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Staying in Step!
News and Notes From Step 1 Management |
We've Taken Another Big Step! 
We've got big news -- Step 1 has relocated our office to Foster Plaza, the premier suburban office park in western PA!
After a year-long search, conducted with the expert help of Ted Dillenburg of CRESA Partners of Pittsburgh (412-697-7080), we began working out of our new home in Foster Plaza Building 6 in Greentree, PA in early June. The new space allows us to meet with our clients in a centralized, easily accessible location (with plenty of free parking). Whether it's an Executive Coaching session, a facilitated Management Meeting or one of Step 1's popular training seminars, our new office is perfectly suited for our clients' needs.
Please make note of our new address and phone numbers. We're looking forward to hosting you in our new home.
Step 1 Management Services, LLC
Foster Plaza 6
681 Andersen Drive, Suite 235
Pittsburgh, PA 15220
Phone: 412-922-6870
Fax: 412-922-6871 |
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We're excited to announce our newest professional development program called Step1Start. Step1Start is an intensive two day course tailored for frontline supervisors and team leaders who need to dramatically improve their management performance right now! Based on Practical Management Methods, our popular comprehensive management development program, Step1Start covers the bare essentials that every frontline supervisor or team leader must know, from their first day on the job.
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For about the same investment required for your company to engage a consultant or legal professional for just one day, Step1Start can prepare your supervisors and team leaders to perform better forever.
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My Turn:
Against The Grain
There can be no denying that it is rough out here. Small and large businesses alike are facing some of the most fearsome threats they'll ever have to deal with. Access to credit to fuel growth and support simple cash flow requirements is drying up (despite the unprecedented stimulus spending in DC), customers are pulling back from buying decisions and payrolls are, by necessity, getting leaner. It's enough to make even the most optimistic entreprenuers question their commitment and staying power.
As a management consultant, I pride myself on shooting straight with my clients at all times, even if that means giving them an opinion that I know they aren't going to agree with. These days more than a few customers are asking specifically what they need to do to survive (most realize that thriving comes later). While every business has requirements unique to its industry, location, product and brand strength and customer demographics, there are a couple of constants that I want my clients to keep top of mind.
First, competitiveness doesn't become any less important during economic downturns. Constrained cash flow creates a natural inclination (instinct, really) to reduce or eliminate ongoing investments in those areas of the business deemed to be "non-mission critical", typically product development, marketing and professional development. I would argue that the right move is quite to the contrary. It becomes even more vital that innovation and skills improvement continue to give the company a competitive edge--because the other guys may very well be deciding to back away from these areas. Go against the grain of what conventional wisdom may suggest and keep investing in the future of your business, even when the cash to do so is in short supply.
When it comes to cash generation and/or preservation, there is one area that I advocate managing very closely and actively. That area is staffing. As difficult as it may be for smaller firms to face, management has an obligation to see to it that the company survives, if at all possible. That's not as obvious as it may initially seem. Owners and managers may have to make hard choices to reduce staff. If it hasn't been done before this can be gut wrenching. Many smaller companies are run like an extended family, which is fine during lush times but painful and awkward during contracting business cycles. It may be perceived as cold or unfeeling to do so, but it is better to reduce staff surgically to extend the life of the larger whole than to protect everybody until the ship goes down. That notion may go against your emotional grain--but it is nonetheless essential. (Just make sure that the staff reductions are handled "by the book" or the resulting legal mess will cost more than had the company just kept the status quo).
Bottom line: Manage your business through the rough waters. Don't be afraid of the really hard choices like laying folks off. At the same time, don't cut so deeply that you cannot remain competitive nor return to full capacity once the pendulum swings back (and it will). We are accountable for sober and thoughtful management that is focused on growth as well as survival. We should accept nothing less than total fearlessness in the face of this crisis--certainly a behavior that, for many of us, goes against the grain.
