When people are hit with a tragic loss, don't believe for a moment that they're leaving their personal lives at the door. Debilitating diseases, divorce or the death of a loved-one are among the most stressful events anyone can experience.

You opened your business with less than $35,000 operating capital. You have less than five employees. Some say you are crazy. I say people like you are the backbone of the country. And the good news is that there is plenty of help out there for you.

If you want to know how an apparently competent manager can preside over the destruction of team morale and productivity and the exodus of their best staff, this true story provides some salutary lessons.

As someone who strives to create engaging e-learning, I have to admit, I said "no kidding!" when Management-Issues ran a piece entitled "E-learning is a boring distraction". But even though it's often true, it doesn't have to be like this.

What's your story? Study just about any inspiring leader and you will find someone who can tell a story that drives home a point – all the way down to a person's core.

Accurate job descriptions are like stealth secret weapons for hiring, training, and retaining great employees. I guarantee whatever effort you put forth will save you hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars.

Whether you're looking for a good book to give as a gift or you want something for your own reading pleasure, it's time once again for my annual "must read" list.

Manipulation in the workplace is profoundly damaging to employee commitment. And since nobody likes being manipulated, it pays to become a student of how to stand your ground in the face of manipulators.

No workplace is perfect. And while we can usually perform well around people who have a wide range of idiosyncrasies, some behaviors just get under our skin.

Ellen works for a self-serving sociopath who deals ruthlessly with anyone he perceives to be a threat. Dan Bobinski has some advice on how to start a low-key mass mutiny against him without getting terminated.

It's all too easy to get it wrong when hiring a consultant and be left with a bad taste in the mouth. So here are some suggestions that may prove helpful the next time you need to hire outside help.

Jet lag. Delays. Bad hotels. Such are the joys of business travel. But believing that if we're not part of the solution we're part of the problem, I'd like to offer up a few stress reducing tips to make travel better for everyone.

As with any educational endeavor, workplace training is most effective when it engages learners in ways that appeal to them. So if using old, canned presentations have resulted in stale training, perhaps it's time to try a different brand of instruction.

Over the years, dozens of types of leaders have been identified. But as someone who believes that simpler is usually better, I've boiled down all those styles to just two basic types: Builders and Climbers.

Corporations have been cutting corners and forsaking moral purpose in the pursuit of bigger profits for years. Yet as we continue to experience unnecessary illness, polution, death, and disease as a result, isn't it time we answered the question, "how much is enough?"

When a customer brings a complaint to our attention we have a choice. We can be arrogant and pigheaded, or we can listen carefully - and, if necessary, apologize and make it right.

If you're part of management or on an executive team, allow me to say this. Stop making the mistake of ignoring your team's production capability. Production by itself can be propped up only so long.

When an unexpected event interrupts the flow of your business, the results can be devastating. In fact 40 percent of businesses which experience some form of disaster go out of business within five years. But it doesn't have to be that way.

For the business person, personal broadcast media such as blogging and podcasting are very attractive: They are both inexpensive and can be targeted to specific audiences. In fact, there are few reasons NOT to embrace them.

If you try to start a business by the seat of your pants, chances are you're going to lose your shirt. But with so much information out there to help, any budding entrepreneur ought to be able to start and grow a successful, profitable enterprise.

Over the past 25 years, cable TV, the Internet, satellite radio, TiVo, and podcasting have dramatically changed the way we get our information. This begs the question, what is the future of marketing?

It ought to be common knowledge, but it probably bears repeating: People leave their managers more often than they leave companies and jobs. Which means that throwing money at them won't persuade them to stay.

Usually I wait until the end of the year to provide my list of recommended reads. But this year I've had several good books come across my desk and I want to recommend some I think are useful.

Being a Good Samaritan comes naturally to some people - unselfishly helping others is a virtue, not a transgression. But as Colin Bruley found last week, altruism can also lead to getting fired. So it's no surprise that we find an increasing number of people turning away when others are in need.

We all know how easy it is for everything we've ever learned about public speaking to blur into a bowl of pudding while we stammer and stutter over our words. So here are some tips to give you more confidence - and more impact - when talking in front of others.

To remain competitive, organizations need to learn faster than the competition. But knowing that and doing that are two different things – and far too many leaders seem to think that they don't need to learn anything more to succeed.

