Posts in Management
Did You Yell At Them?

…and now feel bad? I remember the first time I did it. Now, in all fairness, it was totally justified. The egregious errors that were made that awful day were incredible. There was no way around that it was a major fuck up, that could have been avoided. It should have been avoided. This went deeper than mistake. It was an all out lack of obedience and follow through. Later too learn that was my problem in the first place, but I will get into that later. The anger rose so fast, I didn’t even realize the person I had become. It was ugly…..and I didn’t know another way to express the impact the situation had on me, the business, nonetheless my pocketbook. I definitely didn’t want to get labeled what I did that day. It has taken years to break that curse. What I understand now, that I didn’t know then, is management is about me, not them.

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What Are Systems?

I find myself in yet another systems conversation. I probably talk about systems as much as I do my kids. People talk to me about systems all day long, such as the conversation I find myself in right now. This clients story is no different than anyone else’s, yet with such similarities, I smile, that in some way, all entrepreneurs are plagued with the same challenges. “You really mean I have to document all of that? Shouldn’t they just know how to do that. Especially when I tell them when they are hired?”

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Are You Prepared For A Natural Disaster?

I remember getting the email like it was yesterday. The neighbor emailed me, “YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE. CALL ME.” As I made the dreaded call, I got the news that no home owner wants to hear. Your rental house is on fire and the neighbors called the fire department. My husband left immediately, for what seemed like, the longest 2.5 hours ever. Waiting to hear what became of my beloved house, the one we brought home our first born to, the one I started my business in, the one that allowed us to move to our dream property on the coast, was the longest 2.5 hours of my life. When my husband called, it wasn’t to lament over the fact that the tenants blew up and then burnt down the garage. No, his words were much simpler; Do we have our papers in order?

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Why Are People So Bad At Follow Through?

After countless days of wondering, I finally do it. I finally garner the courage to follow up with an associate who hasn’t responded to me in 4 days. Yep, four days..which in my world is a lifetime. During that time, I have thought of her on five different occasions, pushed back our project by 3 days and halted another one coming in, unsure of what direction she wanted to take our work. I have side tracked other work and painfully watched my email, waiting….and waiting……and waiting. All she has to do is respond, answer a simple question about next steps and send it off to me. Did she get the email? Did she forget about me? Did she push send and the internet trolls ran off with my email? No one really knows, because she didn’t follow up.

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Has It Ever Been Clean?

The tool that was supposed to revolutionize work, improve productivity and increase capacity has actually spun us out so badly that some of you are drowning in your own creation. Is it possible to get back to the basics, using it as it was intended or is our only salvation to melt down and find our support group?

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Why I Hate Top 10 Lists

The dreaded top 10 list. They are everywhere I look. I think what I hate most about them is how victimized I feel after I click the link. The promises of instant gratification are alluring, yet so gutless. It would all be too easy if something could be fixed, identified or resolved in 10 quick steps.

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Get Over the Whelm by Taking the Helm

When my clients talk about overwhelm, it often sounds like they relate to it as if whelm were the sleeper wave.  Arriving and engulfing them unexpectedly, it overpowers them by sheer strength. Unable to do anything about it, they are, to varying degrees, incapacitated….victims to their experience of the Overwhelm.

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For the Love of Red

It is ironic that the color red represents that of love. Honestly, when you get into your image and sensory impact work, you see just how powerful, yet charging the color red can be. While associating with holidays filled with love, invitation and fun, it reminds me of how desperate I am to not see it in my business.

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