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In last month’s blog I discussed the importance of bringing JOY back into the workplace. It starts with your individual JOY as a manager or owner. Your joy really is the secret of the employee recruitment and retention game. It is what puts the excitement, challenge, and achievement back into…

By Joe Lair, A Brandt Group Trainer When is the last time you gave yourself a grade about anything to do with you and your business? Not the type of grade where you let yourself off the hook easy but an honest grade about you and your business. I sit…

By Ayesha Ashley, A Brandt Group Trainer Do you need a translator at work? Do you feel as if you are not understood by your boss or colleagues at work? Do they sometimes give instructions that make little sense to you? This is very likely to be a question of…

Over the past 18-24 months the economy has changed drastically. The national banking crisis has trickled down throughout our local economy affecting every business in one way or another. Decreasing sales translate into businesses having to make drastic cuts to their staffing levels. As businesses are paring down their staff,…

When the subject of providing “Exceptional Customer Service” comes up it is natural to start thinking about employees of a particular business. Yes employees are essential, but they are not the only element in building Exceptional Customer Service. There are many factors that influence the success or failure of a…

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Most businesses have finalized their income and expenses for 2009 and are putting the finishing touches on their 2010 budget. The budgets that are developed consist of a series of incremental goals that will enable them to achieve their objectives. Trying to run a business without setting…

Last month I received several phone calls and a few emails regarding my column on setting personal goals. There I outlined 10 critical goal areas that affect your life. These goals are: Personal, Health, Recreation, Family, Friendship, Community, Career, Financial, Household, and Spiritual. Everyone that responded understood the importance of…

I have a painting in my office of an old time Sailing Ship that is fighting a fierce storm. The waves have completely engulfed the ship and all you see are the sails projecting out of the waves. This image serves as a metaphor for my personal and professional life.…

NEWS FLASH … City Manager suspended for one week without pay for role in hiring policy. Have you kept up on the news regarding the expanded background checks that the City of Bozeman was requiring of all job candidates’? Those checks included asking for their personal social websites, usernames and…

If this is what you are hearing from your staff when you announce that you are having an employee meeting, something is seriously wrong. It is a fact that the vast majority of business meetings are boring time-wasters. With that I can understand why it is common to hear “no…

The last ten months of this NEW ECONOMY have proved to be a trying time for anyone working in business. Revenues have been in a free fall for some time now. Many businesses have seen revenue levels drop anywhere from 10 – 40 percent. That decrease represented the profits for…

In the spring of 1980, two years after graduating from MSU, my wife Penny and I were fortunate enough to buy an acre and a half of land. We quickly started building our dream home south of Bozeman near Hyalite Creek. Our home was completed by the end of July.…