More older people than ever are starting their own businesses. But why should this be a surprise? After all, 70 is the new 50 - and nothing beats the wisdom forged by experience.

What makes an excellent workplace? The answer could fill a library, but I believe there are some central truths that apply to just about any business. See if you agree.

I've lost count of the number of times I've heard someone in an organization say: "Our communication needs to improve." Although it may well be true, that's about as useful as standing in the rain saying, "our clothes are getting wet."

Thinking about Katie Couric and the woes at CBS News, it struck me that what she has done is what many other successful people do - make a shift away from an area of tremendous achievement - only to find that career changes don't always turn out as planned.

Some of Sue's employees don't clock in or out whenever they want to take long lunches or leave early. When asked they cannot remember when they came in or left. How can she get a grip on this situation?

Investing in your workforce means more than just paying them well. It means equipping people with skills and enabling them with authority. Because without opportunities to learn and grow, people quickly become bored and disengaged.

I'm up to my eyeballs with frustration at the direction many companies are taking with "e-mail only" customer service. It has reached the point where I will no longer do business with companies that won't talk with their paying customers.

Most of us are tired of wasting time at unfocused meetings, especially when they are supposed to be about strategy. So here are three simple rules to keep meetings moving and on target.

Many entrepreneurs have a passion for their products, not a background in business. So startups can give themselves a better chance of surviving if they create a board of advisors to provide regular, outside perspectives on internal and external situations.

Far, far too many managers stifle the creativity and commitment of their people simply by the way they behave. But if they started doing more listening and less bossing, employee creativity and involvement might re-emerge.

If more managers and leaders understood the root causes and costs of stress, they would do something about it and it wouldn't be the problem that it is.

Everyone has motivation. What slows people down or stops them altogether is not lack of motivation, but the presence of obstacles. So if we're ever going to help people who are perceived to be lacking in motivation, we need to identify these obstacles and figure out how to get rid of them.

As the US Congress moves to increase the minimum wage, we're hearing lots of theories and opinions on the pros and cons. But lets just stop and answer one question: What is the purpose of the minimum wage?

It's a long-standing axiom that the customer is always right. But is it true? No. But since customers make the purchase decisions, they'll always have the last word.

When it comes to keeping employees safe in the face of a major disaster and/or terrorist action, most workplaces are woefully unprepared. So what should we be planning for?

I see a lot of parallels between the ocean and technology. At times we get smooth, steady growth. But sometimes new gadgets and technologies come flooding into our lives so fast that it's all we can do to keep our head above water.

They're cynics. They're gloomy. They're sarcastic and grumpy. They focus on the worst possible outcomes. But nevertheless, we ought to value pessimists or we might overlook potentially dangerous obstacles.

All too often, our New Year resolutions fail to become reality. For many of us, they have faded into the woodwork and been forgotten by Valentine's Day. So what can we do to turn our resolutions into reality?

It's too easy to get myopic as we work toward our goals. When that happens we miss learning opportunities and work itself can become more of a burden than it needs to be. Remember, some of the biggest rewards come during the journey, not at the destination.

December is when many retailers make a huge chunk of their annual sales. But with this month-long surge in customers overtaxing even the best employees, what can be done to make the shopping season more enjoyable for all?

It's gift-giving season once again, and time for my annual "must read" list. Whether you're looking for a holiday gift for someone else or you're looking to sharpen your own thinking, some valuable golden nuggets exist in each of these titles.

Employees not working. Employees being disruptive. Employees stealing. Have you ever have to fire someone? Make no mistake, terminating an employee is one of the most difficult tasks required of any manager.

When growth occurs, it's a good thing, right? Perhaps not. Manageable growth is good, but grow too fast and you could quickly end up a sitting duck for failure.

More than half of all email is spam. And since spammers are wasting the time and money of people everywhere, surely it's time we do something more to go after them.

Life is too short to spend eight hours a day doing something you don't care about. But you don't have to stay stuck working in a job you don't care about. Work in your area of passion! You'll get to be who you really are, live a more fulfilling life and actually enjoy what you spend your time doing.

Resolving complaints is easy when trust exists. Yet many efforts at resolving complaints fail for one primary reason, namely fear. When our natural fear of losing something or not getting something we want takes over our brain, our ability to understand another person's perspective usually goes out the window.

As a manager or leader, your job description includes handling complaints. It might not be written down anywhere, but the task comes with the territory.

