Watching a movie that was set in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains happened to remind me of a line from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book: “For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.” I believe this sentiment to be true in business as well as in nature.

Does your mission inspire people to come to work? Does the vision tell people where you want the business to go? Are your core values really the guiding principles that the business uses to manage internal and external relationships? Beyond these, and as an alternative to simply paying significantly higher wages to outbid the competition, elements to consider in creating the differentiation, that uniqueness, are non-traditional benefits.

Now, more than ever, it’s a “buyer’s market” for labor with workers having the power to choose the organization, culture and job opportunity they want to “buy.” Your task is to be sure that your business entices the right employees to want to buy it over others.

There was a time when new hire orientation meant the new employee spent a day or two in the office filling out forms, signing documents, and reading a slew of company literature and policies, many of which were outdated. 

Numerous articles have been written about the importance of having the right people in an organization. The group of employees that make up a business—the team—is one of the few remaining sources of sustainable competitive advantage.

A recent article in our local newspaper about evaluating the qualifications of teachers around the turn of the 20th century caught my attention. 

Each of the attributes we’ve covered in this series on Emotional Intelligence (EQ) builds on the others. That is certainly the case with this fourth and final installment where we cover the element of Relationship Management. 

The first two articles in this four-part series on Emotional Intelligence (EQ) (part I, part 2) introduced the overall concept and explored the characteristics that are widely believed to make up what is termed “personal competence”—our ability to stay aware of our emotions and manage our behavior and tendencies.

Part one in this four-part series provided an introduction to the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EQ), including identification of the four characteristics that are generally agreed to be at its core.

It isn’t necessarily the smartest people who are the most successful or feel most fulfilled in life. You may know someone who is academically smart yet is socially inept and unsuccessful at work or in their personal relationships.