Has this ever happened to you as a manager? One of your direct reports doesn’t do what their job (function) requires them to do. Perhaps they didn’t get a report in on time or they showed up late for work because they slept in or they left out a crucial step in a project which… Continue Reading
November 10, 2016
Why Managers Feel Vulnerable When Dealing With Non-Performance And 3 Things They Can Do To Deal With It.
September 8, 2016
The Value of Understanding What “Maturity” Really Means
“She’s just not mature enough to manage this team”. “He’s so immature, always getting emotional when people don’t agree with him.” “She’s really mature for her age. I think she can handle the promotion.” If you’ve heard comments like this or even said something like it yourself, you’ve stepped into the shape-shifting arena of a… Continue Reading
August 18, 2016
7 Critical Factors for Sustained Sales Success
If you want to be a consistently successful sales professional, you can learn a lot from those who continually experience sustained success in their careers. Specifically, they agree that just 7 factors make the biggest difference. They are… A sense of urgency Persistence Self discipline and control Planning Never assuming anything Activity-Activity-Activity Follow-up All 7… Continue Reading
October 9, 2015
Are You a Conditional or an Unconditional Team Member? – Respect for the Team Leader
If you’ve ever wondered why some members of a team seem to support the appointed team leader unconditionally while others seem as if they are trying to take over the team, this blog will help explain what’s going on. The reason that it’s important to know and understand these differences is to have a better understanding… Continue Reading
September 8, 2015
Five Tips on How To Reply To An Email Effectively In Business
There are lots of blogs (including ours) that focus on how to Write an effective email. However, it’s just as important to effectively Reply to an email. Here are some tips about how to reply, based on our experience and on Best Practices: Use “Reply All” appropriately Determine urgency Update the subject line Remember intent Be specific… Continue Reading
September 1, 2015
Nine Tips on How To Write An Effective Email In Business
Have you ever had an email “blow up” on you? Or, have you seen one “blow up” on someone else? Was it misunderstood, generating negative feedback, necessitating follow-up emails, and even lengthy phone calls trying to “fix” things? If the answer is “yes”, the tips below might prevent this from happening again or at least,… Continue Reading
August 17, 2015
How to Get Two More Productive Hours at Work Everyday With One Simple (Surprising) Strategy
In our previous blogs we focused on how unmanaged email can affect your work life negatively. And, we focused on how the telephone is more effective than email in communicating your message effectively. However, email is a fact of life in business, so if you must use it, it’s important to use and manage it… Continue Reading
August 7, 2015
The #1 Reason Why the Phone is More Effective than Email
Email hasn’t helped improve communication in the workplace. In many cases, it’s made things worse. And, many managers are wondering how to fix this. Here’s a suggestion…
July 7, 2015
How Email Might Be Hurting Your Business
Email is not communication. Instead, it is rapidly facilitating the erosion and breakdown of effective communication. Especially within larger companies. Here’s why. The technology is seductive. Because it is so easy to use and so immediate, it has seduced us into thinking that when we email someone, we’re actually communicating with them. Which is not… Continue Reading
June 22, 2015
Why Most People are Uncomfortable with Conflict
“Why are they always fighting?”, Brandon asks Danielle. “I used to think they were fighting”, Danielle replies, “but they’re not. They’re just disagreeing.” “Well, it looks like fighting to me.”, says Brandon. “What makes you so sure they’re not fighting?” It’s a good question and you may have experienced a similar situation. Why does one… Continue Reading
June 14, 2015
Passion Isn’t an Emotion. It’s a Priority Statement
What does it mean when someone says they are “passionate” about their job? Or, if a company says it’s looking for people who are passionate and who bring their passion to work? Are they talking about love? Energy? Enthusiasm? Or something else? Sometimes, it’s hard to know. Because the word “passion” seems to have so… Continue Reading
May 11, 2015
The ABCs of Personal Power
