Blog
When The SEED School of Maryland asked me to give a speech to 308 middle-school students, my reaction was one part flattered, one part nervous. I’ve spoken to high-schoolers, sharing my experiences as a Baltimore City kid and my path toward business ownership. But a gymnasium full of young, boisterous adolescents? I worried that I [...]
Ensuring your employees feel valued is a major key to your company’s success. When employees feel valued, or important, they are much happier. And we all know people perform better when they’re happier. A recent Gallup study quantified the link between employee feelings and corporate outcomes determining that employee disengagement costs US companies $300 billion [...]
Usually, I try to avoid making assumptions, but I’m going to go out on a limb and make a couple here. I think it’s safe to assume that for every time you’ve read an advice book, attended a seminar, or made a New Year’s resolution with the goal of improving some aspect of your life [...]
Imagine you’ve just spent the last 18 months preparing for a big meeting with a new prospect. Ever since your team was selected as a finalist, everyone’s energy has been focused on the big presentation and now: The agenda is finished. The last slide in the PowerPoint deck is complete. The binders and inserts have been [...]
Goal setting is helpful for managers and employees. Managers have multiple opportunities to provide employees with feedback during this process, and they are able to identify their employees’ strengths and weaknesses. Employees can see how their individual contributions affect and support their company’s bottom line when they begin making goals. If goal setting is done [...]
An interview with Doug Beigel, CEO of COLA, a nonprofit organization in Columbia, Maryland that offers training, accreditation, and consultation to medical labs, regarding his pattern for successfully instituting change. Joe: Harvard Business School professor Dr. John Kotter says that seventy percent of organizational change initiatives fail. I think the failure rate is so high [...]
We can all agree there are good meetings and there are bad meetings, and there are even meetings about meetings… All joking aside, in order for your business to be successful it is critical that team meetings are meaningful and productive for all members of the team. And the responsibility for making sure meetings are [...]
The best way to maintain a steady business course under constantly changing conditions is to keep your eye on the big picture. But the stream of dramatic headlines over the last three years has made the big picture a little blurry for entrepreneurs like us. “The world is falling!” shriek the pundits. “Wait, the world [...]
In January, we shared data from five of our more recent surveys; and how that data led us to what we believe are the five internal factors critical to a company’s growth and success over time: performance reviews, team meetings, goal setting, goal accountability, and value within the organization. Together these factors, when executed correctly [...]
“What keeps you going isn’t some fine destination but just the road you’re on, and the fact that you know how to drive.” ~ Barbara Kingsolver Of course we Ravens fans are disappointed. We wanted a trip to Super Bowl XLVI so badly we could taste it, and the way in which we lost that [...]