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Do You Have Boss Problems?

Are you in this situation? You and your boss just don’t seem to connect and work well together. It isn’t that you are having knock down fights. It’s just that you know things could be better. You don’t want to look for another job. So you have to figure out how to make it work. …

Can’t Avoid Crisis

A working plan is often the difference between success and failure in crisis management. The scary thing about a media crisis is that it can happen to anyone at any time. It isn’t always about big business. Even mom-and-pop operations can feel the pain. You almost never see it coming, and it is rarely something …

What is Strategic Planning?

Simply put, strategic planning is clarifying the overall purpose and desired results of an organization, and how those results will be achieved. There are different ways to do that planning, depending on the purpose(s) of the planning, the life cycle or stage of development of the organization, the culture of people in the organization, types …

Nonprofit and For-Profit Boards — a Comparison

Our firm regularly gets calls, asking about the differences between for-profit and nonprofit Boards. Although there are certain differences, there are more similarities than people often realize. Misconceptions often stem from the belief that nonprofits have to have a Board because they’re nonprofits. Not true. Chartered, or registered, nonprofits have to have a Board because …

Sally’s First Day

Sally was so excited she couldn’t sleep. She kept playing the next day over and over in her head. She would arrive to her new job (her first “real job”) exactly ten minutes early dressed in the new business suit she received as a graduation present accessorized with a brand new leather Franklin Covey planner.

Hands, Feet and Heart

“When you work, you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music” Kahlil Gibran It’s been said in various faith traditions that God works through our feet and hands. Every day you get an opportunity to express God’s gifts through your work. As you share your gifts with the …

Incentive-based Compensation

Many startup businesses set up incentive or commission-based compensation systems for their initial employees. This is often done because they can’t afford to pay staff what they’re worth. As an enticement they offer the opportunity to earn much more than a smallish base salary if these early staff achieve great success. This is common in …

Satisfied Customers – Do You Know if Yours Are?

In our world of customer service, it is our mission to keep customers. “It is a privilege to serve you”, that is what the Banker told me today when I called for information regarding refinancing. Do your employees believe that serving your clients is a privilege? Do your clients feel like they are appreciated? Nowadays …

Managing Boundaries in Systems

Organization Development is all about change in work systems. Everybody talks about systems but what does that mean? General Systems Theory is an organizational theory. It is integrative, in that it is a study of “wholeness” and it is interdisciplinary. It is based on a biological derivative it is a method of organizing complexity. (And …