Allen E. Fishman, TAB Founder and Chairman In a recent survey of small- to medium-size business owners, the availability of capital was ranked in the top 3 risks for small businesses in 2012. So, what can we do when the bank says, "No"? Entrepreneur.com reported that in 2010 the SBA provided U.S. small businesses with over $50 million in loans per day. I especially favor the SBA 504 loan program. The 504 is a lending partnership between a bank of your choice and a certified development company (CDC). The SBA sells a debenture for 40 percent of the total loan amount to the…
Executive Coaching
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Most Topular Stories
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Where to Go When the Bank Says “No” Part II: The SBA 504 Loan Program
Small Business Blog20 Jan 2012 | 4:56 pm -
Five Common Questions of Surety Bonds
The Contractor's Business Coach Blog8 Jan 2012 | 10:59 amWe have a guest blogger today. His name is Vic Lance, owner of Lance Surety Bonds. By Vic Lance: Starting a new construction project requires endless amounts of legal documentation and working through the proverbial “red tape.” Most often one of the starting points for beginning a construction project is to acquire at least one (typically two) contractor bonds, also known as surety bonds. Even though they are required on virtually all projects, much is still unknown about what they do, how they came to fruition and how much they cost. The following is an inside look at the most common… -
Be Attentive On Your Social Networks. It Will Pay Off!
Madalyn Sklar's Blog - social media + business coach24 Jan 2012 | 10:00 amIt’s important for you to pay close attention to your fans. Why? Because people love to compliment and they also like to complain and say crap. They do it publicly all over Facebook and Twitter. Compliments deserve your prompt, gracious reply. And any negativity that gets thrown your way should be dealt with immediately, nipped in the bud. Don’t let it escalate. How to best handle your attentiveness? 1. Monitor your sites, especially your blog, Facebook and Twitter. Set it up for email and/or text notifications so you can keep up with the chatter. Be equipped to respond on your… -
Ten Things You Need to Understand About Gen Y Employees (and why you should care)
business-coaching « WordPress.com Tag Feed10 Jan 2012 | 10:48 amBorn between 1977 and 1995, the Millennial or Gen-Y generation numbers almost 80 million. They are the fastest growing demographic in the US workforce.* Effectively attracting, retaining, and developing this generation will be critical to almost every business segment. Jason Ryan Dorsey: www.jasondorsey.com the emerging voice of the Y generation, outlined his “TOP TEN LIST” for How and Why the Gen Yers Think andAct at Work in his new book: Y-SIZE YOUR BUSINESS How to Maximize Your Gen-Y Employee's Potential JASON’S TOP TEN No expectation of lifetime employment A feeling of… -
Get Out of B.E.D. And Alter Your Outcomes
thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World26 Jan 2012 | 6:02 amToday’s post is by Marty Stanley, author of Get Out of B.E.D. and the newest member of the thoughtLEADERS team. “We got it done, but it was ugly,” the manager said, shaking his head in disbelief. Miscommunications, lack of communication, an inexperienced team leader and management on vacation resulted in cost over-runs exceeding $50,000, delayed [...] This is only the beginning of the thought... Please click the article headline above or go to http://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/blog for more.
