Welcome to installment #61 in my periodic series of business lessons on how you can take your business to never-before-imagined levels of success. In this challenging economy, companies are forced to do more with less and continue to look for ways to squeeze efficiencies, often by means of painful layoffs and other draconian cost controls. I have a better idea: Hug your company’s way to success.

Recently the New York Times reported fascinating findings from a soon-to-be-published research study by scientists at University of California at Berkeley. They measured the level of physical contact between teammates in the National Basketball Association over an entire season. Their conclusion: Teams and individuals that hugged, high-fived and chest bumped their teammates more tended to outperform those that engaged in less frequent affectionate physical contact.

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… is something I know nothing about. Nevertheless, I can’t count the number of times each week people come up to me on the street, at the unemployment office or in the women’s locker room at my gym, and ask me about my blog. Why just last week, there must have been almost two people who approached me. Now that I think about it, he was holding a cardboard sign and seemed more interested in a cash donation to some cause. Read More…

This week’s blog post is a guest post by Steve Fisher, the funniest person I have ever known personally. Steve is based in Prague, Czech Republic, where he works in the field of Corporate Communications. On the side, Steve has had acting roles in several films and television shows.

It is my pleasure to turn this week’s post over to my life-long friend. In his commentary, Steve asks, Have you read the fine print on those online agreements lately? You might want to take a second look before clicking “I agree.” (Continued below…)

-       Tim Jones

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Last November and December, I experienced some shortened work weeks thanks to the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Both holidays were preceded by shortened three-day work weeks, so I had to be extremely focused, making efficient use of every minute of every work day. I cut way back on the amount of time I would otherwise spend watching lame YouTube videos involving practical jokes where some unsuspecting dude gets kicked in the family jewels (I can never get enough of that highbrow humor).

This time, with only three days to get everything done, I choose not to waste my time sending around the couple dozen recycled humor emails I usually pass along each day, making fun of people from the South or one of those lame parodies on the Twelve Days of Christmas. Nope, no point wasting my co-workers’ time this week. There’d be plenty of time to waste their time by sending these around next week instead. Let’s stay focused, Tim.

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In this week’s business advice column, I thought it timely to discuss a few important aspects of management etiquette for your upcoming holiday office party.  Any day now you’ll likely receive an invitation to your company’s Holiday Office Party.  If not, don’t fret. This probably means you’re in line for the other invitation: to the meeting in the cafeteria starting in 20 minutes, letting you know you’ve been cordially invited not to return to work on Monday, so you can spend more time with your family, just in time for the holidays. My, how thoughtful. Let’s hope yours is the former invitation.

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Having more than 25 years of management experience under my belt (only 7 of which were catastrophically misguided), I periodically like to share a few pearls of business wisdom.  Some might argue it’s more like scraps of cubic zirconia.  Nevertheless, I feel morally bound to help others grow in their business or move ahead in their career. Today’s lesson: The critical importance of committees as an engine of business.   Read More…