Tag: Human Resources

Chart of Miles Traveled by Passengers in Car, Airplane and Train

At the onset of the pandemic, many consumers cancelled personal and business travel plans.   Teleconferencing replaced business travel and social gatherings.  Between February and May 2020, train and airplane travel declined 96 percent and 91 percent, respectively, while travel by car declined 27 percent. The increase in traveling by car since April 2020 reflects the…
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Willful Blindness

“Willful Blindness” in a business is the conscious act of avoiding the truth, which gives credence to the knowledge of an issue in question, but never resolving the issue. Willful blindness can be at any level of management or on any type of business issue that needs to be addressed and resolved. A business’s willful…
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How to Hold a Productive Meeting

We have all attended a meeting, whether it be an Executive Staff meeting or an important business  meeting, where you have sat in the chair for hours and leave the meeting feeling like it was a colossal  waste of your time.   What makes you leave those types of meetings feeling as if you would…
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A Strategic Plan is About Communication

A Strategic Plan is about communicating financial and operational objectives by taking numbers and converting them to words. The reason for Strategic Planning is to implement a plan of action that will make the business’s Vision/Strategic Plan a reality.  Strategic Planning is the actual process of implementing a Strategic Plan that has set obtainable and…
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Chart of Personal Saving Rate from January 1959 to June 2020

Personal saving is equal to personal income less personal outlays and personal taxes; or can be viewed as the portion of personal income that is used either to provide funds to capital markets or to invest in real assets such as residences. Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income (DPI), frequently referred to…
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Chart of Retail Beer, Wine and Liquor Store Sales for January 2000 to April 2020

As states and cities across the U.S. started locking down during the COVID-19 response retail alcohol sales spiked. It appears that alcohol consumption shifted from bars and restaurants to drinking at home.

Everyone Hates Annual Performance Reviews – Stop Doing Them

Manager’s hate writing and delivering annual performance reviews.  Employees hate doing self-appraisals and the dreaded annual review meeting.  Why?  For one, this might be the only formal feedback an employee receives all year.  There’s a lot riding on it.  Raises are often tied to the overall rating which adds to the pressure.  Even for employees…
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Turning Two Negative Job Functions into One Positive Job Function

When I talk with business executives and managers two of the most negative job functions they are responsible for are: Annual employee performance reviews How to engage employees in the business’s goals and objectives. The key to solving these two negative job functions is to combine the two activities into a positive job function that…
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