More from the work-life front of management: Flexibility with holiday schedules can boost worker loyalty. Absolutely true. I know, many people will comment about the abusers of such flexibility. You know, if they are abusers, they are currently applying their trade to some other area of your business. Best not to punish the upright workers due to the deceivers. Here is a good reminder for managers any time of the year: First, an owner needs to have the attitude that a worker’s personal life matters, even if the staff is small and there’s plenty of work to be done. So true of the younger generations no matter what the season.… Read More
Continue ReadingFrom Windbags to Bullies
It sure feels like a holiday already, but we at The Hire Sense march on today. We’ll keep things light before the long holiday weekend. Google kicked up this fun article from a CareerBuilder.com editor titled The 10 worst things to do in a meeting. Here’s a good tease: Who among us hasn’t cringed as the office windbag launched into a self-aggrandizing discourse that was completely off-point? Pitied a meek co-worker who got trounced by the office bully? Or marveled at a colleagues’ ability to string together an array of buzzwords that mean absolutely nothing? Oh, I have been in many of those meetings. A couple of my favorite items… Read More
Continue ReadingStreet Level to C Level
From a sales cover email: I can sell direct to consumers, or to “C-Level” executives. That pretty much covers everyone. I don’t know about you, but I instantly think jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none.
Continue ReadingPowerPoint Muggings
I must fall in the masochistic side of PowerPoint – I actually enjoy PowerPoint presentations. CareerJournal offers this article – Tips for PowerPoint — Please Spare Us – which comments on many pet peeves regarding Microsoft’s presentation software. Despite the barbs: …there are an estimated 30 million PowerPoint presentations given each day around the world… Some times I think people prefer to simply be contrarians to the status quo. 30 million presentations can’t be wrong, can they? PowerPoint proponents say slideware doesn’t bore people, people bore people. Oh do I agree with that statement. I wouldn’t castigate the program just because some people use it poorly. I have sat through… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Blogosphere
Abcnews.com references the latest Technorati summary of the blogosphere in A Billion Bloggers? As you may have guessed from the title, there are many blogs out there. A taste of some statistics from the lengthy article: Put simply, the growth of the blogosphere since March 2001 is the upward trajectory of a sine wave, from zero “weblogs” then to 57 million blogs today. And the number continues to grow by 3 million blogs per month, or 100,000 per day. A total of 1.3 million posts per day. At times, I believe I have my RSS reader set up to read every one of those posts.
Continue ReadingA Newspaper’s View of Blogs
Our local St. Paul Pioneer Press offers up a tantalizing headline with no meat to the story – To blog or not to blog? The alleged purpose of this 3 paragraph story is to discuss whether companies should blog or not (ed.-they should). However, take a look at this closing paragraph: One should always keep in mind that bloggers aren’t held to the same standards as, say, newspapers, governments or publicly traded companies when it comes to factual accuracy (or good spelling and grammar). But, once one applies that large grain of salt, this batch of blogs can be a tasty buffet. Right. Anyone who reads the New York Times… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Cover Letter King
If you’ve read The Hire Sense for any length of time, you know one of my favorite pastimes is reading cover letters/emails. There really are some bemusing, befuddling and bewildering approaches. So you can imagine my surprise when I saw this abcnews.com article – ‘Cover Letters from Hell’ Expose Poor Quality of College Grads. Ok, I’m all over that article and I have found my new hero – Bob Killian. And I thought I had some good examples but this guy is the king. This link takes you directly to the cover letter section of his website. It is excellent and amusing – I even had to subscribe to his… Read More
Continue ReadingGreat Sales Quote
It has been a hectic customer day with many things happening. I was a bit worn out and then I caught up to this great quote from the justsell.com newsletter: “Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses and some don’t turn up at all.” –Sam Ewing (1920-2001) American writer & humorist
Continue ReadingHow Managers Rate Themselves
From CareerJournal’s article Managers Rate Themselves High, But Employees Are Tough Critics: While 92% of managers say they are doing an “excellent” or “good” job managing employees, only 67% of workers agree. An additional 23% say their boss is doing a “fair” job, and 10% find their manager is doing a “poor” job, according to a survey of 1,854 U.S. workers by Rasmussen Reports LLC Ouch, that’s going to leave a mark. I did so well at statistics in college that I got to take it twice. However, I believe a 25% spread is what statisticians term “statistically significant.” A solution later in the article: Let workers play a part… Read More
Continue ReadingTop 10 Tips for Effective Goal Setting
CareerBuilder.com has an interesting management article regarding goal setting that I wanted to pass along. They have 10 quick steps in helping the goal setting process become more effective for managers. Their 10 steps are: Allow Your Employees to Own Their Goals Set Deadlines Make Sure the Goals are Measurable Have Your Employees Write Their Goals Down The Goal Post Schedule Regular Progress Meetings Limit the Number of Goals Base Goals on Company Values Provide Positive Feedback Make the Reward Worth It
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