It takes time and experience to determine which pearls of wisdom we should keep or discard about the world of business.
February 2019 Question of the Month – Adapting to a Changing World
We had some great answers to February’s question: “What does your company do to adapt to a rapidly changing world?” Here are the top 5 responses.
Got Grit?
In the 1969 western True Grit, Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) hires U.S. Marshall Rooster J. Cogburn (John Wayne) to track down her father’s killer. Ross travels to Fort Smith Arkansas to hire Cogburn because she’s heard he has “true grit”. If you’ve seen the movie, or the remake, you know that Mattie Ross has a substantial dose of “true grit”
Ultimatum Is a Big Word
When you negotiate for a car or house, are you ready to walk away if the seller is unwilling to accept your offer? While this might work when negotiating for tangible objects, it may not work as well dealing with intangible relationships.
Praise Is Powerful – Do It Right
Praise: warm approval and admiration How important is praise? Important. Extremely important.
Useful Regrets
I love podcasts and one of my favorites is NPR’s Hidden Brain with Shankar Vedantam. One episode “Why We Can’t Shake Life’s ‘Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda’ Moments” explored regret. Regret is a big emotion; people get angry, self-critical, mournful and disappointed about the choices they’ve made.
Hire Like a 4-Star General
A critical part of hiring people who can assist you in taking your company to the next level is being able to articulate what you need. In his book, It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership, Colin Powell lists the traits he “treasures” (his word) in people who work with him. It’s a list of characteristics necessary in every field,
Burn the Ships
In 1519 Hernan Cortes arrived in the New World with 600 men and 11 ships. His mission was to conquer the Aztecs and take control of their vast treasure. As legend tells us, some of his soldiers, fearful of the outcome of their venture, plotted to seize the ships in order to desert. Cortez got wind of the plot and
December Question of the Month: Do you do anything for the Holidays for your employees?
Here are our top 5 answers to December’s question of the Month. We used to do the whole big Christmas party and played games. One year an employee wrote a poem, “Merry Christmas to all, wherever you roam, you get us all drunk and you send us on home.” After that year we stopped the offsite parties. Now we do
Answers: November 2018 Question of the Month
Here are our top three responses for the November Question of the Month: “Describe your on-boarding/orientation process with new employees?“