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Small Business Blog
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Where to Go When the Bank Says “No” Part II: The SBA 504 Loan Program
20 Jan 2012 | 4:56 pmAllen E. Fishman, TAB Founder and Chairman In a recent survey of small- to medium-size business owners, the availability of capital was ranked in the top 3 risks for small businesses in 2012. So, what can we do when the bank says, "No"? Entrepreneur.com reported that in 2010 the SBA provided U.S. small businesses with over $50 million in loans per day. I especially favor the SBA 504 loan program. The 504 is a lending partnership between a bank of your choice and a certified development company (CDC). The SBA sells a debenture for 40 percent of the total loan amount to the… -
Where to Go When the Bank Says No - Small Business Investment Companies
13 Jan 2012 | 4:22 pmAllen E. Fishman, TAB Founder and Chairman What if the amount of money you need is more than what the bank will lend you, even with an SBA-backed loan? Licensed and regulated by the SBA; Small Business Investment Companies (SBIC) fill the debt and equity investment niche between straight lenders and venture capitalists. Investments by SBICs have fostered the growth of companies including Federal Express, Intel, America Online and Outback Steakhouse. SBICs use their own capital, plus funds borrowed from the federal government to provide small companies with long-term, fixed-rate… -
Understanding Conflict in the Family Business
6 Jan 2012 | 3:17 pmJacquelyn Gernaey, Independent Owner, The Alternative Board TAB, President, HyTech Consulting from Balancing Act: When Family and Business Intertwine Many articles on the subject of conflict contain an acknowledgement that conflict is a normal part of life. Webster’s Dictionary defines conflict as “a battle, contest of opposing forces, discord, antagonism existing between primitive desires, instincts and morale, religious or ethical ideals.” Conflict results when two or more people oppose one another because their needs, wants, goals or values are different. Most… -
An End-of-Year Leadership Check Up: Get Your Business Back on Track
30 Dec 2011 | 11:00 amAllen E. Fishman, Founder and Chairman of The Alternative Board Anyone can be an entrepreneur, but not everyone can be an entrepreneur while also being a great leader. The biggest test to see whether you are a successful leader within your company is to take a look directly into the success of your company. Hint: The success of your company is a direct reflection upon your leadership skills—good or bad. The characteristics of a great leader are endless, from being caring, kind and empathetic to detail-oriented, driven and ambitious. You’ll find all leaders have common characteristics that… -
Translating Social Networking into Real Benefits for Your Business
23 Dec 2011 | 11:00 amJacquelyn Gernaey, TAB Certified Facilitator/Coach To social network or not, that is the question. We are not talking about the social networking your kids or grandkids might do, we are talking about making social networking an integrated part of you marketing plan. (You all have marketing plans, right?) Ok, so for those who might not yet know what social networking is all about, think of it like regular networking in that you meet people, you join groups, you have conversations, you make and get referrals, you focus on giving rather than getting, and you benefit in the long run by…
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The Contractor's Business Coach Blog
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Five Common Questions of Surety Bonds
8 Jan 2012 | 10:59 amWe have a guest blogger today. His name is Vic Lance, owner of Lance Surety Bonds. By Vic Lance: Starting a new construction project requires endless amounts of legal documentation and working through the proverbial “red tape.” Most often one of the starting points for beginning a construction project is to acquire at least one (typically two) contractor bonds, also known as surety bonds. Even though they are required on virtually all projects, much is still unknown about what they do, how they came to fruition and how much they cost. The following is an inside look at the most common… -
Journey to My New Roof
14 Dec 2011 | 9:11 pmYou’ve just gotta love those insurance companies. A few years ago a hail storm blew through my neighborhood. Most of the houses received new roofs. My insurance company told me mine was fine. Well, not really fine. It wasn’t damaged enough to qualify for much repair. However, bless their sweet hearts, they did decide I would need to replace it by the beginning of this year or they were going to drop my coverage. That set off a round of meeting roofers, checking them out, selecting one, and working with him to arrive at the right choice of shingles. The company did an amazing job. -
Pavement Live San Diego November 30th – December 3rd
28 Nov 2011 | 5:59 pmIt’s not to late to attend Pavement Live. This new concept for asphalt maintenance and paving contractors includes 10 live demonstrations, conferences and an exhibit hall with the latest equipment. I am proud to be delivering five presentations starting on Wednesday thru Saturday. Their will be an array of industry experts conducting many different classes. I will be teaching the following classes at this year’s event: Wednesday, November 30 9:00am – Noon W4 Developing a Hands-on Strategic Plan for Pavement Maintenance Contractors Wednesday, November 30 3:00pm – 4:30pm A5… -
Aggravation to Profit Quotient
21 Oct 2011 | 11:28 amHave you read our newsletter this week? Ron wrote about how the relationship between engineers, general contractors and subcontractors have dramaticaly changed over the lst several years. I consider it A MUST READ! If you haven’t signed up for our free newsletter what are you waiting for? It is Free with no strings attached! -
5 Things Contractors Need To Know About Surety Bonds
22 Aug 2011 | 8:41 pmThe following was penned by Danielle Rodabaugh of www.SuretyBonds.com. New contractors have a plethora of regulations to learn about in a short time, and oftentimes they’re left to sort through them on their own. The use of surety bonds in the construction industry is one such regulation. There are many things every contractor should understand about surety bonds in the construction industry, but here are the five most crucial. 1) Government agencies require different surety bond types to protect consumer interests. The basic idea behind contractor bonding is to protect project owners…
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Madalyn Sklar's Blog - social media + business coach
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Be Attentive On Your Social Networks. It Will Pay Off!
