The keys to understanding and implementing a unique competitive advantage are to define your organizational goals and expectations and to know your people and support their growth. Integrating these two ideas is a powerful, effective method for increasing efficiency, improving performance beyond your expectations, and as a result retaining your best people.

In his book, The Manager’s Book of Questions: 1,001 Great Interview Questions for Hiring the Right Person, John Kador identifies seven types of questions that serve specific purposes in a job interview:

Regardless of whether we’re talking about the Indianapolis Colts or the editorial department of the Indianapolis Star, there are a number of characteristics common to successful teams:

The essential components of an effective role description

Achieving a goal should yield growth, so make sure that each goal you set is attainable, but isn’t such a breeze to accomplish that it requires little to no effort. That means that a goal must be specific, too, so that the employee and the manager have a metric and can clearly see whether it’s been met.

The most cut-and-dry identifier of someone in the Millennial generation is that they were born between 1978 and 2002. Attitudinal and behavioral tendencies generally observed in this generation include:

Economically speaking, times are tough. No surprise there, right? Well, if you keep one eye on your company’s sales performance and the other on the financial bottom line, you’re overlooking your greatest asset: your employees.

Most business leaders would agree that having a business strategy -- a focus, goals for growth, and a plan of action -- is an undoubtedly vital element of running business. Companies spend a considerable amount of time, energy, and money identifying a strategy, acquiring and implementing the right equipment, technology, and processes.

We all know the drama that can flare when friends work together as coworkers or in employee/supervisor relationships. We also know the tension that can poison the office when employees and their managers do not see eye to eye.