For most parents, the beginning of a new school year is a relief from juggling summer camps and childcare, but it also means added tasks of helping with homework, driving carpools, shuttling kids to practices and rehearsals, attending parent-teacher conferences and dealing with sick children after they pick up the germ de jour at school.

As a business, you may think this has nothing to do with you, but it certainly does. Even your most committed workers will find themselves needing to be away during the day for some function, meeting or issue related to their children. How you handle these times says a lot about your business and how you value your employees.

While it’s certainly not reasonable for employees to be out every other day for two or three hours, do recognize their role as parents and allow for that. Support the dad who needs to leave 30 minutes early on Thursdays to coach softball or understand the mom who wants to come in an hour late so she can attend her first-grader’s Christmas play.

As long as your employees are getting their work done, there’s no reason they can’t they have some time here and there to be parents. In fact, they’ll probably be more efficient because they won’t be so stressed about missing important functions.

One word of caution: be sensitive to employees who don’t have children. They may be resentful if a co-worker is constantly giving them extra work to head out to little Suzie’s basketball games. And don’t penalize employees without children by not understanding their non-work commitments and interests. Give a little for them, too, when they want to leave early for a nephew’s football game or take their dog to the vet.

As a business, how do you handle these sorts of situations? Do you make some reasonable allowances for family commitments?

So when you simply have to grin and bear it, how do you handle a difficult client?

• Answer questions before they’re asked. Do your best to anticipate your client’s needs and questions and be ready with answer. Provide monthly or quarterly reports that outline your progress and highlight the next steps.
• Pick an appropriate company representative. Some people are just going to butt heads. Find someone in your firm who can calmly deal with the client and isn’t easily rattled or angered.
• Show your appreciation. Even though a client may be difficult and irritating, this person or business is still a client who is paying you to do a job. Offer to take your customer to lunch or dinner; send a gift basket for no reason; or drop off some Starbucks gift cards. You just might find the old saying “killing them with kindness” rings true.
• Keep it to yourself. You may be tempted to vent about the latest annoying thing client X has said or done. You may see this as harmless venting but it’s not setting a good example for your employees. It’s fine to recognize the challenges of dealing with this customer, but use the situation to find ways to handle the customer and keep the peace.

Have you ever dealt with a difficult client? Were you able to make it work? What techniques did you use?

The first item on the list is a reminder to tell employees their role, give them clear direction and give them rules. That sounds extremely logical but is often poorly executed in the workplace. How many times have you been given a task or new project but with little instruction or a sense of the goals of the project or expected outcomes?

The real issues comes when an employee has tried her best to succeed despite being given little direction and then is called on the carpet for not doing what the boss wanted.

It’s completely unfair to put an employee in that situation. One key way to avoid this problem is by putting instructions, expectation, objectives and deadlines in writing. Don’t assume someone can read your mind and figure out how you’d like to have the project completed. Don’t assume that because you think XYZ outcome is best that everyone will too. You may, in fact, find an employee has determined ABC outcome is best.

Once you’re written out your instructions and expectations, review them thoroughly with the employee and make sure the employee feels comfortable asking questions and for clarification.

As time passes, be sure to check in regularly (more often than just the annual performance review) with the employee to assess progress and address any problems or challenges. If the employee has been tasked with a short-term project, a brief weekly meeting may be enough to keep on track and ensure the employee feels he has the necessary direction to succeed.

Few things can derail a project or business situation faster than when two people are operating under two entirely different objectives.

It’s not easy to have the courage to toss a paying client, especially in this economy, but when it comes to the health of your company, you have to have to do what’s best. Chances are a couple of clients are on your short list of ones to dump, but how exactly should you determine which ones to keep and which ones to let go?

First, look at the time you’re spending with the client. If your client is constantly calling, asking for meetings and complaining about everything from the quality of work to the latest invoice, it may be time to cut your losses. It’s likely you have a client who isn’t going to be happy no matter what you do and this client is using up a lot of the time you could be spending on more profitable clients or finding new business.