24 Jan 2012 | 10:00 amIt’s important for you to pay close attention to your fans. Why? Because people love to compliment and they also like to complain and say crap. They do it publicly all over Facebook and Twitter. Compliments deserve your prompt, gracious reply. And any negativity that gets thrown your way should be dealt with immediately, nipped in the bud. Don’t let it escalate. How to best handle your attentiveness? 1. Monitor your sites, especially your blog, Facebook and Twitter. Set it up for email and/or text notifications so you can keep up with the chatter. Be equipped to respond on your… -
From My Vault… Cool Site To Check Out: Twitter
23 Jan 2012 | 8:42 pmOh this is fun! I’m reading an old post from my blog dated 3-24-08 and titled, “Cool Site To Check Out: Twitter”. Oh this is a MUST re-read. Yes I was an early adopter to Twitter. I tweeted from the ASCAP Expo in April 2008 before most people had heard of this up and coming site. And now look how far Twitter has come! Look closely at the second screen shot. This was back when my @GoGirlsMusic Twitter had only 11 followers. I’m now at 12K. Enjoy this repost! I admit it, I’m a computer techie geek. I love how we can all stay connected through text messaging, IMs,… -
My Favorite Motivational Site: The Daily Love
19 Jan 2012 | 4:39 pmAs the fearless leader of the GoGirlsMusic.com community, I spend a great deal of time motivating the troops. I try to inspire and encourage others to get out there and be all they can be with their music. I get my inspiration from various sources including some really great websites. My favorite these days is The Daily Love. I stumbled upon it about a year ago and absolutely love reading it every day. Check it out and tell me what you think. And tell me what inspires you. @TheDailyLove on Twitter One of the fastest ways to be happy is to step outside of yourself & help someone else. #TDL… -
#TwitterTip from Ann Tran
13 Jan 2012 | 4:48 pm#TwitterTip Be generous with your Re-tweets and in time you will be noticed. — Ann Tran (@AnnTran_) January 13, 2012 Last week I blogged an article, Be Attention Grabbing On Twitter, that discusses ways to stand out on the social media giant. When you grab attention, you gain new followers. I love following and reading Ann Tran’s tweets because she does an incredible job of standing out among the masses. She provides great, useful tips and shares so much intelligent information. And I love the motivational quotes too. Ann’s tip for today: “Be generous with your Re-tweets… -
How To Add Managers To Your Google+ Page
12 Jan 2012 | 8:15 amBy now you should have a presence on Google+ Pages. If not, read my earlier posts: Connecting Your Band or Brand With Google+ Pages and It’s A No-Brainer… Google+ Will Be The Next Big Thing. I’m excited to report that Google now allows for multiple “Managers” on your Pages. Yes, I was miffed just as much as the next guy when G+ Pages debuted in November but we couldn’t add anyone to help manage the Page. This meant you had to give out your Google login. Not cool! But now you can have up to 50 Managers. This is great. I’m going to show you how to do this in 4…
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business-coaching « WordPress.com Tag Feed
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Ten Things You Need to Understand About Gen Y Employees (and why you should care)
10 Jan 2012 | 10:48 amBorn between 1977 and 1995, the Millennial or Gen-Y generation numbers almost 80 million. They are the fastest growing demographic in the US workforce.* Effectively attracting, retaining, and developing this generation will be critical to almost every business segment. Jason Ryan Dorsey: www.jasondorsey.com the emerging voice of the Y generation, outlined his “TOP TEN LIST” for How and Why the Gen Yers Think andAct at Work in his new book: Y-SIZE YOUR BUSINESS How to Maximize Your Gen-Y Employee's Potential JASON’S TOP TEN No expectation of lifetime employment A feeling of… -
Words with Friends
10 Jan 2012 | 8:37 amYesterday I wrote about one of my first dances with digital fun the year our children got a Nintendo 64. (You should be impressed I can remember details from that long ago.) This year’s digital distraction snuck in over the holidays. Online Scrabble – Words with Friends. Aye yi yi, I love scrabble and this is pretty addictive. (Don’t say I didn’t warn you and I beg you – do NOT send me an invitation to play.) My justification in continuing to play is that leaders are readers and that vocabulary-building is a valuable exercise. Are you buying it? I’ve… -
Short-Term Relief versus Long-Term Success