-- Jeff Canter | |
Federal Facts with Kim Kisner
Kim Kisner is a human resources and employment attorney in Pittsburgh with offices located at 6393 Penn Ave. # 306. Kim's expertise is featured on a recurring basis in a column titled "Federal Facts", which focuses on federal employment law issues that you need to know about. |
FMLA MAY APPLY TO EMPLOYERS WITH FEWER THAN 50 EMPLOYEES
By Kimberly J. Kisner and Andrew B. Chikes
Tacitus, a senator and historian of the ancient Roman Empire, once said that "generosity, unless tempered by due moderation, lead[s] to ruin."
Employers would be wise to observe this philosophy in their development of a medical leave policy. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) entitles "eligible" employees to leave for up to 12 weeks in any 12-month period for the birth or adoption of a child, to care for a family member, or to recover from a serious health condition. An eligible employee is one who has been employed for at least 12 months by the employer and has worked at least 1,250 hours.
Typically, employers with less than 50 employees are not subject to FMLA requirements. However, even these employers must beware: oral or written statements indicating that the company will honor the FMLA, even if it is not legally obligated to do so, may bind employers to FMLA mandates. Consequently, such suggestive statements also subject employers to potential legal action for interfering with or retaliating against those who invoke FMLA rights.
Tracy Moore was diagnosed with "mild narcolepsy" in early June 2008. On June 17, Moore filed for medical leave with her employer, Czarnowski Display Services, Inc. (Czarnowski), for stress associated with her condition. Although Czarnowski employed less than 50 people at her location, Moore claimed to believe that her medical leave was protected under the FMLA because of a clause in the employee handbook that read: "Because there are not 50 employees that work at many of the Company's facilities, the Company is not legally required to comply with the FMLA at those locations. Nonetheless, the Company will offer the same FMLA leave to those employees."
Czarnowski granted her request for two weeks of medical leave. Moore, however, requested several extensions during her absence and did not return to work for over six weeks. During her hiatus, Czarnowski continued an investigation into an unprofessional encounter that Moore had with several co-workers prior to taking leave. After making several contentious discoveries, Czarnowski suspended her work e-mail account and deactivated her building access card.
Upon her return, Moore was summoned to a meeting with her supervisors, who announced that they were suspending her employment pending the continued investigation of the incident. After an 11-day suspension, Czarnowski terminated her employment.
Moore subsequently filed suit against Czarnowski for retaliation and interference in violation of her FMLA rights. She contended that, because the company mentioned that it would grant FMLA medical leave to all employees within the employee handbook, she had believed that her leave had been protected under the FMLA.
Czarnowski maintained that it was not obligated to grant Moore FMLA medical leave because it retained fewer than 50 employees at her location, and the Act applied only to employers with 50 or more employees at the location in contention. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, however, held that Moore had established a case of detrimental reliance and allowed for further litigation. It noted that if Moore had realized that Czarnowski did not intend to grant her FMLA medical leave, she would have arranged her leave differently by either using personal or vacation time or altering her treatment plan. While the Court sympathized with the employer's retort that "no good deed goes unpunished," it nevertheless denied Czarnowski's request for dismissal and allowed the case to continue.
Employers with less than 50 employees should exercise extreme caution in presenting the opportunity for medical leave. They must clearly communicate, both orally and within their handbook, that any medical leave is unrelated to FMLA. Additionally, they must ensure that their workplace posters do not inadvertently advertise FMLA availability. Clear communication is key to avoiding unintended consequences of employer generosity. Employers who subject themselves to FMLA standards, even unwittingly, will be a legal target for alleged FMLA violations.
Kim Kisner is an employment law attorney and human resources consultant in Pittsburgh with offices in One Oxford Centre, 301 Grant Street, Suite 4300, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. Kim's expertise is featured on a recurring basis in a column titled "Federal Facts," which focuses on federal employment law issues that you need to know about.
Andrew Chikes is a Kisner Law Firm intern and student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
You can contact Kisner Law Firm at 412-208-3662 or kim@kisnerlawfirm.com. | |
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Step 1 and Peak Performance - A Great Fit! 
Step 1 is partnering with Peak Perfomance Management, one of the leading sales training groups in the country, to provide Step 1's comprehensive Practical Management Methods curriculum for emerging managers to Peak's existing customers. Peak's sales and sales management expertise and Step 1's focus on general management fundamentals are a natural fit for one another. The classes are being offfered through the Peak Performance training center in Greentree. Because the program is designed to allow a student to jump in at any point in the cycle there is no need to delay getting your managers started.