Second, assess whether your company has outgrown the client. Has your business grown and expanded beyond what the client needs? If you’ve added services and raised your prices or rates, but your client still only needs those initial services, it’s quite possible the client needs a smaller company and you need to look for bigger clients.

Finally, review your bottom line. Does the client pay on time? Are they open to hearing about your new products or services? Or, is the client constantly complaining about expenses and always two months behind on payments? If a client is cutting into your bottom line or causing you to be late with your own payments, it’s best to focus on clients with more financial stability.

It’s your turn: share your advice for how best to determine when it’s time to fire a customer or client.

If you’ve had more than one job, you’ve had a clash with a boss. Maybe you simply disagreed with a decision or maybe you had a full-blown shouting match in the conference room (probably not the best idea).

But how do you get along with your boss – especially if you don’t see eye to eye?

This article from About.com recommends a relationship built on trust. This means meeting deadlines, fulfilling commitments and keeping your boss apprised of any changes, problems, mistakes or issues. If you can, set a weekly or even bi-weekly meeting to discuss ongoing and upcoming projects and address any challenges before they become more serious.

Figure out your boss’ styles – the way she likes to work, communicate and manage. Some bosses – while it can be annoying – really need to micromanage. They want constant updates and need to be in the loop at all times. Others like to hand off a project and don’t want to hear about it again until it’s done or if a complication comes up. Some supervisors prefer written communication so they can reread and process the information while others want a face-to-face meeting. If you understand your boss’ preferences, you can save yourself many headaches.

It’s only natural you may disagree with your boss’ decision. If you feel strongly about the issue, talk with your boss. (Pick your battles, though. Don’t fly off the handle at every decision.) Ask a question but don’t accuse. You certainly don’t want your boss to become defensive. Practice what you’ll say. Think your argument through and have some solid reasons as to why you think a different approach might be best.

Finally, if you find yourself constantly at odds with your supervisor and in a miserable situation, it might be time to start scanning the help wanted ads.

Let’s hear your best boss advice! Share a tip or an anecdote from your own workplace experiences.

So what makes a company a good place to work?

Plenty of publications or organizations attempt to measure just that. Most of us are probably familiar with Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Companies list.

There’s the Great Place to Work Institute that surveys employees to determine, well, in a nutshell probably how much the employees dread Mondays. This company works with Fortune on its list.

And many states have their own rankings of the best places to work in the state. Here in South Carolina, we have that kind of list.

Typically, these rankings look at a host of factors, such as health benefits, pay, flexible work schedules, management, vacation time and diversity of the work force. Even perks like on-site child care, tuition reimbursement and a fitness center down the hall from the break room can push a company to the top of the list.

While all those perks most certainly add value, sometimes we have our own distinct ideas for what makes a company a great place to work. It could be something as simple as getting an occasional pat on the back or the opportunity for advancement.

We’d like to hear from you – what makes a company a good place to work?

It happens to the best of us. Making mistakes is part of life and mistakes are certainly part of business. Of course, it’s usually best if mistakes are rare occurrences, but when they occur, how you handle them can make all the difference.

If your employees know you will blow a gasket over even the smallest error, they definitely aren’t going to rush to tell you about a problem. In fact, they may go to great lengths to hide a mistake, potentially causing more problems.

A manager who accepts mistakes and tries to help employees learn from them is certain to have more success. This approach works well with young children – letting them learn from their mistakes is a sure fire way to get a message across (something like, “I told you not to touch the hot stove.”)

There are even instances where a mistake turns into a great invention, discovery or marketing campaign.  Part of making mistakes is trying.  Give your employees a little freedom and see what happens. If the result is a big mistake, at least you tried and hopefully everyone learned a valuable lesson.

How do you handle mistakes in your company? Do employees have the freedom to make a mistake while trying something innovative?