10 Jan 2012 | 12:44 amBernadette is the managing partner in the mid-west office of a national law firm. They’ve done well over the last few years, thanks to three senior attorneys with large, high-profile, anchor clients that have kept the firm busy. Even as these attorneys have been critical to the success of the firm, they are also a big problem. They see themselves as the stars and others in the firm as dead wood. They are condescending and at times abusive of the other attorneys and support staff. Although they are already highly compensated and there is a significant income gap between them and others in… -
Time Blocking
9 Jan 2012 | 8:28 pmSetting blocks of time aside is important. It allows you to have freedom to get day-to-day tasks accomplished. Do you ever feel there is not enough time in a day to get everything done? Most professionals don’t set blocks of time aside, scrambling to get tasks done before the day ends. The solution is time blocking. This is a system you can follow to accomplish your goals. You need to organize your day in blocks of time; this will help you become more organized. You will need to make a detailed list prioritizing your task and activities in your daily routine. The reason this important is… -
No Inner Peace? -What is a Life Coach? #16
9 Jan 2012 | 2:43 pmAsk yourself, right here right now, “Do I have inner peace?” At any given moment your answer might vary. If you are truly in the moment though you’ll know pretty quickly if you are feeling peace or otherwise concerning yourself or any situation. I used to marvel at those who modeled a calm, collected and peaceful demeanor. They looked as if they had spent their entire lives in meditation and had just emerged, totally at one with themselves and the world at large. In fact, being around people who had a perpetual ear-to-ear grin of peace on their face only made me more pissed…
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thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World
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Get Out of B.E.D. And Alter Your Outcomes
26 Jan 2012 | 6:02 amToday’s post is by Marty Stanley, author of Get Out of B.E.D. and the newest member of the thoughtLEADERS team. “We got it done, but it was ugly,” the manager said, shaking his head in disbelief. Miscommunications, lack of communication, an inexperienced team leader and management on vacation resulted in cost over-runs exceeding $50,000, delayed [...] This is only the beginning of the thought... Please click the article headline above or go to http://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/blog for more. -
How Leaders Can Overcome Resistance to Change
23 Jan 2012 | 6:03 amNobody likes change (other than David Bowie… “ch-ch-ch-changes!” Good luck getting that song out of your head). I know if you do anything that changes my routine in the morning, my whole day is whacked. We hate change. Heck, most of us hate getting change at the grocery store because all those coins just weigh [...] This is only the beginning of the thought... Please click the article headline above or go to http://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/blog for more. -
A Better Way to Communicate
19 Jan 2012 | 6:04 amToday’s post is by bestselling author Seth Kahan. It’s an excerpt from his book Getting Change Right: How Leaders Transform Organizations from the Inside Out. You can learn more about him and his book at the end of the post. In 1996 I was working on my first large-scale change initiative at the World Bank. [...] This is only the beginning of the thought... Please click the article headline above or go to http://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/blog for more. -
4 Keys for Successful Project Leadership
16 Jan 2012 | 6:02 amWe always talk about project management but rarely discuss project leadership. There’s a difference. Leaders play a critical role in setting the conditions for a team to successfully manage a project. If you focus on the following four key roles you can play on a project as the project leader you’ll dramatically improve the odds [...] This is only the beginning of the thought... Please click the article headline above or go to http://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/blog for more. -
12 Most Consequential Books for a New Leader
11 Jan 2012 | 2:52 pmToday’s post is by David Dye – COO of Colorado UpLift. You can learn more about him at the end of the post. And check out #11… You may have heard that leaders take responsibility for their own growth, but with thousands of leadership and management books to choose from, where do you begin? You [...] This is only the beginning of the thought... Please click the article headline above or go to http://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/blog for more.
