How to Lighten Your Load Without Slowing Your Career
I make a lot of commitments. Most of them have to do with my incessant urge to help people become wealthy. Why I find it so difficult to say “no” to a friendly ambition, I can’t say. But it’s something I’m teaching myself to do. Today, for example, I told…
READ MOREStupid Employer Tricks
If I were doing this for David Letterman, my list of “Stupid Employer Tricks” would look something like this: #10: Pay as little as possible, irrespective of the employee’s loyalty. #9: Promote relatives; skip over veterans. #8: Micro-manage middle managers. #7: Avoid talking personally with your customers. #6: Fail to…
READ MOREHow to be a Marketing Genius, Part II
Skilled marketers are consistently among the highest paid individuals in any industry. They earn high salaries, extraordinary bonuses, and the respect and admiration of colleagues and competitors. Marketers who master their trades are all but guaranteed a life of wealth, security, respect, and satisfaction. Today, I am going to show…
READ MOREThe Best Place to Find Good Employees is Close to Home
“Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.” – Jane Howard I recently spent weeks trying to find someone to fill a part-time position. After a lot of time and money invested,…
READ MOREYour Employees Shouldn’t Like You All the Time
I like it when my employees seem to like me, but I don’t allow myself to seek their approval. And you shouldn’t either. What’s the purpose of your business? To service your customer, right? The fundamental relationship in business is not between employer and employee, but between the business and…
READ MOREWhat’s a Woman to Do?
The disparity between the incomes of working men and woman got bigger in 2003, the first time in four years that the gap widened. For every dollar men made in 2003, the Census Bureau reported, women made 75.5 cents. That was down from 76.6 cents in 2002. The median income…
READ MOREI Now Believe in Job Descriptions
After resisting them for most of my career, I’ve changed my feelings about job descriptions. I think they are useful. Useful, but sometimes dangerous. Job descriptions are dangerous because of their tendency to limit an employee’s work, responsibility, and — most important of all — his imagination. In an environment…
READ MOREWhy So Many Business Meetings Fail
A successful meeting — one in which good decisions get made and are then implemented — has four characteristics: 1. Openness: The outcome is not predetermined. The person running the meeting does not hog the podium. Everyone feels free to speak. 2. Candor: There is a willingness to discuss the…
READ MOREPreserving Your Emotional Autonomy
“He liked to observe emotions; they were like red lanterns strung along the dark unknown of another’s personality, marking vulnerable points.” – Ayn Rand One of the most important things BB has taught me is the value of being emotionally autonomous at work. By that, I don’t…
READ MOREThe Myth of the Power of Teamwork
“The work of the individual still remains the spark that moves mankind ahead even more than teamwork.” – Igor Sikorsky Imagine if Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra rolled into Tanglewood this summer with flutists playing the violin parts. Or if the Green Bay Packers appointed Brett Favre to…
READ MOREHow to Get a Big Fat Raise
“When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, ‘It’s in the script.’ If he says, ‘But what’s my motivation?, ‘ I say, ‘Your salary.’ ” – Alfred Hitchcock My No. 1 son works for an L.A.-based business that does postproduction editing of movies. He’s…
READ MOREWhat Do You Do With a “Bad Apple” Employee?
“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” – Winston Churchill If you have an employee with a bad attitude, what do you do? If he is a weak performer, the answer is easy: “Get rid of him right away. But what if he’s very good at what…
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