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According to the web site www.idiomeanings.com, the definition of sucking up is: ‘to behave in a very friendly, flattering, or kind manner to someone higher than you in order to get a benefit.’ Usually this is done in a very contrite and deceptive manner. A person says things and does things ... Views: 4741
Every sales person I have ever met wants to make as much money as possible with their time in the company. After all, that’s what they’re there for. To make money for themselves as well as for the company. It’s a give and take role.
Over the years as I have stated in earlier posts, I have ... Views: 1030
We have all heard of the ancient saying “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I’m sure that where you work you see and hear managers abusing their staff everyday. Or worse still, you might be one of them. Worse again, you might not even realize you are doing it!
There is no ... Views: 4338
All kinds of things can stand between us and the accomplishment of our goals.
We have little control - actually no control - over these obstacles. All we can control is how we deal with them.
Here’s a story (I was told it’s true) about a creative approach to dealing with an obstacle - an ... Views: 1533
Wow! How many times have you been told that you need to learn to “manage your time better” or “time management is the key to success?” At some point we have all had those dreaded words thrown at us, from past teachers, mentors, parents, etc. I’m here to tell you that I believe they are all ... Views: 2493
An interesting development in the Porsche vs Volkswagen drama has been the recent resignation of it’s CEO of 17 years, Wendelin Wiedeking. It could also be that Wiedeking was made to leave. It was a very sudden decision.
Wiedeking took over the management of Porsche when the automaker seemed ... Views: 1747
I got a very thoughtful comment from one of my readers in response to my Brainwashing vs. Influence article that warranted a full post in reply.
“Your article really hit a nerve, since my wife and i were talking about my parents recently. my dad retired 6 years ago, and my mom retired ... Views: 2363
At the conclusion of every sales presentation the salesman will have achieved one of three results: a sale is made, a sale is lost or valuable information is gleaned that can result in building a relationship. The third result can be called identifying the “hot button”. Obviously, the purpose of ... Views: 5513
Can you really save money by hiring a virtual assistant? According to virtual assistants’ websites, the answer is a resounding yes. As a matter of fact, money-saving is usually listed as one of the most important benefits of working with a VA.
Check out a virtual assistant’s website and ... Views: 2659
Almost every person in the world takes a certain pride in being a reasonable person. They will make prudent choices based on their background and attitudes. The safe decision minimizes the chances of being wrong. No one likes to be wrong.
The safe decision, however, carries little upside ... Views: 1418
Pamela Busch owns a restaurant in San Francisco. Like everyone else, she felt the pinch of the economic downturn as people stopped going out to eat. She decided to adapt by offering a three-course tasting menu at a set price.
Great. Her desired outcome is to stay in business. She’s accepted ... Views: 1725
Let’s consider the example of an entrepreneurial inventor attempting to market his newest creation: a portable hydrostatic body fat test appliance. Design is complete, testing is finished and results exceeded initial assumptions, several working prototypes have been built, UL Approval is in ... Views: 1396
This is the second of three articles that discusses what NOT to say or do if you own a business and are trying to sell. The first article was called “5 guaranteed ways NOT to sell your business.” The third article is called “5 things to avoid when trying to sell your business.” All articles ... Views: 1369
Like many of you, I spend a lot of time on the road in my “roving office” and enjoy listening to a variety of music and talk as I travel. Recently, “What’s Going On?,” Marvin Gaye’s 1971 social commentary about the environment came on and got me thinking about how common this phrase has become. ... Views: 1238
Malcontents...every company has them and they are costly to have around. In spite of this, many companies are reluctant to get rid of their troublesome employees. Some malcontents manage to create the perception of having value because they are long time employees and know many important things. ... Views: 1535
The hiring of Buyer’s Agents has perplexed Lead Agents for years. I will admit that much of what I write about this subject comes from many mistakes in personally hiring and firing Buyer’s Agents. Some of the principles, skills, techniques, and evaluations have come from the frustration of the ... Views: 3021
The hiring of Buyer’s Agents has perplexed Lead Agents for years. I will admit that much of what I write about this subject comes from many mistakes in personally hiring and firing Buyer’s Agents. Some of the principles, skills, techniques, and evaluations have come from the frustration of the ... Views: 3021
We want our customers to love us.