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Professional Development
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Increasing Success Rate of Goals
23 Jan 2012 | 10:10 amTake a look at the graph below summarizing the findings of a study by Dr. Gail Matthews. I shared this at a session I did last week and several folks found it incredibly insightful. It is self-explanatory. So this week, ask yourself, as it is still very early in the year, which group you belong to with the goals you have already set for 2012. What can you do to move into Group 5 and increase your success rate of achieving those goals? -
Motivation (Part 2)
16 Jan 2012 | 7:26 amLast week’s blog on motivation generated a good amount of healthy dialogue. I want to elaborate on that topic and discuss ways to generate more sustainable levels of high performance, getting you to be at your best as often as possible in lieu of relying solely on the fleeting nature of motivation, which–as I discussed last week–is a great way to perform at high levels but only for very short durations. To reiterate, motivation, as most of us understand it to be, is a very short period of fearlessness based on low cortisol levels induced by very positive experiences. -
Motivation–Don’t Rely On It
9 Jan 2012 | 2:16 pmThis time of year, the gym I go to is filled to capacity. It happens every year and somewhere around late February or early March, the “new-year crowd,” as we affectionately call them, disappears again. This is a time of year when motivation is high as goals are set for both the personal and professional year ahead. Coincidentally, I spoke with a friend last week who told me she attended an amazing Leadership Workshop for several days last September where the post-session to-do list was very conveniently scheduled and structured. She was so sure that this time around she would follow… -
Optimism
3 Jan 2012 | 10:41 amThere have been dozens of studies over the past few years validating the correlation of optimism to success, however you define the latter. Optimism is not as abstract a concept as you might think. We typically refer to optimists as the “glass is half-full” people as opposed to other “glass is half-empty” ones. It is my contention that optimism is, in fact, the outcome of very high self-awareness, both of oneself and everything around us. And self-awareness is a measurable dimension of Emotional Intelligence. I argue that the more self-aware you are, the more “glasses” you… -
Closing 2011
12 Dec 2011 | 9:52 amThis will be my last blog post for 2011. Like most of you, I’ll take a break over the next few weeks, so bear with me for a longer-than-usual post. What an amazing year this has been for me on all fronts, setting very high expectations for an even better 2012. When I write my weekly blog posts, I typically look back at the previous week and reflect on what to write. Ironically, this past week itself was a wonderful microcosm of the whole year itself. This past week started by connecting with one of my oldest and dearest friends – my sister of 25 years – Mollie. She is a…
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Profitable Growth
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With All the Business in Technology, Where’s the Technology in Business?
16 Jan 2012 | 1:04 pmBusiness people are fascinated by the benefits, profits and potential of technology. Just visit any tech event and witness the financiers, service providers and the media networking with techies to discover “the next business thing.” But despite all this “technology-transfer”, why isn’t there more technology in business? After 15 years of consulting with more than 430 firms and presenting to or interviewing another 10,000 business leaders, I’m dismayed by how little technology actually makes it into most mainstream, medium and small businesses: Most inventories are… -
Get Your Loving at Home; He’s No Hugger!
18 Dec 2011 | 10:06 pmHave you ever wondered what would happen if you cut out all extra service and personal touches from your business? Would customers still come if you were excellent but detached? My recent shoulder surgery was an in-your-face experience of how this works. After enduring shoulder pain for a year, an MRI confirmed that my rotator cuff was ripped apart. I found Pittsburgh’s best surgeon, and after a 15-minute consult, he booked me. 90 days later, I arrived for the surgery, and was quickly processed, IV’d, gurneyed and staged for the operation. No visit from the surgeon, little small talk… -
Lessons Learned from Marcellus Part 4: Insights After 6 Month’s Focus on Shale
18 Dec 2011 | 9:16 pmNot until the summer of 2011, did the Marcellus opportunity begin to make sense to me. Knowing nothing about gas drilling, energy policy or how big energy companies function, I grew increasingly frustrated by all the attention that Marcellus was attracting. Then I recalled my Economics 101 professor’s simple message; the impact of one dollar spent in the economy is multiplied 3-10 times as it passes from each buyer to another seller. And with a trillion dollars of spending on natural gas in Western PA, the multiplier effect is mind-boggling! Every business that can do business downstream of… -
Five Keys to Sustaining Your Advanced Consulting Business
18 Dec 2011 | 8:57 pmAfter 14 years of consulting and relocating my business to Western Pennsylvania, many of you have asked, “What keeps you going, Andy?” In advance of my introducing an “Advanced Consulting Mastermind Group” with Michael Couch and the Pittsburgh Consulting Community on January 31st, here’s a preview of my keys to keeping your consulting business healthy and wealthy. 1. Sustain and nurture your professional passion. Constantly learn about your clients’ challenges and help them succeed on their terms. a. Live to learn, but advise with detached passion. Stay devoted to your… -