Chronic complainers can be a drain on workplace morale and productivity. It's perfectly reasonable to have a complaint, but how you choose to handle it determines whether you're a workplace professional, or a professional complainer.

In work, as in life, people are going to let us down and break our trust. But if we're going to move forward, we have to find a way to forgive, however counter-intuitive this might seem.

For years, people have run into doctors at social events and the next thing you know they're looking for advice about their aches and pains. Most people know this is bad form, but it raises the question of where to draw the line between conversation and consulting.

They're sprouting up everywhere. They're people who sit at their desks all day without getting much done. The Internet appears to be one major culprit, computer games another - and it is costing employers a fortune.

It seems that the value of integrity is increasingly taking a back seat to short-term success. Unfortunately, this dangerous practice has long-lasting, negative ripple effects to the workplace - as well as to society as a whole.

By itself, instinct can be incredible. It's what sparks our imagination, enables our creativity, and takes us to new heights. But although instinct can be a powerful ally (just ask Yoda), sometimes it can be dangerously deceptive (just ask Anakin Skywalker).

Focusing only on your rights doesn't make you assertive, just selfish and aggressive. Assertiveness is a balance of standing up for our your desires along with a genuine understanding of the other person's point of view.

We hear all sorts of talk these days about the importance of innovation. But what exactly is innovation, and what is its value in the workplace?

If a gardener simply gave a plant an intimidating look and barked out a command to "grow", you'd think he was crazy. So why do we put up with this sort of behaviour in managers?

Good interpersonal skills are fundamental to true empowerment. Companies will only create conditions for people to take responsibility and ownership of their work if they teach good management practices and ensure people are taught how to work well with each other.

When you find yourself in hot water, what kind of effect do you have on the environment? Do you become bitter and turn your surroundings bitter as well? Or are you soothing, with a corresponding ripple effect on those around you?

People will willingly engage in change if they have genuine input to the process. So if we want a successful change effort, we need to change how we implement change. If we don't, we just might be a little insane.

Whenever people work together, conflict is an inevitable result. Disagreements occur in even the best working relationships. But how conflict is addressed can either add to or take away from a company's bottom line.

As the sad succession of recent corporate and political scandals have highlighted, those in positions of power are not immune from the seductive dangers of addiction. So what makes a good apple go bad - and what can those who have power do to ensure they it doesn't happen to them?

If you're fed up with ceaseless demands for results from "the man" without any respect in return, why not join the growing ranks of those who have turned their backs on thankless work within impersonal corporate entities and started their own businesses?

Finding top salespeople can be like searching for the sharpest needles - in a pile of needles. Many companies continue to hire on gut instinct, but without a good process you're likely to get poked a few times.

Why is it that some people get so much done in a day while others operate at a hectic pace with little to show for it? Strange as it may seem, the answer may lie in too much multitasking.

What brings success? Is it better leaders? Better products? Better salespeople? What about better performance management systems? Possibly, but the one thing that brings sustained high performance is how well people communicate with each other.

When our shopping experience is negative, statistics show it takes only two such incidents and we're likely to shop elsewhere. That's not a lot of wiggle room. Think of it as "two strikes and you're out."

Why do so many employers use such extensive efforts to find high-quality candidates only to restrict their initiative and ingenuity once they become employees?

Getting promoted is a common goal, but perhaps the most difficult promotion is transitioning from line worker to front-line supervisor. Why? Because the skills that made one successful in the rank and file are not the skills one needs for success as a supervisor.

How can you avoid becoming buried under piles of paper? According to the new breed of organizing experts, the secret lies in creating and maintaining viable, user-friendly systems for all aspects of your work.

The biggest mistakes in business are usually made when leaders react instead of act. Reflex actions are rarely effective when compared to actions borne out of a well-thought-out strategy.

As cold as it may sound, the only thing constant in this world is change. And if we're going to survive, we need to learn to roll with the changes.

Measuring time is fundamental for a great deal of trade and commerce, but misusing the clock is a common workplace ill which is all too often tolerated.

The ability to stand up and talk does not a trainer make. And in the same way, just because we show someone how to do something doesn't mean they've learned.

It's sad, really. After so much research on the benefits of Emotional Intelligence, too many managers and leaders continue to ignore the facts. They're stuck in their old patterns of intimidation and coercion, demoralizing employees and creating attitudes of grudging compliance.