Because our world is changing at an ever increasing rate, many of us are finding that to survive and prosper, we have to continue to learn and adapt fast. We have no choice. That’s why being comfortable with change, having a willingness to continually learn, and knowing yourself better have become critical skills in ongoing… Continue Reading
March 25, 2015
Two Critical Issues that Impact High-Performing Business Cultures
We are often asked, “how do you create a business culture where self-management and motivation take care of themselves?” The answer might surprise you. It starts with some basic clarity as to what most companies want: They want more profit. A healthier “bottom-line” More than ever, managers are focusing directly on how self-management and motivation generate more… Continue Reading
March 13, 2015
When Something Simple is Not So Simple
Has this ever happened to you? You ask someone to do something that seems easy to you and they can’t do it. And, you’re confused because it seems so simple and straightforward to you. After all, you understand it and can accomplish it the way you want. Why can’t they? But somehow, they can’t see… Continue Reading
March 4, 2015
Why People Don’t Do What You Want Them to Do – Part 4. Organizational Issues
In Parts 1 to 3 of this blog series, we focused on 3 of the 4 causes of why people don’t do what you want them to do at work. In this blog, we focus on a fourth cause – Organizational issues. That’s because there are only 4 potential causes why someone doesn’t do what you… Continue Reading
February 17, 2015
Why People Don’t Do What You Want Them to Do – Part 2. Skills and/or Knowledge
In Part 1 of this blog series, we focused on Motivation as one of the 4 causes of why people don’t do what you want them to do at work. In this blog, we focus on a possible second cause. Skills and/or Knowledge. That’s because there are only 4 potential causes why someone doesn’t do… Continue Reading
February 13, 2015
Why People Don’t Do What You Want Them to Do – Part 1. Motivation.
Has this ever happened to you? You ask someone to do something at work, they say they are going to do it, and then they don’t do what you want, the way you want. If this has happened, did it trigger an upset in you such as frustration, disappointment, anger, or any of 200+ emotions… Continue Reading
November 23, 2014
One Thing That Successful People Usually Have in Common
Successful and super-successful people nearly always have one thing in common. They all behave out of a natural sense of urgency. Here’s what this means… They just do more of the little things they don’t like doing, more often than the people who don’t. That’s it. Do you think this would make a difference for your… Continue Reading
October 30, 2014
Boomerang Delegating
“Boomerang Delegating” happens when you think you’ve delegated something to someone who reports to you and it ends up back on your “to do” list. Why does this happen? What makes it boomerang back? In our experience it’s usually because you assumed 4 things about the person you delegated to. You probably assumed that this person is just… Continue Reading
October 8, 2014
Motivate Me. Please.
If you think you can motivate anybody, there’s a simple test to see if it’s true. Just choose a stranger and motivate them at will. Although it sounds silly, the test is powerful because it raises an important truth to consciousness. It is … You can never motivate anyone. All you can do is make… Continue Reading
October 2, 2014
One Major Reason Things Go Wrong At Work – And How to Fix It
How often have you heard this (or even said this)… “How did this happen? I can’t believe this job didn’t get done the way I wanted! What’s the problem with (him/her/you)?” In our experience, this type of finger-pointing, confusion, and judgement accomplishes nothing. Instead, it often triggers resentment, frustration, annoyance, and a host of non-productive… Continue Reading
August 26, 2014
Persistence Revisited
“I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.” – John D. Rockefeller Super-successful businessman, John D. Rockefeller reinforces the importance of persistence (“perseverance”) as the key to success. Regardless of your “nature” (personality), you have… Continue Reading
August 16, 2014
The Power of Proactive Thinking
How many times do we hear the words, “Think before you act”? Why does it even matter? What’s the value in thinking before acting? The answer is simple and powerful… If you think things through before you do something, you are much more likely to get the results or outcomes that you want more often. If… Continue Reading
