Staff need to feel secure from threats within their team to be able to deal with external challenges, says Sylvia Sage
Effective teamwork is the cornerstone of almost any successful business. No large companies...
Forty-seven percent of U.S. jobs are at risk of being automated within the next 20 years, according to researchers at Oxford University. Their studies suggest that the most valuable employees in the future will not be the ones with years of...
The workplace of the 20th century is no more. In my view, its remnants of menial labor and tasks completed by hand are soon to simply a vestigial tail of a bygone era. The future of work lies in the digital world.
One major indicator: Amazon...
So, you’ve created a great product and you’re ready to scale. Whether you’re looking to land distribution with retailers or ambassadors, there’s one common need: to make sure who you’re selling to understands the incredible business...
The average business’s workforce spends 15 percent of its time in meetings. This figure has increased year on year since 2008, and senior executives lose two days to meetings every week. Worst of all: Unproductive meetings cost U.S. companies an...
There are many types of management. Without self-reflection from time to time, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of thinking you are a great manager with very few areas to improve. You may think that your team is motivated and working at...
Custom products, or personalized products, have been around in the industry for quite some time already. Thanks to the advancements in modern technology, the process of customizing different products are now made more convenient and...
Have you successfully established a social media marketing content strategy for your business? Why do you need a social media marketing content strategy?
Every successful digital marketer needs a sustainable marketing plan...
“I’d love to hire more women, but when I post a job, they don’t apply. They’re not interested.”
“There just aren’t enough qualified women to do the job.”
At the Stanford VMware Women’s Leadership Lab, where we work...
If you read what Peter Drucker had to say about competition back in the late ’50s and early ‘60s, he really only talked about one thing: competition on price. He was hardly alone — that was evidently how most economists thought about...
Do you get to the end of the day and feel that you’ve met your most pressing deadlines but haven’t accomplished anything that’s fundamentally important? You’re hardly alone. In a series of studies recently published in...
The goal of an online training programme is never “to complete this course with 100% participation”. Sure, that might be an essential demand on the organisation, but the purpose of the training isn’t just to get to the end. It’s to...
When it comes to performance reviews, in recent years it has become obvious that there really isn’t much to enjoy about the process. An hour-long conversation is surrounded by hours of admin for manager and employee. HR teams produce and track...
Talent could be one of the biggest areas of competition for small and midsize businesses right now.
After 10 years of economic expansion, the labor force is simply tapped out. And yet, more than half of CEOs (56 percent) still...
A generation ago, CEOs and executives planned an organization's entire roadmap. Sensitive data were stored in file cabinets and vulnerable servers. Lifelong employees calculated nest eggs that were tucked away in...
Innovation, empathy, and engagement begin with curiosity. In a world where we're constantly deluged with new information, it's guaranteed that every time you meet with other people, they have information you don't. Meetings are the perfect...
When I ask people what they want to do with their career, many can't really answer the question. It's not necessarily a bad thing to be undecided about what path you want to take, but it's indicative of a recent change in the way we think...
Technology, the change agent of our generation, is transforming the business landscape by enabling small and midsize businesses to streamline processes, improve productivity and get ahead of competitors.
In a recent study conducted by SMB...
“I got an offer I couldn’t turn down!” We all have heard this cliche line from a departing employee about their reason for leaving. But there is always more to the story than just accepting an irresistible offer. Maybe the employee was not...
The motivation of employees is directly related to workplace productivity. To keep your company thriving and alive, you have to pay attention to the performance of workers. If everything is going well, you may not think about it. In the opposite...
Millennials are poised to drive the future of business. The 53.5 million-strong millennial workforce has risen rapidly and surpassed Generation X to represent the largest share of the American workforce. Millennials offer truly unique skills...
Q: My entry-level employees keep getting poached. We’re on a tight budget -- is the only way to retain talent by paying higher salaries? -- Jessica M., Philadelphia
Jessica, we feel your pain. We had a similar situation at one of our...
One of the most important gifts that technology can bestow on a knowledge worker is to help increase his productivity for good. Peter Drucker (renowned educator, author, and consultant), deems the increase in productivity as one of the biggest...
Marketers always need to post unique, relevant, and engaging content in order to attract customers. Data science can help marketers pull data that will help them craft the best content for every customer.
Data science has the ability to...
Client Profile and Challenge
If the University of Notre Dame’s performance review process had been an employee, it would have gotten a poor evaluation.
Leaders in Human Resources had implemented performance evaluation software to reduce...
