Ground-breaking studies like Jim Collins’ books, Built to Last and Good to Great and John Kotter’s book, Corporate Culture and Performance have shown that while an organization’s culture powerfully molds its operating style and can positively (or negatively) affect the performance of work-groups and entire organizations culture has remained an overly-complex and somewhat mysterious topic…
DetailsEvery great author has a trilogy and this is mine. Well actually I’m not really a great author, but this is part of a trilogy. This is the third article on the topic of onboarding salespeople. For the uninitiated, “onboarding” is what happens after you successfully complete the arduous process of hiring a new salesperson.…
DetailsMost people go to their grave with their music still inside them – George Bernard Shaw In Bits & Pieces a story is told of Antonio; an Italian boy who loved music, but whenever he tried to sing the music that was in his heart, it came out so badly that all his friends laughed…
DetailsResearch reported by Alex Pentland in the April issue of Harvard Business Review has revealed some interesting new information on effective teams. He and his group deployed “sociometric badges” in teams in 21 organizations. These devices are able to monitor on individual team members’ tone of voice, body language, frequency of initiating and responding, plus…
DetailsIn his epochal book, Good to Great, author Jim Collins talked about “Level 5” leaders, the ones who generate the very best results, consistently, over time. Most interesting is that they embody seemingly opposite characteristics. On the one hand, they are modest, humble and self-effacing. Yet in the same person dwells a ferocious resolve to…
DetailsSmall and mid-sized entrepreneurs, upwardly mobile business professionals and large corporations are increasingly using the services of business coaches to accelerate professional growth by helping them understand their strengths and challenges, achieve goals and objectives, a get results far beyond what an individual can accomplish by themselves. In this economy, however, spending money on a…
DetailsI am a sports fanatic so my Leadership style is rooted in metaphor to any number athletic competitions. With the NBA season on the brink of collapse let’s talk some basketball. I am a firm believer that there are two ways to motivate basketball players: 1. By the Bench 2. By the Basket There is…
DetailsSurprise is a good thing when followed by the phrase, “Happy birthday!” Otherwise, it’s a negative emotion, and when it happens in a customer-provider relationship, it’s a source of dissatisfaction. Regardless of what you sell or who you serve, your customer’s expectations need to be met for you to succeed (in their eyes). In fact,…
DetailsRemember when we would ponder our direction? Nowadays we have to do it all (and then some). There are products to learn, people to hire, alliances to form, markets to penetrate….and a whole lot of technology that is supposed to make things less complicated. Some times the path of least resistance beats the information highway. Does…
DetailsThe US and Canadian armies (among others, I’m sure) are famous for its post-event after action review (AAR). Whether it’s a mission, a tactical maneuver, or just a patrol, the individuals involved meet immediately afterward to debrief on how it went and what they can learn for the next time. This goal is to quickly…
DetailsIn this blog, I’ll discuss a practical ethical method of using the 8-Process scores in a group or team context. This method can be applied to dyads or large organizations. There is a lot of power in the information provided in the scores, but errors in use can come from errors in beliefs. There are…
DetailsThe most pathetic person in the world is someone with sight, but has no vision. – Helen Keller Do you know and understand the vision of your organization? Better yet, do you understand the role you play in fulfilling that vision? If your answer was no, you are not alone. In fact, sad to say,…
DetailsYou can start right where you stand and apply the habit of going the extra mile by rendering more service and better service that you are now being paid for. – Napoleon Hill In his book, Waking the American Dream, Don McCullough relates a story about Winston Churchill during World War II. England decided to…
DetailsAccording to an article in the Harvard Business review, 33% of all hiring decisions are decided on appearance alone. This is great for people who use this technique as all they need is a photo or video of the candidate to make their decision on.
DetailsAt the beginning of every sales call your prospect is making two critical buying decisions. The first decision is about the salesperson. Behavioral research states that initial impressions are created within the first 20 seconds of meeting someone. So it is critical to differentiate oneself and one’s offering in the initial phase of a meeting.…
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