Cher or Thatcher: Does grammar matter in the workplace?
Why bother with grammar? Why do we need it? It’s too complicated. Who cares anyway? With Twitter and Facebook and SMS-speak, people understand what we are saying without our having to get all that grammar stuff right; and, of course, spelling doesn’t matter any more. Or does it? Well, Twitter exploded in a frenzy on…
Read More...Managing discipline: a foreign country?
Is the disciplinary process a foreign country for you? Owners and manager of small to medium-size organisations often keep away from discipline until an impossible employee needs to be fired. By then it’s far too late. Too much damage has been done. The employee has perhaps damaged relationships with clients, the manager has been driven…
Read More...It’s not my fault: employees and managers missing each other
South Africans have a blind spot when it comes to understanding the difference between fault and responsibility. “It’s not my fault that my car’s brakes failed,” we say, and we think that’s the end of the story. If it’s not my fault, somehow I don’t have to take responsibility. I have found this to be…
Read More...Taking employees with you
One of the trends in customer service to which the gurus are pointing is an employee-first, rather than a customer-first approach. Ivana Taylor from DIY Marketers writes, “It looks like the tide is shifting away from putting the focus on the customer, to putting it on the employee who delivers that experience.” As I mentioned in…
Read More...Customer Service: Finding the Key
The quality of a customer’s experience has a direct bearing on sales and profits: insights from local companies
Read More...What your boss wants?
In a recent survey top South African CEOs were asked for three things they most valued and three things they least valued in their employees. Passion, boldness and a positive, can-do attitude topped the list of valuable traits. A strong emotional intelligence and a willingness to work hard were also valued attributes. Skills and qualifications…
Read More...Entrepreneurs and lazy thinking
I have heard it said by a CEO, as an excuse for his own attitude, that great entrepreneurs are lousy with people. Steve Jobs comes to mind, and his name is often used by those who wish to justify their own disinterest in people management skills. The reality is that such comments represent lazy thinking.…
Read More...How to Make Employee Engagement Work
Managers assume that employees know what the company wants to achieve, what their role is, and why it’s important. They usually don’t.
Read More...Welcome to Simply Communicate
Welcome to Simply Communicate. I started Simply Communicate with the aim of simply helping people communicate. By that I mean, helping them communicate the message they intended to communicate. Because, whether we like or not, we all communicate, all of the time. Even silence speaks volumes, as when a wife asks her husband, “Do I…
Read More...- « Previous
- 1
- …
- 18
- 19
- 20