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Tag Archives: Business Transformation
What’s Our Zero to Sixty?
Late one afternoon, a major plumbing leak sprang up in a building we were helping to build. Our field team sprang into immediate action, mobilized a large crew of workers, worked overtime, and repaired the damage caused by the water … Continue reading
Ideological Necrophilia
“Ideological necrophilia – a love of ideas that have been tried and proved not to work.” Moises Naim (Venezuelan writer and journalist) In the political world, we see ideological necrophilia in a continued love of Marxism and communism by the … Continue reading
Skin in the Game
In a previous job, I had around 100 salespeople who reported either directly or indirectly to me. As a group, they were strong in sales. But they lagged in paperwork, especially sales reporting and expense reports, and in doing any … Continue reading
Field Centric
As leaders, we can get wrapped up in so many different activities and meetings – meeting with the finance, human resources or marketing department; talking to investors, banks and insurance companies; strategic planning; looking at acquisition candidates or joint venture … Continue reading
Make Molehills
“Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.” Unfortunately, too many leaders ignore this wise advice. Instead, every minor issue becomes a major problem that needs to be addressed and resolved now. Why? Leaders make mountains out of molehills for … Continue reading
Never Split the Difference – Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It
Following up on my blog from August 2017, Negotiation – An Overview, I summarize the excellent book, Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It, from former FBI negotiator, Chris Voss. I highly recommend that you read … Continue reading
2 Second Lean: How to Make Your People and Your Business Better Every Day
I summarize some of the key concepts from the excellent book: 2 Second Lean: How to Grow People and Build a Fun Lean Culture. Written by Paul Akers, 2 Second Lean is a quick and easy ready that will help … Continue reading
The 5 Fundamentals of an Innovative Company
The world and the customer are changing rapidly. To keep up with these changes and to truly differentiate themselves in the marketplace, companies need to innovate. Yet, too many companies still rely on small updates, upgrades, or makeovers of their … Continue reading
Getting It Done: Achieving Twice as Much in Half the Time
Posted in Perform / Execution, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Business Transformation, Competitive Advantage, Consistent Execution, Decision Making, Employee Engagement, Focus, Leadership Success, Make It Happen, Pareto 80 - 20, Personal Productivity, Prioritization, Simplicity
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5 Steps to Creating a Unique Strategic Vision
Today, companies struggle to consistently increase sales and profits faster than the overall market. In too many cases, these companies lack a unique strategic vision that would differentiate the company and its products and services from the competition. Instead, their … Continue reading
The Power of Active Follow Up
To make change happen effectively (for our companies and for ourselves) requires daily attention and regular follow up. People don’t get better without follow up. So let’s get better at following up with our people. The quote above is from … Continue reading
5 Daily Behaviors for 2017
The calendar says 2017. Unfortunately, far too many of our leaders are leading as if it is 5, 10, 20, even 30 years ago. Old-fashioned leadership and work styles and out dated, time consuming, and all but useless leadership behaviors … Continue reading
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
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
Lead With Questions
As leaders, we often have an employee come to us with an issue or problem. As “make it happen” managers, we then focus on getting the problem solved and getting it done as quickly as possible. Thus, we take charge, … Continue reading
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
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
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Perform / Execution, Personal Success
Tagged Business Leadership, Business Transformation, Business Turnarounds, Consistent Execution, Do the Right Thing, Focus, Less is More, Make It Happen, Personal Productivity, Prioritization, Process Improvement, Simplicity, Tim Ferriss
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Get to the Front Lines
Undercover Boss has become a hit TV series by showing big corporate bosses going undercover and discovering the reality of the work lives of their employees. As leaders, we do not need to go undercover; we just need to get … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership, Team / People
Tagged Accountability, Business Leadership, Business Transformation, Business Turnarounds, Change, Customer Satisfaction, Do the Right Thing, Employee Engagement, Face Reality, Human Resources, Integrity, Sales and Marketing, Sales Coaching, Winning Teamwork
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Ten Ways to Grow Sales Now
Despite the improving unemployment rate and positive economic indicators, many B2B companies are stuck in slow and no growth modes. How can these companies re-kindle growth and increase sales?