Whether Attracting or Retaining Talent, Managers Hold the Reins
Attracting, developing, and retaining talent isn’t an “HR job.” You, the manager, have a front-and-center role in making sure you have the right people doing the right work and...
Discussions of talent management frequently overlook the perspectives of high-potential talent. Management often misses the chance to better understand what the organization’s top talent says it needs.
Talent management represents an...
Take a Fresh Look at Your Approach to Top Talent
High-potential talent is rare and valuable. These emerging leaders and thinkers are the change-makers and problem-solvers that your business and customers desperately need....
If you want to build a great business, you have to be very deliberate about whom you let into it.
Emotions and behaviors may circulate through social networks in patterns similar to what’s seen in epidemiological models of the flu virus. Every...
Can a small, brick-and-mortar store ever hope to compete with online retailers—specifically, with Amazon? Apparently yes: Nearly 86% of retail sales still happen in physical stores, Internet Retailer reports.
How Can Brick and Mortar Stores...
Landing a large client is a major moment for a small business, one that calls for celebration. But later on, if that large client finds itself in financial troubles, problems may arise for all of its associates. As such, a small business that puts...
Q: I spend so much time responding to emails that I lose productivity in other areas. How can I become more efficient when it comes to managing my inbox?
A: Emails are clearly a major part of our personal and professional lives today, and yet...
The concept of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) was first introduced in 1962. And since that time, it has evolved with new innovations. But new research from Vonage reveals 61% of consumers think IVRs make for a poor experience.
This...
So, you’ve started your agency and things are going well. You’ve brought on a few clients, perfected your service or services, and maybe you’re preparing to make your first hire. Now, you want to focus on scaling to seven figures and beyond....
With recession fears increasing day by day, it won’t be long before companies start looking for new ways to save money. Economic downturns can be make-or-break situations for plenty of businesses. And, costs are a big factor in who makes it...
There’s really only one life hack you need to sit up and pay attention to when building your business: time management. It’s a ridiculously vital skill, yet many of us are guilty of falling behind. I think entrepreneurs are easy to label...
No matter how passionate or hardworking your team is, there will come a time when some (or many) of them will start to burn out. It can be difficult to reverse this burnout and morale dip once your staff has hit this point, so it’s...
Everyone wants to sell more, but not everyone does succeeds. With so many new sales tools flooding the market, growing companies struggle to distinguish the genuinely helpful from the borderline useless.
No company has unlimited time...
Your business should have a ready-to-use confidentiality agreement form to protect you from having confidential information stolen by anyone you do business with.
What is a Confidentiality Agreement?
A confidentiality...
Workplace stress is an epidemic, and unfortunately, high levels of stress not only harm employee health, but they also harm your business. In many cases, stress is short-lived and lasts only as long as the stress-inducing project or event. This is...
by Thomas W. Malnight, Ivy Buche and Charles Dhanaraj
ight years ago we launched a global study of high growth in companies, investigating the importance of three strategies known to drive it: creating new markets, serving broader...
Do you feel like you’re working all the time but not producing the results you desire? You’re not alone. It’s a problem that a lot of talented entrepreneurs must overcome. Unfortunately, some people, as a last-ditch effort, embrace time...
There are plenty of articles telling home buyers the best and worst places to buy a new home, but rarely do they provide any support or advice to those forced to invest in areas that are less than financially ideal.
If you could drop everything...
1. Buy used
Even though owning a new car is pretty ‘cool’, I still believe buying used is a better financial deal.
New cars depreciate a lot in time, not to mention their value drops real fast as soon as you begin driving your first...
Should you promote your existing staff or hire new people while you’re scaling up? We take a look at the pros and cons of each avenue.
It’s clear that there are pros and cons for each option, so you should always hire the best...
One of the most searched questions on the Internet is, “Why should I hire you?”
When it comes to recruiting, business leaders need to be asking that question. They also need to be asking, where can I find you?
Here is the good news and the...
To understand how the “personal learning cloud” is changing the way companies think about developing executive talent, HBR editor Amy Bernstein and senior editor Daniel McGinn spoke with three heads of learning and development...
For much of the last 30 years, organizations have agonized about whether they should centralize or decentralize their operations. But today that debate is increasingly moot. Every organization is essentially a distributed one, with many...
Organizational change was once a seasonal experience. But today, managing continual disruption is a skill required of most leaders. Change management is the new management, which makes doing it effectively that much more difficult.
Despite our...
Marketing, as we know is the process of identifying, stimulating and satisfying customer’s genuine wants and needs. There are many different types of marketing models used by businesses. These models give us a framework to assess how...