Team building remains one of the most vital functions for long-term success in business. The reasons are many, but as more and more employees leave the workforce for more personally fulfilling options such as home-based businesses, the decline in both morale and available talent is diminished. One of the top reasons people leave their jobs is that they feel unappreciated or undervalued.

My guess is that if you are reading this, you want to achieve more. Most of us wish that we could be more effective in our jobs and have a higher level of satisfaction. Believe it or not, this has a lot to do with successfully setting and following through on your goals. To get you off on the right track, here is a tried and tested goal setting strategy to set and achieve your goals.

You might be able to attract people with high value skills through a well-presented ad. However, to keep them with you, your organization must have put in place workforce management policies that make these people want to continue with the organization. The policies must fit in with the organization and the place where it is located. If the policies are incompatible with the existing organization and place, they are likely to remain just book policies that will not be implemented in their true spirit. We look at some standard workforce management policies that can create an environment that make people want to remain with you.

Great teamwork is one of the most important keys to your company'’s success. The more harmoniously people work together, the better it is for your company. Teamwork is the way that things get done these days, –and if you don'’t have a cohesive team, you’’re seriously handicapping your company out in the marketplace. Team building is necessary for success because it’'s unnatural for people to come together in a new group and immediately begin to get along.

If you search for “why businesses fail” you will get millions of results talking about the pitfalls and untold reasons why businesses go out of business. Instead of the focusing on what went wrong, focus on planning and building for success. Outcomes that are focused on are typically the outcomes that are generated. If you want to build a successful business you need to focus on success.  We can learn a great deal from businesses that fail and apply that knowledge to actions step that propel a business toward success and away from failure. Here are some important elements of a successful business to consider.

It’s that time of year again: the time of holiday parties, Christmas cards to write, shopping to do (even online at work!), vacations, family commitments, and more stress. It is no wonder that a recent survey by Accountemps found that 44% of executives feel employees are less productive the week before a major holiday. While this may be true, there are ways in which we as leaders can counteract all of the distractions and stress and help people be as productive now as the rest of the year.

... Not too long ago, a colleague had a problem with her knee and after seeing her family doctor she was referred to a knee specialist - a specialist considered one of the best in Indianapolis. When she called for an appointment, she feared the worst. Instead, she had an appointment within 24 hours.

My guess is that as you read each of these short stories, you were surprised at the level of service. The fact is, this level of service should be the norm, but sadly isn't. Our experience has lowered the expectations of most of us. But there is good news...

"For what we've discovered, and rediscovered, is that leadership isn't the private reserve of a few charismatic men and women. It's a process ordinary people use when they're bringing forth the best from themselves and others. Liberate the leader in everyone, and extraordinary things happen." – James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, The Leadership Challenge: How to Keep Getting Extraordinary Things Done in Organizations.

Leadership is a verb, not a noun. Leadership is action, not a position. Leadership is defined by what we do, not the role we are in. Some people in "leadership roles" are excellent leaders. But too many are bosses, "snoopervisors," technocrats, bureaucrats, managers, commanders, chiefs, and the like. Conversely, many people who have no formal leadership role are excellent leaders. In today's fast changing world, we all need to be leaders.

People choose to buy from you, offer help, and grant rewards based on trust. In many ways, trust is your most valuable resource. Stephen Covey in his book The Speed of Trust tells us that, "when trust goes up, speed goes up and cost goes down."  Here are a few of the ways to increase your success by building trust. While you may already do most of these things, missing even one of them can ruin it all.

For years, I have tried to answer this one question: What do businesses that achieve sustained growth do differently from those that stagnate or fail?

As an executive coach, I speak to a variety of different types of business owners each year. I’ve learned that there are no silver bullets or 17-point checklists that will lead to guaranteed growth. There are, however, seven specific areas in which growth companies concentrate their efforts.