Category Archives: Leadership

Year End Bonuses: Incentive or Entitlement?

It’s time for our annual discussion of the Holiday bonus.I pine for the days of my spiritual ancestor Ebenezer, who was offended at the expectation that he would pay Cratchit a whole day’s wages without receiving any work in return. One year … Continue reading

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Success: Is Good Enough, Good Enough?

On Friday’s On Point program on NPR, Devlin Barrett and Tom Ricks discussed the burgeoning “Generals’ Affair” scandal. This weekend, the Wall Street Journal has a commentary by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, which reinforces several analyses in that paper … Continue reading

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Employee Confidentiality: Circles Within Circles

The father of a friend, a rancher in South Texas, conveys confidential information by preceding it with the following caution. “Now I’m going to tell you a secret, and you have to swear not to tell another soul. And when … Continue reading

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Employee Motivation: The Effect of the Economy

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter delivered his “Crisis of Confidence” speech, commonly referred to as his “Malaise Speech” although he never actually used that word. To a country reeling from stagflation and an oil crisis, it was an additional blow to … Continue reading

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Politically Speaking: Do Small Business Owners Have a Voice?

The political parties have completed their prime-time convention pageantry, and are buckling down for the 60 day dash to the election. Both profess to be focused on the”little guy,” the middle class backbone of America. One party says that you … Continue reading

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