We want our employees to love their jobs.
Yet if you bring up the “L word” in the context of leadership, people get uncomfortable.
They envision an afternoon of holding hands around the company campfire with the staff swaying to the strains of ... Views: 871
Work/life balance is a crock.
The elusive goal of balance keeps us teetering on a tightrope of insanity as we frantically juggle the plates of our compartmentalized lives.
Balance may be the big buzzword in corporate America, but parceling yourself out in the quest for perfect balance ... Views: 928
Perhaps you've seen the film, "The Secret" which features interviews with many success gurus sharing how they made it -- I saw the video and thought it was pretty good. In my experience; however, there are a few more factors for achieving the success you want. Having owned my dream airplane, ... Views: 1244
I recently finished creating my latest website, and since I am a designer, not a coder, I often find the need to seek the services of a freelance IT professional. There are several good sites out there that can easily help you find the help your looking for. There are quality professionals ... Views: 1361
Following are a collection of excerpts from an eBook written by R.W. Goruk;
"How to Sell More in a Down Market - The Leadership Secrets to Dynamite Sales Results"
More information about the author and the book can be found at:
Http://www.howtosellmoreinadownmarket.com
... Views: 823
5 Areas of Leadership
One day after the terrible bridge collapse in Minneapolis in the summer of 2007 I found myself traveling in a cab across a bridge in Seattle . While on the bridge, I noticed an adjoining LRT (Light Rapid Transit) bridge under construction. The cab driver mentioned that ... Views: 1825
Selling a business is not easy. Here’s a look at 5 guaranteed ways you will NOT be successful.
1. It is unclear exactly what is being sold.
Make sure it is clear exactly what is being sold. For example, have a list of all the Fixtures, Furniture and Equipment. If any items are not being ... Views: 1385
Customer service is a powerful differentiator that can set a virtual assistant apart from her competitors. This translates directly into more new clients, more work from existing clients and ability to charge higher professional rates.
And yet for all its potential benefits, some virtual ... Views: 1467
Sometimes, hiring medical sales reps feels like a roll of the dice. You hope you get a winner, but you’re never sure you will.
In an article called “Stop Hiring Poor-Performing Salespeople,” Brian Jeffrey wrote about 3 specific pitfalls of hiring sales reps you should look out for, and ... Views: 2201
Of all the skills and knowledge required to succeed in today’s workforce, managing upward – the ability to manage one’s supervisors, managers, and leadership team – is perhaps the least taught or practiced, yet it is one of the most valuable skills a knowledge worker can have. When done ... Views: 4412
Change. It’s a word everyone seems to be using these days. And it seems to have different connotations for different people. Regardless of what it means to you, change is inevitable. And, contrary to what many believe, people actually like change. People resist change when they fear it, and they ... Views: 1060
One of the most important People Management tools is the regular one-to-one performance discussion. As with most things in life, being effective at performance One-to-ones requires planning, structuring and building effective habits. This article provides a concise ‘how to’ guide to holding ... Views: 5888
“You cannot expect to achieve new goals or move beyond your present circumstances unless you change.” ~ Les Brown
I’m probably not the first person who is going to break this astounding news to you, but I do want to make sure all you savvy business people are aware of the shift in business ... Views: 1520
“The Big Idea” that will make an entrepreneur successful is not obtainable by filling in the blanks on a magic invention template. Where do ‘The Big Ideas” come from? Why are some people able to develop exciting concepts and others, though constantly scheming, achieve nothing of value? How do ... Views: 2112
This sounds a little strange but having the right people doing the right jobs can have a powerful impact on your bottom line and how effective you and your organization is in getting the job done.
Right now I’m personally caught in the classic dilemma of starting a new business and having to ... Views: 1615
“When you throw dirt, you lose ground.” – Texas Proverb
Nothing tears down relationships, teamwork, effectiveness, and productivity like the office rumor mill and gossip. Some refer to this as water cooler chit chat. There are certain type individuals that will go straight to the source to ... Views: 5161
We use two prepositions with the verb ‘communicate’ - ‘with’ and ‘to’.
