Last week on an upgraded flight between Denver and Orlando, I was given a warm cookie after the meal service. This is a nice touch United Airlines does and has done for first class passengers for years. But as I examined the little brown paper sack the cookie came in, I was amused by the…
A customer service manager of a regional banking chain recently told me about a challenge her managers were having in getting young tellers to handle incoming calls when they were assigned phone duty. “It’s astounding how many will answer our business line by just saying ‘Hello’ or ‘Yo. Wat up? This is Monique.’ It’s almost…
If you woke up today and discovered that you had won millions in last evening’s lottery drawing, would you still work? Always a great conversation starter, the number of Americans responding ‘yes’ has declined from over 80% in 1955 to 66% in recent years according to Psychology Today. So what happens when there are people…
Michele Klein, HR Manager for Fidelity Exploration and Production (a large player in the booming oil and gas industry) was doing an exit interview with an engineer who was leaving to take a similar job with a competitor. As her final question, she asked, “If we had known that you were thinking about leaving several…
“…but he interviewed so well!” the frustrated manager lamented at a leadership conference I presented for last week. “He was so sharp…so prepared. I thought he’d be a great fit. But when he came in for training, he was like a totally different person.” “That’s because you didn’t interview him. You probably interviewed his parents.” I…
There is an epic war being fought along the front lines of every business in the world. Business owners and managers across all industries are engaged in heavy conflict with employees who aren’t able to get through a shift without checking the screen on their smart phones, many of whom check it every couple of…
