Article

Leadership Development

Decisions, Part One — Choosing a Decision Style

Regardless of your actual title in an organization, your job involves making decisions. New staff members start making decisions the day they are hired, and beginning with their decision to accept the job, we hope their decisions will be good ones. One of the basic tenets of Bottom-Line Training — clear, documented expectations — is […]

Leadership Development

Levels of Learning

Congratulations! You made it through the holidays. And if you’re taking the time to read this column, you must have made it through more or less intact. In the best case, it was your biggest holiday season to date and you’re feeling wonderful about how smoothly everything went — despite all the things that went […]

Training & Business Systems

Training Resolutions

Happy New Year! As the retail world catches its breath after the whirlwind of the holidays, many managers find their New Year’s resolutions include “doing something to improve training.” How about you? Now that there’s hope for a little down time, does training figure in as one of the projects you hope to accomplish? Very […]

Training & Business Systems

Management’s Role in Effective Training

My formal education was first in German literature and then later in business administration. What I know about training design, development and delivery, I’ve learned through on-the-job practice and self-study. I’ve gone to lots of seminars, designed hundreds of classes and workshops, and helped to implement effective training here at Zingerman’s. Along the way, I’ve […]

Customer Service

Giving Great Service to Your Staff

We all know service is important—right?  We’d be surprised if there were a company left in the US which hasn’t incorporated some version of “the customer is always right” into its employee handbook.  Every politician and business leader can quote statistics about the pros and cons of the relentless move towards a “service economy.” And […]