Assess Corporate Culture When Choosing Your Next Customer
12 Dec 2011 | 3:03 pmIt is standard practice to qualify a prospect on the basis of time, need, authority and money, but why not by corporate culture as well? We all find it easier to work with some companies just as we prefer working with some employees more than others. In fact, as a result of outsourcing, with more and more work going to suppliers instead of employees, perhaps the supplier-customer relationship should (and will) start to mimic the employee-employer relationship. If this is so, then as suppliers, we should start to assess our prospect’s corporate culture just as we did when deciding to accept…
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The Invisible Mentor
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The Invisible Mentor Week in Review
28 Jan 2012 | 4:30 amThis is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week Read This Before Our Next Meeting by Al Pittampalli Wisdom of Life: Susan Brownell Anthony, Women’s Rights Activist and Abolitionist,and Maggie Berry, Women in TechnologyAdventures in LearningFor National Mentoring Month, consider creating your Personal Board of Mentors. Having one mentor is seldom ever enough these days, because no one person can assist you with all your mentoring needs. It is your responsibility to ensure that all your needs are taken care of.Create Your Board of Mentors – January is National Mentoring… -
Mentor Yourself: Interview With Maggie Berry, Women in Technology Part II
27 Jan 2012 | 4:29 amInvisible Mentor: Maggie BerryCompany Name: Women in TechnologyWebsite: http://www.womenintechnology.co.uk/Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.Maggie Berry: I run an organization called Women in Technology based inLondon and our strategic aim is to increase the number of women who are working and achieving in the UK’s technology profession.Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and professional life?Maggie Berry: I keep them quite separate. I spend a lot of time on work, but I keep my connections separate. But some of the ladies I’ve met, and have grown to know… -
Mentor Yourself: Interview With Maggie Berry, Women in Technology
26 Jan 2012 | 4:30 amInvisible Mentor: Maggie BerryCompany Name: Women in TechnologyWebsite: http://www.womenintechnology.co.uk/Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.Maggie Berry: I run an organization called Women in Technology based inLondon and our strategic aim is to increase the number of women who are working and achieving in theUK’s technology profession.Avil Beckford: What’s a typical day like for you?Maggie Berry: I don’t really have a typical day per se as my role involves a range of different aspects from the overall strategy for the business, to getting hands on with the networking… -
Wisdom of Life: Susan Brownell Anthony, Women’s Rights Activist and Abolitionist
25 Jan 2012 | 4:30 amWisdom of Life: Susan Brownell Anthony was very outspoken and said what was on her mind, which made her an excellent reformer. While working as a teacher, she discovered that male teachers earned $10 a week while their female counterparts earned a measly $2.50. Anthony raised her objections and subsequently was fired. That did not dampen her spirits though. Over the years, Anthony voiced her objections about many issues such as slavery, women’s inability to manage their own money, and right to vote. It was the tireless work of Anthony and her colleagues that allowed women many rights that… -
Booked for Mentoring – Book Review: Read This Before Our Next Meeting by Al Pittampalli
24 Jan 2012 | 8:08 amWhile I was in my degree program at Haskayne School of Business, the University of Calgary, we had to watch a film, Meetings, Bloody Meetings, starring John Cleese, and that stuck with me. I was reminded of that film as I read, Read This Before Our Next Meetingby Al Pittampalli.Image via WikipediaHowever, meetings are vital to ensure that critical decisions get made in organizations, and teams are working effectively on complex projects. Therefore, the word meeting should be reserved for decision-making. There should be no meetings to dispense information; instead, the organization should…
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Rebelations Blog
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How to Use Questions to Drive Marketing Results
16 Jan 2012 | 12:17 pmWe are all humans and business. When marketers recognize and leverage that fact - we achieve increased success. Questions are just one of the approaches that leverage human nature to drive powerful marketing and sales results. -
Lipstick on a Pig
16 Jan 2012 | 10:27 amWhy would anyone think that the key to powering breakthrough success is a new logo and color palette? -
Are You Captain Ahab?
7 Jan 2012 | 10:50 amWhy on earth would anyone directly attack a huge in-place competitor, much less try to shift an established market in one big swoop? -
Marketing Think for the 21st Century
2 Jan 2012 | 1:30 pmNever before has it been so important to transform our Marketing Think. Our economy changed, our markets shifted, our targets and their buying patterns advanced, access to information became ubiquitous.... even as many marketers held on to the way we've always done it. -
Ego, Gravity and TweetDeck
18 Dec 2011 | 12:54 pmWe grow successful businesses thanks to our Value as it is perceived by our buyers. When we move to force our brands, our ways, our limitations on our users and promote that as Value - that's ego. And above all other Gravities, Ego will create the downdraft that begins a downward spiral. Ego helps us create major Gravity by focusing on ourselves instead of our markets.
