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6 Communication Tips for Leaders of Teams
There’s a quote from The Team Handbook, one of the “gold standard” reads on the nature and dynamic of teams, which I think nicely sums up the teamwork challenge: “A team is a complicated creature. Members must work out personal differences, find strength on which to build, and balance commitment to the project against the…
Read MoreWhat the World’s Worst Corporate Team Building Event Looks Like
As the owner of a corporate team building company in New York City, I’ve got my work cut out for me to ensure that our events meet and exceed the high expectations of the most important firms and brands in the world. When striving to create the ideal activity, it’s important to imagine not only…
Read MoreHow to Get Your Bar Trivia Night Banned from Yelp
I’m taking a break today from writing about corporate team building and employee entertainment to recount one of my war stories from the land of pub trivia. Back when I was first starting out in 2006 as a bar quizmaster on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the bartender Paul and I developed a wacky idea: make…
Read More7 Things Your Employees Fear the Most
It’s the summer of 2011, yet we are still reeling from the economic meltdown of the fall of 2008. Employees at all levels are anxious about their job security, and for good reason – Bloomberg recently reported that the economy remains “spongy,” and economic growth isn’t as robust as we’d hoped. Besides the obvious fear…
Read More6 Easy Ways to Make Your Employees Love You
“How can I maintain employee loyalty and retain good talent?” If you’re like other smart managers, you ask yourself this question every day. The era of the lifelong employee who gets a gold watch are long over, and if the recent recession has taught us anything, it’s that knowledge workers want to keep their skills…
Read MoreNear-Sighted Leadership: What You Can’t See from 10,000 Feet
As I write this post, I am currently onboard an airplane, 10,000 feet up in the sky – the same perch (metaphorically, anyway) that leaders use to view their businesses. From way up here, it is possible to see your company as a whole: what it looks like, where it’s headed, and how you will…
Read More7 Employee Concerns Managers Shouldn’t Ignore
Whether your business is local or global, retaining good talent has never been more important for firms who wish to compete in today’s digital marketplace. However, despite an unstable economy, knowledge workers are still free agents, and won’t show loyalty to companies that they feel aren’t living up to their side of the employment “contract.…
Read MoreWhat “The Fighter” Can Teach Us About Building Teams
During a long flight this weekend, I had the chance to watch “The Fighter.” Without spoiling it too much, the film follows a welterweight boxer from a small town on his road to world champion. Coming from a large, highly involved household of boxing fanatics, the fighter must choose between his old team – his…
Read More30 Clues That Your Company Has a Morale Issue
Recent studies have shown that low employee morale leads to reduced productivity, higher turnover and unhappy customers. Common sense also dictates that when staff feels dispirited or underappreciated, they will not do their jobs as effectively, efficiently or with great care. As a business owner or senior manager, how do you know when your people…
Read MoreWhat to Do When the Boss Wants a “Team Building Activity”
So the head of the company has spontaneously decided he/she wants to have a “team building activity,” and has dropped this assignment in your lap. As the operations manager, department head, HR director or summer intern, it is suddenly your responsibility to identify, arrange and execute an event for staff, with little or no guidance.…
Read More6 Tips on Avoiding Bad Hires
My first job out of college was a disaster. Not sure what I wanted to do, I was desperate to take any entry level job, and luckily found one doing data entry & analysis. You can probably tell right away that “data entry” wouldn’t be the job of choice for a right-brain guy who would…
Read MoreHow to Maximize Slim Budgets When Entertaining Employees
The recession isn’t over like we thought. As reported last week, only 18,000 US jobs were created last month, and unemployment is still over 9%. In this type of economy, 2 realities emerge: 1) employees aren’t as likely to leave the security of their jobs, and 2) they are going to be working harder for…
Read MoreDoes Retaining Good Talent Even Matter?
As a business owner, HR director or department head, it’s something you no doubt think about constantly: how do I find and retain the best talent possible? Even in an unstable economy, there is a premium on good talent and people who can get things done, and managers who care about the long-term health of…
Read More25 Awesomely Funny Trivia Team Names
Seeing how this is the first “Summer Friday” of the season, I thought it’d be fun to do something light and entertaining, and reach back into my archives and pull out the funniest trivia team names I’ve encountered over the years. Having produced nearly 350 public and private trivia parties in NYC and elsewhere, one…
Read MoreWhich Era is Your Corporate Culture From?
My wife and I just saw the new Woody Allen film “Midnight in Paris” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Not to spoil it for those who haven’t already seen, but basically the premise is a guy goes to Paris, and finds himself inexplicably transported at the stroke of midnight to different eras of Parisian…
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