The formula for happy employees

One of the top three challenges that new employees have is unmet expectations: the job is not what they expected it to be.  That means difficult conversations where they are telling you that they expected something different, and what are you going to do about it. Or even worse: they quit.  One simple fix will…

Read More

How to talk to problem employees

Happy employees

Nothing you tell your employees should ever come as a surprise.  This is especially important with bad news.  If you are telling an employee that they are at risk of being fired, and they had no idea, then you are the one who made a mistake, not them.  But don’t tell your employees about their…

Read More

Which work should you delegate?

Delegation: it’s a chore.  Don’t you sometimes wish you could delegate the task of delegating? After all, it takes just as much time to have to explain something as it does to do it yourself.  Here’s a trick to make delegation easier and last longer: Don’t delegate tasks: delegate responsibility.  Start by deciding what you…

Read More

The Formula to Balance Your Business

Opportunity & risk.  Gains & losses.  Promotion & Prevention.  These are all ways to describe the balance a business needs to succeed. You can’t avoid risk, and you – hopefully – have plenty of opportunities. Making these two things coexist is important, but one of the hardest things to do.  Business potential Back in 2017,…

Read More

Your employees don’t know what to do

Job titles are great for algorithms in job search sites; job roles are better for managing your business.  Following my March article explaining this difference, I received some great feedback from people writing roles for their own business.  The next step is to instruct your team. Does everybody know what they should be doing? It’s…

Read More

Risk, Reward, & Life in ShoutOut Atlanta

I had the pleasure of being featured in ShoutOut Atlanta, part of the Voyage group of magazines. We talked about risk, in life and in business, and, of course, about what makes Atlanta great. Read my entry here.

Read More

When will your next competitor arrive?

The way other companies compete with you isn’t always about you.  We have already considered replacement competitors, generic competitors, and budget competitors.  What about your direct competitors? And in particular: the new ones that will show up just around the corner? How difficult is it to start your company? Barriers to entry What does the…

Read More

Some people choose the generic option

Let’s be honest with one another: we all want to be the “premium” offer.  When we think of why people buy from us, we are hoping they won’t say “this is the cheap, generic option”.  But then, some buyers do want to buy the generic offer.  What is the difference between our offer and the…

Read More

How will your clients replace you?

Not all competitors are direct competitors. You are not only competing against people whose business cards have the same words as yours does. Your clients could also find a whole new option or direction that eliminates their need to hire you at all.  Understand how you can be replaced.  Replacement competition There are various ways…

Read More

2 Key Lessons From A Global Crisis

“Will our current self-isolation change business forever?” The question everybody is asking. People want to know if things will ever “get back to normal” and what life will look like when it does. Will it be a new normal? In two particular ways, we can hope that it will. One: Risk is real  The next…

Read More