For more information call Jeff Canter at 412-922-6870 or Peak Performance Management at 877-831-7325. |
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Does Your Marketing Match Your Image?
by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE
I spend a fortune on four-color, glossy brochures. When people receive my materials, I want them to know I am a seasoned professional and charge accordingly. If you also deliver a quality product or service, your marketing materials should reflect this. Your image, reflected by your advertising, should do two things:
Convince people you're worth doing business with.
Position you in the market.
Whether you're at the top, middle, or bottom of the price scale, your image needs to communicate that. If your image isn't consistent and compatible with your pricing and your level of service, you're going to confuse and alienate your customers.
David Garfinkel, co-author of Guerrilla Marketing for the Imaging Industry, told me about the experiences of a client. This retailer visited a trade show and was attracted to a distinctive and obviously costly booth for a design firm. He asked them to send him some information. When the letter came, it was on shoddy looking stationery, sloppily typed.
The retailer decided not to do business with this firm. Although everything else had looked great, the sharp contrast between the classy booth and the shabby letter did not inspire trust that the firm would and could deliver. The design firm had spent at least $50,000 on their trade show exhibit, but didn't have the common sense to maintain a consistent image by investing in good letterhead and a competent secretary. It cost them a $100,000 contract.
In my book Get What You Want!, I tell about a trainer named Joan Minninger who decided to expand her successful seminars for the Civil Service Commission into programs for major corporations. She made two investments totaling $1000, a lot of money at the time. One was a really good business outfit. The other was quality stationery. She learned later that her first big contract at General Electric was partly due to that stationery.
The training manager liked her presentation, but the clincher was the stationery: "She must be dynamite. Look at that watermarked stationery!" Of course, Joan had the talent to follow through -- she has written many successful books and worked for several dozen major corporations -- but it was the initial "package" that got her in the door.
Here's the flip side of that. You don't want to send anything out that looks like a million dollars, if you can't deliver a million dollars. Once you can, make sure all of your marketing lives up to the same standard. With all the shameless self-promotions I've done, I make incredibly bold claims. "You're going to learn more." "This is going to be the best." "I guarantee." I really can guarantee everything that I promote, so I have lots of confidence in my image and marketing.
If your marketing impresses your prospects and customers, is that good enough? No, besides impressing them, you must convince them. People don't buy just because they're dazzled or blown away by what they see. They buy because they're convinced that you can do the job, you can deliver the quality and value they expect, and your track record is solid.
Here are five ways to convince people with your marketing.
1. Clear Information
How easily can people understand what you're saying? People don't buy when they're confused.
2. Quality Information
A lot of marketers these days will send out "free information," "valuable information," even "money- making information," at no charge as a small sample of what you'll get when you actually pay money.
3. Quality Design & Printed Materials
...what we call production values. In my case, that's particularly important because I'm selling Fripp the speaker, a very high- quality, well- orchestrated, valuable performance. The production values in what you do and deliver must match the quality of the marketing materials you send out.
4. Third-Party Endorsements
Let others trumpet how good you are. The first thing people see on my one-sheet or web site are top executives praising me, saying I walk on water and they sleep better at night when they hire me. There's no better way to convince people.
5. Strong Images
Compel your customers to imagine doing business with you, seeing it as an easy, positive, and beneficial experience. Create an image or word picture of this interaction. Tell the story. Make it leap off the page.
Impressive, clear, marketing efforts that mirror your image and what you deliver are your key to successful marketing.
Homework
1. Analyze three past marketing efforts, rating their success for delivering the five qualities described above. Are there areas for improvement?
2. Design a new marketing piece (or redesign one of your past efforts), using the five criteria above to make it stronger.
Patricia Fripp, is an executive speech coach, sales presentation skills expert, and Hall of Fame keynote speaker. She is a Past President of the National Speakers Association.
Patricia Fripp
527 Hugo Street - San Francisco - California 94122
US: 800-634-3035 - Phone: 415-753-6556
Fax: 415-753-0914 - Email: PFripp@Fripp.com
http://www.fripp.com
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