Why Ask Why – A Story

Making the right decision is never easy. One of the things that makes it difficult is that we so often are fixing the wrong problem.  Once a business problem becomes obvious to us, it has been through various stages of development. If we try to solve only the problem that we see, we risk solving…

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Business Values: Management Starts Before You Hire

It is the eternal dilemma of the manager or business owner: how to manage people with inspiration, leadership, and motivation, still maintaining a results-driven approach? Of course you want to nurture your team, let people develop their strengths, create a job they will enjoy, and more. But not to the detriment of meeting targets. How…

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Examples of Basic Competencies

For many years we have been struggling with the definition – and correct appreciation – of soft skills. Basic Competencies are a useful replacement. Many employers find “soft skills” too vague: when it comes to actually evaluating and choosing a new employee they prefer a material selection process; something to which they can point with…

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Hiring for Competence

Knowing the key competencies required to work in your company is a foundational element of hiring the right people. In a post entitled Hire Wisely, we looked at the differentiating between what can be taught on the job and what the candidate has to bring with him or her already. Much of the latter comes…

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Practical Mission Statement Examples

Thank you to Russel Earnest of Shirt Sleeves Solutions for pointing me towards the Inc.com article Walking the Talk: How to Turn a Mission Statement into Sales. Russell and I had been discussing the uses of mission statements, and he kindly saved and shared the print article with me. I have written in the past about…

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What is a Mission Statement

My first video blog, an edited transcript is below. You have all heard of the furniture giant known as Ikea, I presume. When you think of Ikea, what comes to mind? Home furnishings; DIY; a unique shopping experience; affordability… a lot of things will come to mind when you think of Ikea. I would like to take…

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