Leader's Beacon

I was so excited about my book recommendation this month, “Never Eat Alone,” and the great connecting strategies that author Keith Ferrazzi openly shares in this truly “must-read” book. And then Hurricane Katrina struck. Since this tragedy more than 10 days ago, I have witnessed the power of effective networking and the healing arms of [...]

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Wouldn’t you agree that life is about quality connections? Our success, happiness, and well-being are largely the by products of our ability to get along well with others and cultivate positive relationships. Below is a checklist of the active ingredients in creating enduring connections. These are from the book, “Get Along with Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere [...]

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Change is one of those funny words. You either love it or loath it. Some people are hardwired for change and embrace it for the new possibilities it brings and others dread it. Like it or not…change has become a way of life for all of us. I find it fascinating how long we put [...]

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To persuade, motivate and influence you need to use the right words in your presentation and your presentation materials. To maximize your impact, try adding these words the next time you have a presentation. We also recommend . . .How New (and Experienced) Managers Can Support the Change ProcessUnderstanding the Power of CompetitionEmployees Listen With [...]

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“There are four ways and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated, perceived and classified by; what we do, how we look; what we say, and how we say it” Dale Carnegie To make sure you are projecting a positive and connecting image here is a quick checklist [...]

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Let’s be honest…this time of the year can be very stressful. Shopping, decorating, addressing greeting cards, hosting and attending parties, mailing gifts, studying for school finals, housing out of town family members and winding down your business for 2009 are all stressful activities. The fact that we’re expected to do them all simultaneously forces me [...]

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$948.00 was the annual dollar value of each person in your work email address book according to a recent IBM study published in the Winter Information Systems Conference in February 2009. In other words, this means that every contact in your database has the potential of making you at least $948.00! We also recommend . [...]

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Unless you’ve just crawled out from under a rock, you have most likely heard about the new free micro-blogging sensation www.twitter.com . Twitter is currently one of the fastest growing social network sites, just behind Facebook and MySpace with over 55 million visitors per month. We also recommend . . .Healthy Work Boundaries are Not [...]

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Think about a recent project, assignment or initiative you worked on over the past month. At some point you probably couldn’t find the information or resource you were looking for in the company knowledge database or on the internet so you picked up the phone, sent an email or got up and physically walked over [...]

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With our economy in a recession and unemployment at the highest rate it’s been in over 16 years, there is no hiding from the fallout…we’re all feeling it. However, there is a silver lining in this dark cloud we’re all sitting under. There has never been a better time to invest in growing your network [...]

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As I have traveled around the country speaking to people about the power of netWORTHing™ one thing has become clear; people are looking for a change! People have a lot of pain around traditional self-serving networking. Everyone has been burned by someone who in the name of networking, is only pursuing their own selfish agenda. [...]

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Have you ever been a victim of a network drive-by? Or, have you ever been violated by people claiming to be networking but are just out for themselves and what you can do for them? If you’ve been left with a bad taste in your mouth for networking and think it’s just for blood sucking [...]

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Since we all seem to be very preoccupied these days with conserving energy, focusing on recycling and using alternate resources, it seems fitting to remind you that creating goodwill within the relationships of your network, is never in limited supply. We also recommend . . .Net-worth-ing: The Secret to Becoming an Effective NetworkerStop Networking and [...]

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It was bound to happen. Despite the Internet implosion in 2000, the online user population continues to grow not just in the U.S., but globally. Once it reached a critical mass, the natural evolution of this growing population was for its members to break into “communities” with common backgrounds, interests, and/or needs. Welcome to web [...]

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Did you start off the New Year with any resolutions? If so, can you even remember what they were seven weeks later? It feels so good on New Year’s Day to state them out loud, but when it comes time to do something about our new resolution, it’s not so much fun any more. We [...]

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Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to sit in the audience and hear Chip Heath, author of the New York Times bestselling book, Made to Stick and regular columnist for Fast Company magazine speak. Along with his brother and co-author, Dan Heath, the boys have come up with an amazing simple but easy process [...]

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