management
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Performance Evaluations Waste Time and Money
- October 11, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Measurement
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Annual performance evaluations are generally useless. I actually did away with them because I found people would generally work extra hard two weeks before the evaluation, and counted on management not to remember all the things they screwed up along the way. But if you have an effective daily, weekly, and monthly measurement system, you
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How Do You Determine the Value of an Employee?
- October 4, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Measurement
Many people don’t realize, but the left guard on an NFL team is often the second-highest paid player on the team, right after the quarterback. That’s because that player guards the back of a right-handed quarterback, his “blind” side. After Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann had his femur snapped by Lawrence Taylor during a 1985
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How the Right Materials Management Person Saved Us Millions of Dollars
- September 27, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Manufacturing
When you say materials management to a non-manufacturing person, they often have visions of moving boxes around or driving raw materials around the factory on a forklift. When you say materials management to a manufacturer, they often think of the most important person in the building. The Materials Manager is quite literally responsible for the
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Surround Yourself With People Smarter Than You, and Listen to Them
- August 23, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Management
In talking with other C-level executives, I’ve learned I was rather unusual in the manufacturing world, especially in the great state of Texas. When it came to our management structure, 60 percent of our managers were women. I always appreciated that, not only because the women I hired were amazingly competent, but they didn’t have
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Treat People Fairly, and They’ll Be Fair With You
- August 9, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Leadership
I’ve always tried to treat people fairly, even going above and beyond what’s expected of me. I’ve been in more than a few situations that I didn’t need to do this. I wouldn’t have done anything wrong, and I could have received a small benefit to myself in the end. But by treating the other
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If You’re Going to Do Something, Do It Right or Don’t Do It
- July 27, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Management
A few months ago, after I left Robroy and started my own consultancy, I received a very nice note from an old manufacturer’s rep named Jack, and it brought back a lot of memories. David, I keep up with you through Brian C. and John S.. I’ll never forget you calling me when you got
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Hire Slow and Fire Fast to Avoid Workplace Toxicity
- July 19, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Management
Toxic employees can have a negative effect on company morale and production. Their bad behavior doesn’t just limit them and their accomplishments. It spreads like a sickness to the people who work around them, causing all kinds of internal strife and dissatisfaction. Even your star employees, who are probably pulling the weight of the toxic
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The Importance of Direct Communication Between Management and Labor
- July 12, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management
A few weeks ago, I talked about how I was never afraid of unions when I was the president of Robroy Industries. That’s because as the person whose name appeared on everyone’s checks, I always reserved the right to direct communication with anyone, one-on-one, about any issue, whether it was a shared interest or something
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Does the Office Make the Person, or Does the Person Make the Office?
- June 1, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Manufacturing
There’s a leadership problem in this country that often has to do with people being promoted because of their technical expertise and not their leadership qualities or people skills. They assume they’re a leader simply because their job title says Manager or Director, only to find that no one respects them. I think of this
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Forever to Build, Lost in a Moment
- May 3, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Management
“To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.” I’ve always been a big fan of Winston Churchill, and as I was growing up, I adopted several of his quotes as philosophies to live by. This month, I’ll discuss four