Category Archives: Perform / Execution

The One Thing

In their book, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results, authors Gary Keller and Jay Papasan suggest that a laser-like focus on the most important is essential to realizing success. Since the book dovetails so closely to … Continue reading

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Make American Manufacturing Great Again

Manufacturing still remains a vital part of the American economy.  Many factors make America a great place for manufacturing: a large and nearby market, common language, good culture of business ethics, low cost fuel, strong design and engineering talent, robust … Continue reading

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A Complaint is a Gift

In their book, A Complaint is a Gift: Recovering Customer Loyalty When Things Go Wrong, authors Janelle Barlow and Claus Moller discuss the inadequacies of customer service and the customer service departments at most companies. The book begins with a … Continue reading

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Six Words for Leadership and Business Success

Success… A whole industry has sprung up around helping leaders and businesses get things done, make it happen, and be more successful. It is possible to spend thousands, even millions, of dollars getting advice from these consulting firms, gurus, and … Continue reading

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World Class Selling

The book, World Class Selling, by Roy Chitwood (founder of the Track Selling sales process) is an effective and insightful sales book. It is well worth reading for both new and experienced salespeople alike. Below I have summarized the key … Continue reading

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Operations – The Five Daily Fundamentals

Most companies still provide a tangible product or service. This means that companies need to have operations employing people to produce the product, deliver the product, or provide the service. These operations are essential to great customer service and building … Continue reading

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Sales Fun Facts

This month, I thought to share some sales “fun facts” to get us all thinking of what we can do better to drive sales growth and success and move our companies forward.   Having the right people on your sales … Continue reading

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5 Ways Managers Can Make It Happen

In order to move our companies forward, we, as managers, need to get the right things done – the most important tasks that lead to success. This needs to happen in a workplace besieged by interruptions, distractions, and office chatter. … Continue reading

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The 9 Steps to Managing Our Stress

As business leaders, our lives are often stressful. Recent research confirms what many of us have observed; stress can harm our careers, endanger our health, and kill. In my career, I have witnessed: A boss retire early from his dream … Continue reading

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5 Steps to Improving Customer Service

Excellent customer service is a fundamental for success in our businesses. Unfortunately, it is all too often lacking. So, how can we improve customer service in our companies? Hire and Develop Employees that Actually Like People: Customer service starts and … Continue reading

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6 Steps to a Successful Team Project

Today, more than ever, employees need to be able to work in teams as businesses try to solve every more difficult tasks. Alas, many team projects start off with high hopes and ambitious targets only to end up with diminished … Continue reading

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Prepare Questions…Not Presentations

The sales meeting begins. The salesperson starts talking through a PowerPoint presentation slide deck (which took him several hours to complete) telling the customer how great the salesperson’s company and products are. 30 minutes later the presentation is complete. And … Continue reading

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We Must Impose Limits… On Ourselves

As business leaders, we are constantly being bombarded with distractions, new opportunities, and issues. Everything and everyone screams at us to do more. Yet, to achieve our goals, we must prioritize. By imposing limits on ourselves, we can better focus … Continue reading

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How Not to Waste Time In Meetings

In his book, Meetings Matter: 8 Powerful Strategies for Remarkable Conversations, Paul Axtell gives a strong argument in favor of meetings. Meetings are at the heart of an effective organization, and each meeting is an opportunity to clarify issues, set … Continue reading

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New Year Resolutions for First-Time Managers

Happy New Year! For first time managers struggling to move their business units forward in 2015, now is the time to take a step back and focus unwaveringly on the fundamentals of managing and leading others. As such, I offer … Continue reading

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Mistakes Will Be Made

Four fundamentals to executing and getting things done are: Keep it simple Focus on the important Empower the team to make decisions at the lowest level possible Speed In practice, we often ignore these straightforward guidelines due to one over-riding … Continue reading

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Simple: Conquering the Crisis of Complexity

Simple: Conquering the Crisis of Complexity, written by Alan Siegel and Irene Etzkorn, is an excellent reminder to all of us to rail against complexity and keep things simple. Even though I summarize some of the key points below, I … Continue reading

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Recap – One Key to Help Move Your Company Forward

A customer interaction and a meeting are not truly finished until we take a moment to review and sum up what has just happened.   How do we recap? 1. In a customer interaction, we need to go over the … Continue reading

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We Need to Spend “Alone Time” With Our Skip Levels

As leaders, we need to spend time on a regular and consistent basis with our skip levels.   What is a Skip Level? As we move up in our organizations, we become ‘managers of managers’ with both direct reports and … Continue reading

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Business Success by the Numbers

What numbers lead to business success? 0 – As in 0 /0 (zero injuries and zero accidents). In any company, the safety of employees and customers each and every day should be of highest concern.   1 – As in … Continue reading

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