I must admit to a little bit of glee at seeing Dave Carroll's latest video in response to the poor customer service he received from United Airlines. If you don't know the story, Carroll apparently witnessed baggage handlers tossing his guitar on the tarmac as he sat on a United Airlines plane. The guitar broke and according to Carroll, United Airlines refused to pay for the damage. Carroll is a country music signer with no small following, so he decided to seek his own brand of justice by posting a series of three music videos to You Tube.

Toister Performance Solutions is guaranteeing a 500% Return on Investment (ROI) to participants who attend one of our Getting Started as a Supervisor public workshops this September. And yes, there is a catch, but aren’t you curious enough to learn how you can earn a 500% return with no risk?

The Center for Creative Leadership recently released a white paper called "The Leadership Gap: What you need, and don't have, when it comes to leadership talent." One of their most interesting (though unsurprising) findings from their research was "inspiring commitment" was the most needed skill among today's leaders.

I posted a story earlier this week about some frustrating experiences I had with Cox Communications. One of my main points is I had received poor service and two Cox employees had missed the opportunity to fully rectify the situation. With this in mind, I was a little surprised to see that Cox was apparently trying to reach out to me through my blog by making the following comment on my post:

Jack and Patti Phillips published a wonderful article in T&D magazine's August 2009 edition called "Measuring What Matters: How CEOs View Learning Success". The article is a well-written analysis of a survey they conducted with Fortune 500 CEOs as well as the CEOs of some large private companies. Their research reveals some interesting information about how CEOs evaluate employee development.

Cox Communications has a tagline, “Your friend in the digital age.” Yeah, some friend. If Cox is a "friend" then they are that stoner buddy who wants to move in with me, sleep on my couch, and eat all my Cheetos instead of looking for a job.

Listening skills are essential to providing great customer service. Unfortunately, many customer service representatives are not as good at listening as they might think. Sure, they can hear you, but do they understand you? Customers often convey more than one message when they make a request.

My wife, Sally, and I have just returned from our vacation in Boston. In a town not known for service, our experiences were generally terrific. Even American Airlines, which I alternate between loving and hating, treated us very well and handled a weather-related flight delay admirably. The question I always like to ask is, "What can we learn?" Here are a few of my favorite take-aways.