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Bright Life » Blog
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Leadership and Team Development – with Horses [Video]
11 Jan 2012 | 11:20 amDid you know that horses make excellent coaches for leadership style, communication strategy, and non verbal skills? It’s true. Horses are exquisitely sensitive to our presence, feelings, energy and non verbal skills. They provide instant, non judgmental feedback that we can use to make useful adjustments to our communication skills. My friends June Simmonds and Jo Simpson are doing excellent work using interaction with horses to develop teams in an unusual way. Check out what they are up to by watching this video (it was made by my good friends at UKS&V): Let me know what you think! -
How to Have Killer Presentation Skills
10 Nov 2011 | 10:40 amI was recently sent (thanks Andy at UKSV) a link to this excellent video on Youtube. It covers all the basics of good presenting, and is a must watch if you are looking to brush up or develop your presenting skills. Two of my favourite tips occur in the first couple of minutes of the video. Put people at their ease. An audience can’t engage with you, hear your message, and learn anything until you make them feel comfortable. Remember that it’s OK to pause. Actually, pauses are even better than that – they are powerful. When we pause when we are speaking, we give people time to ponder… -
Making Time to Celebrate
3 Nov 2011 | 11:39 amToday is a special day for me. Why? Because I’m celebrating the success of my business over the last year. 3 years ago, I made an agreement with my bank manager. I set a financial goal for my business, and we agreed that if I reached it he would buy me lunch. If I exceeded it by 25%, he’d buy me lobster for lunch. Year 1 of the bet came to an end and I was nowhere near my goal. Year 2 was better, but not quite enough. Year 3, however, was very different, and today I’m claiming that lobster lunch! Here’s the thing: life is so busy, and already the achievement of that goal seems a long… -
Steve Jobs – Doing Great Work
12 Oct 2011 | 2:50 pmWell, I don’t know anybody who doesn’t get something out of Steve Jobs’ famous commencement address at Stanford University. Watch what this remarkable man had to say about his life and work. I love his motto ‘do great work’. It’s the only way to be satisfied in life. It’s also worth watching for his unusual perspective on death, and how reflecting on death can cause us to pursue what matters most to us. It’s great inspiration and sound career advice to create a working life of significance. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Share and Enjoy: -
Experience is a Key to Peak Performance
5 Oct 2011 | 11:45 amHave your heard about the 10,000 hour idea? Both Malcolm Gladwell, in Outliers, and Matthew Syed, in Bounce, advance the notion that peak performance – excellence – in anything is a product of practice. 10,000 hours of practice, to be exact. Of course, it’s more complicated than that. Spending 10,000 hours practicing the wrong things won’t make you excellent (although you’ll probably still be pretty good by the end of it). What interests me is the idea that practice is an end in itself. So many of us are focused on improving ourselves and our performance. …
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Personal and Professional Coaching by
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Useful Communications Skills — How to Paraphrase and Summarize by Carter McNamara
26 Jan 2012 | 2:42 pmTwo very useful skills in communicating with others, including when coaching and facilitating, are paraphrasing and summarizing the thoughts of others. How to Paraphrase When Communicating and Coaching With Others Paraphrasing is repeating in your words what you interpreted someone else to be saying. Paraphrasing is powerful means to further the understanding of the other person and yourself, and can greatly increase the impact of another’s comments. It can translate comments so that even more people can understand them. When paraphrasing: Put the focus of the paraphrase on what the… -
Basic Modes and Formats of Coaching by Carter McNamara
18 Jan 2012 | 5:24 pmOne of the advantages of the coaching process is that it can be done in a wide variety of formats and still retain its powerful benefits. In this article, we acquaint the reader with the basic formats in which coaching can be done. We use the term “format” to refer to the physical configuration or context in which the coaching occurs. We use “mode” to refer to the medium of communication among participants. We do not review the many different types of applications in which coaching can be done. For that information, see Some Common Types of Coaching . First, a Reminder… -
Practice of Asking Open and Honest Questions (Part 2 of 2) by Carter McNamara
10 Jan 2012 | 10:33 am(This information is based on the work of Parker Palmer, John Morefield, and Marcy Jackson, and inspired by the work of Parker J. Palmer and Center for Courage & Renewal . The information was written by Susan Kaplan, M.S.W. ) (Part 1 described the value of open and honest questions.) Framing Open & Honest Questions 1. The best single mark of an open, honest question is that the questioner could not possibly anticipate the answer to it. What surprises you? What moves or touches you about this? What inspires you? What was easy? What was hard? 2. Ask questions that aim at… -
Practice of Asking Open & Honest Questions (Part 1 of 2) by Carter McNamara
