When hiring a new employee, we all try very hard to run background checks and interviews to determine the veracity of the applicant and his ability to fit into our culture and do the job.

Last week, we discussed dealing with dishonesty from theft or improper behavior. However, the dishonesty that can really hurt your company can come from some of your most trusted employees.

All dishonesty is bad. Some dishonesty needs to be dealt with by dismissal and even prosecution if laws have been broken.

During my early career I had a string of some unusually bad bosses who had very little respect from their subordinates.

Management is always about leadership. During these more difficult times, your leadership can be crucial to the very survival of your company.

We are at least one year into this current downturn, and from the looks of the situation, you may not see a substantial recovery until a year from now or longer.

Six months after I began writing these articles on "Managing in Difficult Times," we are still in difficult times.

Senior managers with technical expertise and presidents and CEOs need to make periodic sales calls on key customers as we have previously discussed.

There is no business without customers for its products or services.

One of the most successful and often-copied sales strategies is the protected geographic sales territory.