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Our Skills and Where They Come From: A Case for Supporting Professional Development
When we’re recruiting new employees, skills are everything. We shuffle our eyes across the lines of our applicants’ resumes, perform a quick assessment, and ask the all important question: do they have the right skills? But for something that’s so essential at the...
Stressing the Importance of Managerial Accountability
This month’s post will be the last in our series on accountability. So far, we’ve looked at where accountability comes from and the challenges that come with maintaining standards of accountability while managing employees’ strengths and weaknesses. These first two...
Managing People, Maintaining Accountability
Our study of accountability continues this month, and now that we have a fuller understanding of what accountability is and where it comes from, we can look at some of the complexities of developing a culture of accountability. Last month’s post finished by addressing...
Accountability: What is It and Where Does It Come From?
Accountability is an afterthought for many organizations. It is an element of corporate life that hides in the background until a deadline is missed, an angry client complains to the company, or something similarly frustrating occurs. When these sorts of things...
Looking Like You Don’t Care: Perceived Indifference and the Damage Done
You enter a store for the first time and survey the products available. You know what you want, but not where it’s located. Feeling a shade out of place, you crane your neck, hoping to make eye contact with the clerk, but he seems preoccupied and doesn’t notice you...
Organizational Alignment
We recently read a great article that we wanted to share with you. Organizational Alignment “Think of alignment as a playbook for the entire company, just like in sports. For a coach to make sure every player is on the same page and goals are made, that playbook needs...
Virtual CFO
As a business owner, we know you are very busy working in your business, delivering services to your customers. The whole administration and finance area just isn’t your priority when fighting the urgent daily fires. Before you know it, your year end has...
Lead Yourself First
We all have heard that great leaders exert great influence over others, that leadership is a guarantor of sustained key performances and therefore leads to better bottom lines. So how do we become great leaders? To lead others effectively you must be able to lead...
The Essential Vacation. Have you taken one?
Over the years, I can’t tell you how many small and medium-sized business owners I have talked to that have not taken any vacation time. They consider a vacation a luxury that they can’t afford. Arguments include “I don’t have time!” “The business can’t...
Fitter Employees = Higher Productivity
"Sitting is the new smoking." Who has not heard this catch phrase making its round on our national media? And it is true that uninterrupted sitting combined with physical inactivity elevates the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer...
Canada Revenue – Audits and Scams
Canada Revenue Audit The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has recently commenced a corporate post-assessing limited review project on Class 10 (vehicles) additions, focusing on tax years ended in 2015. Read what you need to know about the review » Please notify us...
The Power of an Idea is in its Implementation
I first heard this expression when I attended a conference years ago and it has stayed with me. I operate on this mantra and when working with business owners I often remind them that the power of an idea is in its implementation. We all have ideas … ideas that can...
Crushed by CashFlow Crunch?
I started writing this blog with the idea of writing about the top 5 ways to improve your cash flow but the more I thought about it, it is not information that is needed, it is the motivation to action! More businesses fail due to poor cash flow than poor...
You Get What You Tolerate
Thought to ponder: “As a leader, you get what you tolerate.” (Susan Scott, Fierce Conversations) Being a leader is a huge responsibility. As a business owner, it is our responsibility to set the vision, values and tone of the organization and aligning the team to...
Looking to the Future: Ask Yourself These 5 Questions
Setting goals and creating resolutions are essential first steps to achieving more. In fact, taking the time to examine your goals and how you are tracking towards achieving them should be a regular discipline. However, for many business owners, the day to day...
‘Tis the Season
'Tis the season in which many employers like to show their employees how much they appreciate all their hard work throughout the year. Could you think of any better way than to provide your employees with an up to $500 tax free gift? Especially if such a gift would...
Winds of Change – Creating Value for Your Customers
In my last blog post, I wrote about recognizing and embracing change. However, this is easier said than done because our brains are wired to follow similar thought processes that often leave us stuck in our thinking. In today’s world of rapid change, a new way of...
Tax Update
Proposed tax rules In the summer, the federal government introduced potential changes to the tax rules that impacted private corporations. Since then the government has backed off on most of the proposed changes. Two major changes are still in discussion: 1. Income...