Awesome!

When one of your employees is asked about you as a manager, do they say one word – AWESOME!  Here are some tips that might make that happen.

1.  Feedback.  Talk to your employees regularly.  You don’t need formal meetings, you can call someone in your office and give them a quick suggestion.  Remember that feedback should be specific with emphasis on what you want the employee to do.  Keep it about the behavior, not the person.  Avoid giving feedback through email or text.

2.  Always have time for your team. … Continue reading

DON’T!

My husband and I were traveling and stayed in a bed & breakfast in California.  We were struck by an abundance of small notes taped all over the common rooms.  Don’t change the radio station.  Don’t touch.  Don’t enter – private room.  Don’t use this door.  You get the picture.  There weren’t any positive messages to be found.  We met our hostess the next morning and felt uncomfortable at first, not knowing what to expect.  She turned out to be very nice.  She had run the bed & breakfast for… Continue reading

Get a Grip!

By Guest Blogger Kevin Lewis

I am sure you have heard this phrase before.  Maybe you have said it to someone (or to yourself).  I recently had to when we were dropping our last child off at college.  With my wife, youngest daughter and her older sister in full weeping mode, I realized that I needed to “get a grip” and keep my emotions somewhat in check (somebody had to keep it together).  Otherwise it would have likely been a full meltdown (which, by the way, was already happening inside my gut).

You … Continue reading

Email Action!

Have you ever sent an email to a staff member or a client which required some action on their part and nothing happened?  If that’s happened to you, I’ve got a great tool that might help you with your future communications.  You can apply this in many situations.

Each day we’re hit with messages competing for our attention.  Every message has to work very hard to get noticed.  This isn’t exclusive to advertising alone; your reports, presentations and emails are trying to get your audience’s attention.  Use basic advertising principles to make sure your… Continue reading

SWOT!

Swot isn’t just the sound when going after a fly (that sound is actually spelled swat).  A SWOT analysis is a helpful tool to assess your organization, department or even you as an individual.  It’s a good exercise to start the planning process for the short term or long term.  Go through the following exercise for your  business or yourself – you might be surprised what you come up with.

Instructions:  prepare the following analysis.  You may want to discuss this with others on your team.  Once you identify five areas under each… Continue reading