August 5, 2014
3 Reasons Why You Agree When You Don’t Want to Agree – In Your Personal Life.
Why do we agree with someone when we really don’t want to agree? What makes us say “yes” when we really want to say “no”? What are the causes of these behaviors? The answer starts by understanding how we operate out of the 3 main circles of influence in our lives – Business (at work), Social… Continue Reading
July 8, 2014
The Powerful Manager – Dangers and Opportunities
“The more powerful the manager, the less likely he or she was to take advice.” That’s what the researchers say in “Kidding Ourselves”, the latest book from Pulitzer Prize winning author Joseph Hallinan. They also say that “power tends to diminish perception and perspective…”. In other words, it narrows the scope and the focus of… Continue Reading
June 4, 2014
How to Tell The Difference Between Managing and Bossing
If you are a Manager or Leader and have sometimes wondered why you don’t always get the performance and commitment that you want from the people who work for you, here is a checklist that might help. If you recognize any of your behaviors under the BOSSING column, then these behaviors may be adding to… Continue Reading
May 29, 2014
Everyone Is a Salesperson But May Not Know It
When most people hear the word “salesperson” it usually reminds them of a negative experience they or someone else has had. Often, this negative view is warranted because the sales person behaved inappropriately by trying to “sell” them something. People don’t like to be “sold”. In fact, they hate to be “sold”. As a consequence,… Continue Reading
May 15, 2014
The Golden Rule of Business
“If you are not directly serving or supporting the customer or client, you’d better be supporting or serving someone who is.”
April 2, 2014
One Important Key to Building Trust (“I feel your pain”)
There’s an Native American proverb that says, “Until you’ve walked a mile in another person’s moccasins you will never really know them.” In other words, you won’t have real empathy for them until you’ve experienced what they have experienced. The reason that it’s important to understand empathy is because it’s critical to building trust. So,… Continue Reading
March 27, 2014
3 Action Steps to Keep Your Customers
Research continues to show that more than 2 out of 3 customers leave because of “indifference” on the part of the sales person or the company that’s providing the service or product. This is a huge number! And, there’s a simple solution to prevent this from happening to you or your company. All you have… Continue Reading
February 13, 2014
The Easiest Sale (and the most difficult)
If you are a professional salesperson and you want to increase control of your success, it might help to understand a powerful sales model. It all starts when you sort your list of clients into OLD (existing) and NEW (no relationship yet) and you sort your list of products and/or services into OLD (existing) and… Continue Reading
December 1, 2013
3 Elements of Effective Communication
Here is a simple and powerful way to communicate effectively. All you have to do is focus on the 3 major elements of effective communications. They are… 1. Set a communication goal. 2. Set “points of agreement” and “discussion boundaries”. 3. Agree that you reached the goal. Here are the details… 1. A ‘Communication’ Goal…. Continue Reading
November 21, 2013
Decision Making Simplified
Most of us make decisions hundreds of times a day. Although some are easy and some are difficult, the truth is that the decision making process that goes on in our heads follows the same principles for all of us. Let’s break this down. There are only three kinds of decisions that we ever make…. Continue Reading
October 17, 2013
The 3 Most Powerful Rewards and Punishers
Research into human behavior clearly shows that people would prefer to do something that is rewarding to them rather than something that is punishing. A REWARD can be something that is easy for you to do, you like doing it, you’re good at it, it’s exciting, it’s not boring, or you get noticed when you… Continue Reading
May 30, 2013
How To Sell Without Selling – The Complete Story
Here’s your biggest opportunity if you are in sales. It begins if you understand what’s behind the almost universal truth that, as consumers, “WE LOVE TO BUY BUT HATE TO BE SOLD”. Which means that “sales” is essentially about a buying process and not a selling process. If this is true (and it mostly is)… Continue Reading
May 22, 2013
How to Immediately Improve Your Sales
Here’s how to get more sales fast. Just ask for qualified referrals. It’s that simple. A qualified referral is the lowest hanging fruit for most salespeople in most situations. But, if it’s so easy, why don’t more salespeople do it? It’s because most sales people are uncomfortable asking for referrals just as most people are… Continue Reading