Ahhh, I recall with sincere fondness the memory of playing certain childhood games. Sorry, Monopoly, LIFE, and one of my personal favorites – Chutes and Ladders. Now, each of these has messaging, or themes, that could be related in some fashion or another to Corporate America – risk/reward; entrepreneurial spirit; getting ahead with good deeds…
DetailsOne of the most important keys to success in your personal and professional life will be determined by your ability to get along with others. Below is a quiz I provide to people at my workshops as well as to those I coach. Take the quiz and see how well you do. Also have your…
Details“How can I keep up with social? Why should I care.” I have this conversation weekly with very smart people, who are still stumped by the social media phenom in our culture. They feel a strong sense of urgency if they aren’t fishing in the social stream, but at the same time, it feels like…
Details“As a speaker, trainer, coach and consultant helping companies and organizations to improve customer and workplace relationships one question I always get is, “What are some ways to deal with complaints?” The word “complaint” is loaded with negative connotations. But in fact, complaining does offer an opportunity to set things right. According to Sandra Crowe,…
DetailsIf you are getting too many emails, it’s likely you are a manager. Depending on your corporate or company culture, it’s easy to get 100 or 200 emails a day – all expecting your precious attention. There are less leaders than two years ago, so more people report to you or feel the need to…
DetailsDo you have a complex, large project that simply must not fail? How do you set up the right team to ensure success? 1) Choose your BEST people to participate on the team. A recent system implementation in my company proved to be one of the more complex projects I have worked on — the key…
DetailsUp until recently, I would have told you that texting did not create much of an opportunity for businesses as it might be considered obtrusive. Of course, for critical communications like flight delay info, I’ve given out my text for a notification to airlines. A few friends of mine, have their bank balance texted to…
DetailsBlind Spots. In cars, we have blind spots where we can’t see what is going on right around us. The larger those blind spots are, the more dangerous we are. We can have blind spots in our life as well – things and behaviors that we do that we don’t understand or appreciate the impact…
DetailsDo you have a marginally performing employee? Not sure exactly what to do? Should you keep supporting them? When (in what circumstances) should you terminate their employment? A friend of mine, a certified executive coach, gave a great example of how to simplify decisions when dealing with low-performing staff: Determine if your employee has the…
DetailsA few months ago, we had the wonderful pleasure of spending a day interviewing 11 people at Oak Ridge Hotel & Conference Center to try to uncover their secret – because they have gotten the formula right on employee motivation. Anyone who has ever stepped into their facility outside of Minneapolis can attest to the customer service mentality that every employee exhibits – from the front desk, to housekeeping, to the chefs, groundskeepers, and even in accounting.
There is a definite difference in how the majority of these employees “show up” at their job everyday and how they view and take care of their “guests”. They are truly a company that is doing something right. Here is a quick overview of some of the findings we found:
DetailsAny person who selects a goal in life which can be fully achieved, has already defined his own limitations. – Cavett Robert In his book, Winning Every Day, legendary football coach Lou Holtz shares a story about a man whose car tumbled into a ditch. He called a farmer for some help, but the farmer…
DetailsPiggy-backing on a blog post by Morag Barrett on the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce site titled How to Avoid Mistakes New (and Experienced) Managers Make, we address the new manager’s role in supporting change within the organization. To clarify, by “new managers” we are referring to individual contributors who have recently been promoted into roles…
DetailsAt a gut level we know that leadership is important and necessary. As I think back over the many bosses I worked for, only a small fraction exhibited good leadership skills. And those good bosses… I still think back fondly on how they helped me along my career path. Even the good ones were far…
DetailsCan Twitter Damage Your Professional Brand? Oh, let me count the ways. First, let me say I’m not writing this as a social media “expert,” nor would I ever purport to be. I’m posting this blog as your average professional who uses social media tools as a way to enhance her business. I know there…
DetailsRate yourself on a scale of 1 to 5 on the statements below: 1-Never 2-Almost never 3-Sometimes 4-Almost always 5-Always
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