Costs of Turnover

High turnover is like having a tapeworm. No matter how many new people the organization hires, they never grow. Here are a few of the less obvious costs:

Training costs
Think about the amount of attention a new person needs. New associates are a drain on the…

Busy Work

Peter Drucker, one the most celebrated management minds of the twentieth century, applies the 80/20 rule to time management. Drucker says that managers spend 80% of their time on busy work, and only 20% of their time adding value to the organization. Do you think this is true? Is 80% of our time at work…

If It Ain’t Broke, Grow It

The old adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” does not apply to business. Complacent businesses quickly fade to obsolescence as competitors pass them by. The same could be said for us at work. If we don’t plan to grow our careers, someone more thoughtful and ambitious will pass…