Are You Engaging Your Company’s Haters?

Markets are conversations, and these days, they are often led by the crowd. Be it your customers or your employees, they are uniquely empowered to spread the good or bad word about you.  Question is, how closely are you listening? More than ever, internet users have two things going for them: Transparency and Tools.  They…

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Shaping the Future of Leadership

Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change – Thomas Hardy In a recent USA Today feature (http://usat.ly/ROMSvv) leaders from various walks of life shared their insights as to what they believe world will look like in 30 years. It was a fascinating read. Here are a few highlights. Bill…

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Roadmap for Designing High-Performing Organizations

Companies are frequently facing the need to restructure their organizations.  Changes in leadership, a shift in strategy, or changing factors within an organization often create the need for reorganizing. Organization design is one of the most powerful tools available to senior managers for shaping the direction of their organizations. “Organization design” is often used incorrectly…

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Dodging Bricks

A successful man is the one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him?  – David Brinkley The nation watched in horror when the video tape emerged showing the bullying of 68-year old school bus monitor Karen Klein. According to ABC News more than 32,000 people went online and…

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Your Dance Between Manager and Coach

The trend these days is clearly for managers to take on more of a coaching role. But they still need to be the manager! These are two different roles. As a manager, you have stewardship for results in your area of operation. You ensure that your people are performing at an acceptable level and are…

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How Business Is Won & Brands Are Built

Whether you are a sales pro, marketing whiz or entrepreneur, business is a fierce compeition.  You’ll never win unless you understand the milestones that stand between the prospect stage and the finish line. Even the most impulsive purchases follow the mental path I’ll reveal in this post.  In fact, done right, businesses can elicit more…

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Is Your Customer Service Performance Sustainable?

If the world is cold make it your business to build fires – Horace Traubel In a recent Gallup Business Journal feature, Scott Simmons and Christie Fraser reported on the state of customer service in the hospital industry. Notable in their findings: hospitals try to deliver the best healthcare outcomes and good customer service, but…

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Productivity tips from a night owl

The early bird catches the worm. I hate that phrase. I find it irritating because of the origin behind it, the idea that in order to succeed, you must wake up and get to work early. I’m going to have to disagree with this concept. I’m a night owl. I have little desire to be…

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Dial Up the Underdeveloped Ego

I don’t know about you but it pains me to see so many people in organizations not contributing near to what they are capable of. Many of course, for any multitude of reasons, just don’t want to, thank you very much. They are satisfied with average, with just enough. That’s a topic for another time.…

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Why Newly Appointed Leaders Fail and How to Avoid It

Whether a company promotes a successful candidate from within – appointing someone to a new or lateral role – or selects a candidate from outside the organization, the company has confidence that a new leader’s skills and experience can meet the challenges of the job.  However, consider this startling statistic regarding new leaders: estimates of…

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Are You a Difference Maker?

Make a difference about something other than yourselves. – Toni Morrison In an interview with Open Forum (http://amex.co/SDQOLd), Johnny Rocket’s CEO John Fuller offered some fascinating business insights. Fuller says that one of their guiding principles is to be a difference maker verses a care taker. He explained that he wants people to feel that…

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The Power of Thank You!

You start your day by hitting snooze twice, you yell in traffic, and your heart pounds as you approach the office door. It starts and ends with your boss and his/her ability to instill confidence in you! …Reset…. You leap out of bed ready to attack the day, rock out to the radio on the…

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