Dr Flavius Akerele III's The E Team Education blog

Answering machines, the precursor to voicemail, were useful tools because you controlled them completely. They were not subject to automatic erasure after 30 days, you could screen calls, keep the voices of loved ones alive, and most importantly, people would actually leave you a message. I miss this era of technology! How many people leave voicemails nowadays? How many people check their voicemails regularly? Not enough it seems, because the amount of times I have heard “oh I do not ever check my voicemail” or “well I did not leave a message because you did not pick up” is killing me! How do you run your business without checking messages and how do you expect people to know you called if you do not leave a message? I personally am not looking for missed calls; I am looking for voicemail messages. Text messages will never replace voice communication, and nor should they. Text messages are impersonal, easy to misconstrue, and you have no clue who is really sending the ...

I have had a couple of interesting experiences recently which has prompted me to throw a couple of pointers when dealing with potential new clients: PICK UP THE PHONE. More often than not, if you do not pick up, I am going to go to the next name on the list, and if I must leave a message, do not make me wait too long before I hear back from you. SARCASM IS NEVER APPRECIATED. I am calling because I am researching information about whether your business can help me or not, so do not assume I researched you at this point or even know where you are located. PLEASE KNOW WHAT YOUR COMPETITORS ARE CHARGING SO YOU CAN COMPETE. Also, do not try and leave me with open ended prices after I have given you specifics because that will immediately rule you out. BE POLITE! You are trying to earn my business, so at least talk to me like you are interested in hearing what I have to say, try to pronounce my name correctly (ask if you cannot); just act like you care. Seems funny that someone ...

This is not America! Ignorance at its worst… I try not to let stuff like this affect me, and generally it does not; however, social media has created a keyboard warrior class whose only goal it seems is to spread hate and dissension. There is a race problem in America, that problem is that the human race is not making a good faith effort to get along and embrace our differences. There is a problem with folks wanting to point out what divides us and not what unites us. You might not like our current president, that is your right, but he is still our president, and people need to stop blaming him for everything. There is little subtlety in the bigotry and ignorance being published across the airwaves; all because some people have dark skin. Here is the latest ignorance floating around, and believe me when  I say, I do not go looking for this, it comes to me: Here are just a small sample of some of the comments in this group, the rest are too vile to post: ...

Like most of my writings, this topic is from personal experience, observation, and discussions with other professionals. For the longest time I was under the impression it was just me, I am glad I figured out the truth. We all look for work at some point in our lives, and a few years ago during one of those periods in my life I found myself very confused. I was confused not because I did not know what to do or what to say, I was confused because I was getting zero call backs from any jobs I had applied for, even where I was a perfect fit on paper. I was also conducting my search the right way, networking, making personal connections, etc. So what was going wrong? The answer stunned me. I had too much education and experience on my resume; someone pointed it out to me, and it was proved right when I removed a number of degrees and started getting call backs and interviews. Who ever heard of having too much education and experience? And in this economy, companies are getting ...

We live in a country where it is literally possible to eat yourself to death; I can think of worse ways to go, but that is truly an amazing fact. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8xwLWb0lLY “Food waste in America” Look at the message not the politics. We grow more than we can eat; we order more at restaurants than we can finish (often not realizing). Case in point, recently at Universal Studios’ Harry Potter World , my family ordered what we thought was the best money conscious meal that could be shared between five people. Not only could we not finish half of it, but also they do not provide to go bags to take the leftovers home; the food was thrown away and there was not a lot we could do about it. Let us forget about starvation around the world for just a second, and look at food issues closer to home: ·           “Millions of working Americans don’t know where their next meal is coming from” http://www.nationalgeograph...

Politicians, as you have your rallies, produce your sound bits, campaign, and try to convince us that you know what is best for the American people, let me give you a hint. The average person wants three simple things: 1.       Jobs - whether I own the business or am working for someone. People want steady work that pays the bills. We are not talking about a handout, we are talking about opportunities 2.       Justice - people want to feel safe. I am not talking about crime, I am talking about the ability to not get targeted by the people sworn to protect us because they are low on their arrest quota for the month. Nobody really likes crime except criminals, but everyone hates injustice; and we are seeing more and more of it everyday 3.       If you have these two simple things, it is possible to achieve the third, and that would be Joy. Joy is a possibility, joy is a dream we are allowed to h...

I thought this was poignant: HR Mistake #10: Not Having Accurate Job Descriptions This is something that happens all the time in organizations. People get busy, the organization or business is growing, and those job descriptions end up taking a back seat. What happens then? Employees aren’t really sure what they should be doing. Expectations aren’t properly managed. It’s really hard to measure somebody’s performance when his or her job is not appropriately documented. Then, when it comes to letting that person go what will you do when they say they didn’t know what they were supposed to be doing? Okay employer, this is your opportunity. You really need to be focused on making sure you have absolutely accurate job descriptions. They will help you hire, manage and fire employees because you will have all the right documentation. HR Mistake #9: Asking Whatever You Want In an Interview We live in America and we are fortunate that we can ask a lot of the things that we...

“In the preface to his 2010 book, Sue describes microaggressions as “brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to certain individuals because of their group membership.” He writes that “the power of microaggressions lies in their invisibility to the perpetrator, who is unaware that he or she has engaged in a behavior that threatens and demeans the recipient of such communication.”” http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/matt-driscoll/article61843407.html This happens more often than we realize, and the perpetrators often seem not to understand what they are doing. While not all of it is about race and gender,, that seems to be the most common type. We also see it with “cliques” within organizations; those not in the inner circle, various little jabs, swipes, and constant sarcasm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0vTzgOBC9A interesting to watch At this point I know some people are immediately dismissing this as nothing, and that ...