Retaining Millennials

Retaining Millennials

For most managers, this is proving to be a complicated generation of workers to understand and retain in the workplace. In fact, 68% of Millennials surveyed say the longest they will stay at the same employer is 3 years. Surprisingly, today the average U.S. worker spends just 15 months in one role in today’s working environment. Retaining millennials is a…

3 Family Business Owner Pitfalls to Avoid

3 Family Business Owner Pitfalls to Avoid

Most family-owned businesses are small businesses, and inherent in most family businesses are a unique set of challenges. Be careful to avoid these common pitfalls that can plague a family business owner. You can’t escape the stress of your job. The line between the family business and the family get blurred easily. Unplugging from the business can be very difficult.…

Fuel Your Drive

Fuel Your Drive

My car requires high octane gasoline for the engine to operate at maximum performance. Fueling your personal drive is no different. What octane are you putting into your tank? Drive – what is it? That internal decision that says I want to be good at what I do. I am competitive and am willing to make sacrifices to achieve my…

Listen, Don’t Fix

Listen, Don’t Fix

We frequently hear how leaders need to be good listeners. But it takes more than that to be an effective leader. Try these 3 listening skills to improve your leadership listening. Listen without response Sometimes people just want to be heard. A solution is secondary. I’m standing in line at the ticket counter of an airline and I can tell…

Culture or Control?

One method for stopping a fire is to smother it. Whether with a blanket, dirt or high tech system that removes oxygen from the area on fire, a fire can be extinguished when you remove what is feeding the fire. A bad work culture can do the same thing. A smothering workplace culture also works to stop the fire that…

Delegation Not Working?

To cut to the chase…Is it you, or is it them? Micromanagement has no place in the current business environment. So why do I still witness so many leaders who are resistant to delegate? Here’s how to create the right environment for successful delegation: Develop trust  When a leader doesn’t trust the team to accept the responsibility for important tasks…

Ditch the Carrot and the Stick

  How many times have we heard the motivational method of using a carrot and a stick? First of all, the proverbial stick was never a motivator and only caused fear in the workplace. Today, a long-term incentive of the carrot dangled in front of you only causes frustration and a quick loss of interest. We are in an instant…

What Relationships Are You Building?

  Most executives recognize the importance of customer relationships and they invest plenty of resources to maintain those. I think there is a step missing in this equation for success. Make time to invest in your staff. Lost in the focus of pleasing stockholders and customers are the people who make a business sustain success: the staff. When executives spend…

Work/Life Balance Doesn’t Work

Let’s face reality: It is impossible for the entrepreneur to turn off work completely. If you love your business and work hard to make it thrive, it is a part of the fiber of your being. Saying you will turn off work is like saying, “I won’t think about my left leg for the entire weekend.” So what is the…