The newest report released by Catalyst, titled The Myth of the Ideal Worker: Does Doing All the Right Things Really Get Women Ahead?, has been released… and it’s disheartening. The goal of the report was to research typical myths involving women’s career development and their chances of being promoted. As a woman who generally feels empowered and that I am capable of doing … [Read more...]
Are They Contractors or Staff?
One of the more complicated tasks for a business owner is being able to correctly classify the people working for you. As a one man shop it it’s fairly easy, when you pull someone in it is a temporary arrangement. As a larger operation, it gets a bit tougher. The Department of Labor and the IRS have just made this issue more complicated. The Department of Labor and the IRS … [Read more...]
Business Schools: Their Role in Breaking Through the Glass
Women are enrolling and graduating from college every day. Yet the number of women in upper management and executive roles is significantly less then the number of women graduating from college. Business schools and programs play a huge role in helping women balance the gender roles, providing women with the information and tools they need to get into these jobs. These … [Read more...]
Retaining and Developing Talent that Represents the Future
Jill is an African American woman with ten years of experience in consulting. She is certified and versatile in the areas of practice in which she might contribute now and in the future. She has deep community roots in the major metropolitan area in which she works and she has shown great promise in promoting the organization in the market. She has demonstrated ability to … [Read more...]
HP Headed to Hotel California?
HP has made some controversial decisions lately, but is Meg Whitman a great strategic move or the kiss of death for this once great tech company? HP announced Whitman’s appointment on September 22, 2011 but given the public comments, customers seem to think it’s a bad choice. It’s my stance that HP usually leaps before it looks and I am not sure that I am sold on Whitman as … [Read more...]
Making Sure You Aren’t The Problem
This article, http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/09/08/make-sure-youre-not-the-problem-with-your-boss, gives everyone some questions to ask yourself when you are having problems with your boss. Most times bosses mean well, but if everyone, including the bosses, took a step back and asked a few questions of themselves a lot of office politics could likely be … [Read more...]
The USPS Lesson
The post office is nearly bankrupt, the cost cutting is not working. We are in danger of losing a service that is vital to many small businesses. So while other business blogs are looking at this situation and wondering what went wrong, I’m asking “what can we learn?” The postal situation is not unique and what it highlights is how the wrong type of organizational culture can … [Read more...]
The Cost of Business
In our current situation many companies are cackling about how much money they have saving on services and are doing their fair share to keep pushing prices down. On the surface this savings looks good to many companies, but as soon as the economy turns around these services are going to go back to the increased costs they deserve and then what? Well in my years I have observed … [Read more...]
You Are What You Say You Are….
Leadership is an elusive quality and few people ever really get it, but as the figurehead of a company you are supposed to know what it means to be a leader and a motivator even if it wasn’t taught to you. In my industry I see a lot of individuals who were really good at their chosen profession and that skill got them thrust into the management arena. Leadership is an elusive … [Read more...]
The Leper in the Room: Workplace Violence
As a business owner I have noticed that entrepreneurs talk about a range of topics and we share some pretty personal details; what doesn’t happen is the talk about violence. We speak about managing teams and dealing with problem performers, but we very rarely speak about what happens when those situations go horribly wrong. To get to the bottom of this I got some advice from … [Read more...]