July Top 10

1. 4 Things Employees Need to Boost Productivity
A study of 19,000 employees from a wide range of industries reveal that if your company meets just one of these core needs your employees will be more engaged, productive, and bring in more money. But if you meet all four...

2. 5 Powerful SEO and Content Marketing Techniques that Took My Website to 320k Visitors Per Month
I was looking at the traffic for my swimming pool website today and a smile came to my face as I saw we had annihilated our previous traffic records for a single month by reaching over 320,000 visitors to the site during the month of June. As I sat and pondered these numbers, I was brought back to thinking about the different ways we were able to achieve this incredible growth, and what exactly this means for other businesses looking to achieve the same.

3. How To Know When It's Time To Fire Someone
Here's how to figure out if your employees are worth giving a second chance.

4. Bye-Bye Brainteasers: 9 Interview Questions You Actually Should Ask Candidates
When you're interviewing people to join your team, you have to get creative somehow. There's only so much that questions like "What was the last book you read?" and "Where do you see yourself in five years?" reveal about who your candidates truly are as professionals and as people.  To help give you some ideas for the next time you're screening candidates, here are nine interview questions you should ask.

5. How to Override Your Default Reactions in Tough Moments
“It’s 9:00am, you’re across the table from a colleague who doesn’t like you or the changes you’re proposing, she’s pushing all your hot-buttons and resisting your efforts to get her to support the change. What’s your typical reaction?”

6. 3 Simple Ways To Tell A Better Brand Story
Brand storytelling is complex. A brand story evolves over time and is a result of doing many things well. But there are still opportunities to start telling a better story in the short term.  Here are three things you can do today to improve your brand story.

7. 9 Work Habits You Need to Stop Today
Author Tim Ferriss suggests some common bad habits you should definitely add to your not-to-do list.

8. 3 Questions Executives Should Ask Front-Line Workers
The higher up you go in an organization, the harder it is to stay in touch with what’s really happening on the front lines.  And the bad news—if you hear it at all—is presented only in the best possible light.  How do you get the real truth about what’s happening out in the field?  How do you stay connected to all corners of your organization?  I have found that three simple questions, asked with the intent to learn, can help you stay in touch with reality and be a better leader.

9. Ready, Aim, Fire
Take the ready, aim, fire diagnostic to yourself and your team. Talk about it for each leader, and/or for the team as a whole. Find where you, the team, or the organization has a weakness in these areas, and address it, either through people or processes. That way, your mission won't be unprepared to win, too scattered to know who it is, or too paralyzed to move

10. How To Get More Done By Having Less To Do
If your life feels like a constant game of tug-of-war, then it's time to pare your existence down to its essentials.