Management Archives

Scaling Your Business: Not Everybody Makes the Cut

Is your business growing but you’re keeping the same managers? How could this be holding you back? Why does scaling your business mean you may need to replace once-valuable team members? Managing a 5-person team is very different from running a 100-person global sales force. Whenever your company scales, you should be reevaluating your employees. It may be difficult to replace somebody who has done a great job in the past, but you owe it to your company to find the best person for each job. Keep reading to learn what changes you should make when scaling your business.

Should You Adopt Inflated Job Titles?

What are the benefits of giving inflated job titles to your employees? Should you use deflated job titles instead? As your company grows, deciding on job titles will become important. Inflating job titles is one way to attract talent to your company. On the other hand, deflating job titles gives new employees the chance to recalibrate when they join you. Continue reading for more information about inflated and deflated job titles.

The MECE Framework in Organizational Management

What is the MECE framework? How does it work and what are its limitations? The Mutually Exclusive Collectively Exhaustive (MECE) framework is an organizational management system where an organization is divided into units that don’t overlap but collectively cover everything. The main limitation of the MECE framework is that this division limits the ability of units to function adaptively when the situation calls for it. Learn about the MECE framework of organizational management.

The Compensation, Complaint, and Promotion Process

How can having a process for compensation, complaints, and promotions save you a lot of headache? What should those processes look like? Once a company grows, it should start to develop processes around three situations: compensation, promotions, and complaints. Having processes around these subjects will help reduce company politics and set expectations. Continue reading to learn how to learn how to develop a compensation, complaint, and promotion process.

The Team of Teams Book by Stanley McChrystal

What is the Team of Teams book about? What was the role of General Stanley McChrystal in helping the U.S. task force counteract Al Qaeda and capture Zarqawi? Team of Teams is a book that tells the true story of how General Stanley McChrystal transformed the U.S. task force in the middle of the war with Al Qaeda. He did this by cutting down the length of its chain of command to speed up decision-making and increase team agility. Keep reading for more about Team of Teams book by General Stanley McChrystal.

Death by Meeting: The Problematic Employee Meeting

How bad were Casey’s employee meetings in Death by Meeting? How did Will try to salvage Casey’s meeting format? Was it good enough to impress J.T.? In Death by Meeting, Yip Software’s CEO Casey is notoriously bad at running employee meetings. His new assistant Will sits in to assess the situation and is shocked by what he sees. If they don’t improve their meetings, Casey could lose his job. Keep reading to find out why Casey’s employee meetings are so bad and what Will had to say about them.

How to Be a CEO During the Bad Times: The Struggle

When your company isn’t doing well, how can you be a good CEO? How do you get through the hard times without giving up? What is The Struggle? In his book The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz talks about the hard parts of starting a business and being a CEO. He discuses The Struggle that almost every CEO will go through and gives advice on how to get through it. Keep reading for advice on how to be a good CEO and get through The Struggle.

The Death by Meeting Book Backstory: Casey and Yip

In Patrick Lencioni’s book, Death by Meeting, how did Yip CEO Casey go from a PGA golfer to making videogames? What factors halted Yip’s potential growth? Patrick Lencioni’s book Death by Meeting is a business parable about a CEO named Casey who doesn’t know how to lead a productive team meeting. Casey gave up his golf career after a case of the yips and decided to turn his passion for golf into a videogame. Continue reading to learn more about how Casey started Yip Software in the Death by Meeting book.

How to Stop Wasting Time and Start Getting Stuff Done

Do you often find yourself spending time on unproductive activities that add neither value nor enjoyment? How do you stop wasting time and start getting things done? Studies show that most people waste more valuable work time in a day than they realize. This time is wasted dealing with the various distractions thrown their way while they’re trying to work. To stop wasting time, you must learn to say “no” to distractions and “yes” to active focus. Keep reading for tips on how to stop wasting time and start getting things done.

Build a Company Process to Avoid Corporate Politics

How do you know when it’s time to start building an official process at your company? How can well-defined processes help minimize company politics? When adding new employees feels harder than adding more work to your current employees and it’s hindering growth, it’s time to build processes. Processes may seem tedious, but without processes, workplace politics develop and make it a bad place to work. Continue on to learn how to build a company process.