At the core of The Leadership Circle (360 degree assessment) model are the Reactive tendencies and Creative competencies. If you look at the circle itself, you will see Reactive structure of mind represented by the lower half of the circle and Creative structure by the upper half. When leaders operate from the Reactive mind-set they…
DetailsIt is mid afternoon. You are sitting at your desk trying to pull together this important proposal for your boss. It is due the day after tomorrow. As you wrestle with how to incorporate a complex spreadsheet from the finance department, you wonder when your quality analyst will bring in those last two key pieces…
DetailsBy David Rock HarperCollins Publishers, 2006 ISBN #978-0-06-083590-3 Reviewed by Ian Cook Managers are default programmed to solve problems. That’s what they are paid to do. That’s what they are good at. And that is how they see themselves, at a subconscious level. So, when an employee comes with a problem, the manager’s knee-jerk reaction…
DetailsRobert Rosen, CEO of the management consulting firm Healthy Companies International, reported in the July/2010 issue of Leadership Excellence magazine on conclusions gleaned from interviews of top executives in forty countries over the past 20 years. He and his team was looking for the attributes of the best leaders. They singled out five key characteristics:…
Details“The greatest humiliation in life is to work hard on something from which you expect great appreciation, and then fail to get it.” Edgar Watson Howe During our communication workshops for leaders and managers, we ask participants to write ten positive things about one of their employees. Although some complete the assignment with ease, this…
DetailsDid you know that membership in a professional association is a huge opportunity to expand your connections and grow your resources? With more than 5,000 professional associations nationwide (many with local chapters in your city), there is really no excuse for not joining an association that represents the voice of your profession.
Why would a professional want to use the Elements of Personality Type (subscales)? People have long known that individuals of the same type can function and appear differently. This has at times been a frustration for professionals because they have two people of the same type and yet they seem to be opposites in some…
DetailsThe 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…
DetailsI’m usually not a big fan of asking leading questions of a referee. But when I’m doing reference checks for sales candidates, I’m all for priming the “witness” before conducting the interrogation. Why? Because it helps avoid getting those sometimes ill-deserved, glowing reports during your reference-checking process.
I’m attending my 3rd conference this week as CEO of Net Minds. Sure, I’ve spoken at 200 conferences over the last decade, but that is not the same thing as attending one as a company team member. I’ve taken it for granted that I know conferences, but in fact, getting ready for this week has…
DetailsWhen a major disaster looms, the prepared executive knows exactly what to do. They’ve planned for different scenarios. They have different responses at the ready. At stake is nothing less than the fate of your organization. Even a relatively small crisis can cost your organization dearly if handled poorly. Your planning should include the following…
DetailsMost companies and their salespeople covet their value add, their features and benefits, and their value proposition as if it were the Holy Grail. The reality is all value propositions are inherently valueless. The feature and benefit style of selling that has served companies so well in the past no longer works. It is tried,…
DetailsDuring our recent TeleSeminar on Handling the (Dreaded) Price Objection, I was asked a really good question by one of the attendees — How do you handle situations where your main competitor is always undercutting you by 20 percent or more? It was a dynamite question and one that might be asked by many salespeople…
DetailsThe name and work of Carol Dweck keeps coming up in discussions among experts in cognitive development. I wrote a review of her important book, MindSet. In it she talks about two fundamental mindsets in people (and, therefore, of course, in employees): Fixed and Growth. Someone with a Fixed mindset believes they can’t get any…
DetailsIf stupidity got us into this mess, then why can’t it get us out? – Will Rogers The story is told that when St. Petersburg, one of the most splendid cities in Europe was being laid out early in the eighteenth century, boulders brought by a glacier had to be removed. One in particular had…
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