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Take notes! Taking notes is one of the most important parts of an effective interview. Note-taking will allow you to go back and see exactly what you were thinking when a candidate gave an answer and what they said. It's easy to forget an interview after it happens. If you rely on your memory it leads to decisions based on gut feelings. Candidates are trying to project an image and this image might be all you remember.

The basketball player stands at the free throw line and he just can't stop thinking about how he all his shots have been short today and sure enough the ball clanks off the front of the rim. The actor stands on the stage and all he can think about is how he is going to forget his lines, even though he has them completely memorized, and sure enough he can't remember them at the most important moment. The man steps up to the podium to give a speech scared to death that he is going to stutter and sure enough he does. The mind is a powerful thing and seems to be able to affect our actions whether positive or negative. This is widely known as the Pygmalion Effect.

Customer service is a part of every employee's job description regardless of position. This is particularly true in retail stores where customer satisfaction is a determinate in not only the customer's willingness not purchase product but also in their desire to return to the store. Companies make a huge mistake by underestimating the role of repeat business in their bottom line, and the best way to ensure repeat business and healthy profits is to be known for excellent customer service. All employees should work toward excellent customer service. Without it, the company will not succeed and there will be no jobs. Customer service is one of the most important aspects of job security and company survival.

Empowerment is one of the most powerful tools available to a manager and an organization. No one person can do everything by themselves. It takes a group of dedicated individuals to effectively run an organization. They benefits of empowerment are not only the ability to get more work accomplished, but also make the creative minds of an entire organization available. A workforce free to innovate and work unencumbered by micro-management is a happy workforce and a far more productive and efficient one.  Leadership training should focus on empowerment whenever possible.

Basic leadership skills are the building blocks that provide managers an effective base to build on in their pursuit of a productive and efficient work team. Leadership training videos are an effective way to teach these all important skills and fortunately the market is full of excellent leadership programs that provide the skills that every leader in the workplace needs. Most of the Leadership DVDs on the market also come with a leader's guide and other support materials, which make the package a complete program ready to use out of the box. The following are the programs we have found to be most effective for our customers.

The world is constantly in flux. Changes are occurring so rapidly now that a company like MySpace can have a 75% share of the social marketing world and one year later be completely surpassed by Facebook. Companies have to be constantly looking for paradigm shifts. They need to constantly change to survive. Every available resource needs to be focused on innovation and changing paradigms. This is accomplished by leaders within an organization taking advantage of resources and diversity to find and innovate new ideas.  Leadership training in every organization should include innovation and the study of paradigms.

Companies spend thousands, if not millions of dollars on advertising and customer service training to promote their extraordinary service and yet if the service department isn't on board all of this time and money is wasted.

About a month ago I took my lawn mower in for servicing at a local power tool and lawn mower company. The man in the service department told me the mower would be ready in 7-10 days and that they would call when the mower was ready. After 12 days, I hadn't heard from them so I called to find out about the status. I was told that it was going to be serviced that afternoon. The next day I showed up to pick the mower up and found out that it wasn't done, but would be done later that day. When we called the next day, the mower wasn't done but would be done that afternoon. To make a long story short, this happened again and again for the next week until we finally got the mower - ten days late.

Recently, I went shopping for dog food and went to a local pet store in my neighborhood.  This particular store obviously does a large amount of customer service training.  They always welcome me into the store and always ask if they can help me find something.  There seems to be a well-trained system of working with customers in the store.  Sounds great, doesn't it?  A well-oiled customer service machine dedicated to providing optimal service to the customer.  However, there is a problem mixed into this brand of service - not every customer is the same and not every customer appreciates the same type of customer service.