One of the great regrets of my life is not having served in the military. I’ve become painfully aware of my lack of service since moving to the D.C. area, where it […]
Born Lucky: Playing Warren Buffett’s Ovarian Lottery
Warren Buffett says he was born lucky. Being born in America, in the 1930s, without having to overcome barriers of race or gender, combined with the power of compound interest, allowed Buffett […]
Having Kids Won’t Kill Your Career, But Seeking Work/Life Balance Might
Kids are generally thought of as little career killers for their parents. I can understand why. Kids take up a lot of a parent’s time with their need for attention and supervision, […]
The Top 10 Tips For Being A Great Manager (Not Really)
The other day a new guy asked me, “Can you give me some tips?” I think he wanted me to give him one of those top ten lists, you know, the ten […]
Screen Addiction
I read this Newsweek article called “Is the Internet Making Us Crazy” last week. It’s about how people are becoming more addicted to the web, digital devices, and screens in general. I am […]
Entropy Always Increases – The second law of thermodynamics applied to business management
Why do we experience time in one direction? In other words, why do we remember the past, and know nothing about the future? And why is it a complete certainty that my company and your company will some day go out of business?
Management Skills: Never Be A Victim
The CEO of my company once gave me some great advice. I asked him what the best part about being CEO was. He said the best part was this great feeling of […]
The Perfect Job
Enjoy your stupid barbecue America. I hope it rains on your pool party. Working Memorial Day weekend is one part of my retail management job I will never get used to. In fact, […]
Obsession
I’m obsessed. “Stop checking that damn phone,” is the advice I get from my wife on off days. Each hour I get an automatic email with a sales update, and sometimes I […]
Results (Money) Are The Only Thing That Matters
When I was twenty-one I landed my first real management job as a restaurant manager at a Marriott. And when I first started this job, our food and beverage department was performing […]
Time
My time is beginning to pass faster. I barely noticed it. The other day Kelly and I were looking at some pictures from when we first met, and, boy, I looked a […]
Demma’s Employee Engagement Curve: How managers can fight performance atrophy
I have a hypothesis that most employees naturally follow the below engagement curve. Without intervention from management, employees who begin in an enthusiastic honeymoon stage eventually slide into negative contribution and finally […]
When The Monster Stops Growing, It Dies
I am lucky to work for a growth company. We also happen to be the industry leader, by a huge margin, but this doesn’t stop us from aggressively pursuing more growth. In […]
More Communication Is Better
I love this phrase – “more communication is better” – which I am shamelessly stealing from Mark Hortsman and Mike Auzenne of Manager Tools. This week I took Mike and Mark’s advice. […]
Stop Reading Books, Start Reading Literature
I used to read a lot self help books. I figured I could learn how to manage myself and my direct reports better by reading, so I read books like Think and Grow […]