‘With’ implies dialogue and involvement between communicator and recipient.
‘To’ implies the one way process of informing and has no place here.
The involvement of communicating with someone may have an outward or ... Views: 1160
If you are going for an interview as a prospective employee then you should do some research. Read the job description and requirements carefully. Browse the web site to see how the organization presents itself. Search for news items and comments about the company on news sites and ... Views: 1813
There are two universal truths about conflict: 1) everyone experiences it, and 2) no one really likes it. Conflict, at best, is a disagreement; at worst it can be intensely destructive. But can conflict also be a positive experience? I believe it can be a constructive – or even welcome – ... Views: 1838
Spreading responsibility across all employees in the facility relieves stress in individual staff members.
Stress of all kinds pummels those who work in long term care. Facilities are expected to deal with major reimbursement changes, staffing concerns, regulatory compliance changes, consumer ... Views: 1530
In today’s healthcare world, the customer will not tolerate excuses made to justify unacceptable care or services. They’re not going to listen to inane excuses such as “We’re working short”, “That’s not my patient”, “I just came on duty”, “No one told me that”, “I’m brand new”, or “I’m a float”. ... Views: 1397
It would be simple for a healthcare operation to be successful if you didn’t have to work with customers and co-workers. All joking aside, many people feel their day is composed of merely trying to make positive human connectivity occur. Many organizations find, instead, human entanglement ... Views: 3517
Look around where you work and see how different people live in different periods of time. They are living in the Past Now, Current Now or Future Now.
Being around people living in the Past Now can be depressing. These individuals believe something great happened in the past, but nothing will ... Views: 7946
Can Your Business Run Without You?
What would happen to your business if you became ill for an extended period of time? Could someone else man the shop for you easily? Would you be more relaxed on vacation (or at the very least, take a vacation!) if you knew that the business could be ... Views: 2347
“Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.” – General George S. Patton
A few years ago, I was asked to teach a workshop called, "Dreams Never Die - How to keep your dreams alive after 50". It is true that dreams never die, but they can wind up fading into the woodwork of ... Views: 3338
The Effective Leader works at building up and maintaining a series of Leadership Competencies which they use to do their job. By ‘competencies’ we do not mean ‘natural’ attributes, personality styles or skills. Competency is something, either natural or learnt, which is practiced and used ... Views: 3470
At AACC, I had the pleasure of a long conversation with a national sales manager of a $30M company (10 sales reps and 10 technical support folks) where I discovered his opinion that “sales reps these days just aren’t as strong as they used to be.” I said, “Really? I’ve found that sales reps ... Views: 2052
Economic times are bad! Finances are tight! I can’t afford to carry these people!
Sound familiar? If you add your energy to this choir of voices in conflict, you are actually creating a reality that you don’t want! How DO you deal with conflict and financial realities without adding ... Views: 1263
Leadership for yourself and your business is extremely important in tough economic times. Leadership is about setting goals and then working towards those goals. It is also about accessing what is the most important task that you can complete in your business to get the best possible results. ... Views: 1224
"Managers tend to use compensation as a crutch. After all, it is far easier to design an incentive system that will do management's work than it is to articulate a direction persuasively, develop agreement about goals and problems, and confront difficulties when they arise." — Michael Beer, ... Views: 1414
"The world is moving so fast these days that anyone who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it." — Elbert Hubbard, 19th century American editor, lecturer, and essayist
My library is full of books chronicling, charting, and categorizing the major changes societies, ... Views: 1127
"Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart go together." — John Ruskin, 19th century English critic, artist and social reformer
Too often, we see the world in narrow binary, either/or terms. Odd or even, closed or open, introverted or extroverted, individual or group, ... Views: 1218
"We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon." — Konrad Adenauer, first chancellor of post war West Germany
Like mission and vision statements and values, goal setting and visioning labels often get confused and used interchangeably. Generally that doesn't matter. ... Views: 1124
"There are no new truths, but only truths that have not been recognized by those who have perceived them without noticing. A truth is something that everybody can be shown to know and to have known, as people say, all along." — Mary McCarthy, author and critic
I write these words as I sit in ... Views: 1417