3 Jan 2012 | 12:29 pm(This information is based on the work of Parker Palmer, John Morefield, and Marcy Jackson, and inspired by the work of Parker J. Palmer and Center for Courage & Renewal . The information was written by Susan Kaplan, M.S.W. ) Value of Open and Honest Questions (Part 2 of 2 will give guidelines for asking open and honest questions.) Open and honest questions are a thoughtful pathway for inquiry and discernment, moving us beyond our normal patterns of communication. Often our questions are laden with advice, problem solving, or meeting our needs to be a “competent leader, good parent,… -
Example of a Coaching Conversation by Carter McNamara
27 Dec 2011 | 12:37 pmFirst, What is Coaching? Simply put, the purpose of coaching is to guide and support oneself or another to: Clarify a current, important priority that the person wants to work on; Identify relevant and realistic actions to address that priority; Take the actions in the person’s work or life; and Learn by reflecting on the coaching and the actions. Coaching can be done in one conversation or as part of an overall coaching program. One of the clearest ways to distinguish the power of coaching is by comparing it to a typical conversation. In the following, let’s assume that Tom’s…
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The Recovering Leader
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Three Key Principles of Believe-In-You Leadership
11 Jan 2012 | 10:34 pmNever has there been a more important time for leaders of organizations, communities, and governments to believe in their people—for each of us to believe in each other. That’s the world I want to live in, and the organization I want to do business with. Yet it's in major short supply. People in organizations and communities around the world are yearning to do their best work. What's getting in the way? They simply can’t be at their best when operating with fear, amplified by their leader’s directives, advice, withholding, stoicism and skepticism—by being discounted or treated as… -
Recovering Our Leadership: Seven Intentions for 2012
2 Jan 2012 | 12:08 pmHappy New Year! While no one knows what 2012 has up its sleeve, based on my own post-executive experience working with leaders across industries over the last eight years, no one doubts it’s time for a positive “pivot.” My hope is that will include a new sense of executive responsibility when it comes to humanism, collectivism, and capitalism with care for ethics and fairness. This, I believe, is the net / net of what protestors are saying, and it will continue to grow in resonance. Along those lines, and in keeping with my commitment to practice principles of recovery in all my… -
Bad Executive Team Meeting Behaviors
8 Dec 2011 | 2:01 amThank you Task.fm for inviting me to answer a reader's question: "How should you run an effective executive management team meeting?" I hope you find my post informative! David Peck Principal Goodstone Group, LLC -
Leadership and Resetting a Tough Day
28 Nov 2011 | 4:46 pmThe best of the best athletes, scientists, soloist musicians, and executives alike can find themselves dwelling on a snag or difficult situation, as if getting taken hostage by it. If left unchecked, it can get in the way of what could be a good day. Whether you've had something (or someone) turn your day upside down, are stymied by a problem, or feeling overwhelmed, noticing it in real time is key. Once you see you're stuck in an unwanted "loop," you'll need to step away from it to solve it rapidly. As soon as possible, get up and walk out on whatever you're doing for a ten-minute break (and… -
Leadership's "Problem-tunities"
28 Nov 2011 | 4:38 pmGo ahead and laugh, as we all know many organizations recode the word “problem” into “challenge” and "opportunity." Yet when a leader can respond to a loss or setback with an open mind and ability to derive its key lessons, strife becomes the breakfast of champions. Of course I encourage you to learn as much as possible from self-reflection and trusted advisers, but nothing teaches with the surgical skills of the losses, fumbles, setbacks, failures, conflicts, dramas, and catastrophes. These are, after all, universal. We encounter them more than once ... and if we're not, we need to…
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The Practical Leader
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Thoughts That Make You Go Hmmm … on “Good Company”
26 Jan 2012 | 1:00 am“A team of scholars led by University of Southern California management professor Theresa Welbourne discovered that investments in human resources are the strongest predictors of the survival of firms five years after an IPO…”The reason HR factors had a positive effect on longer-term performance was due to their effects on what we call ‘structural cohesion,’” Welbourne writes. “Structural cohesion is an employee-generated synergy — essentially a close-knit, high-energy culture — that propels the company forward.”… -
Book Review of “Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era”
24 Jan 2012 | 1:00 amGood Company ties together the lessons we’re still learning from The Great Recession, and explains what’s fueling the occupy movements, shows how social responsibility and environmentalism is dramatically shifting business approaches, and identifies the rising power of customers. Good Company is an inspiring and uplifting read for those of us working to bring about a values-based leadership revolution. It’s fairly bubbling over with hope, optimism, and deep insights into the change tsunami washing around the globe. Critics of this book will likely try to dismiss it as left… -
Juggling Five Balls of Life
19 Jan 2012 | 1:00 amJanuary is the time Heather and I review the past year and refocus our vision on the years ahead. We look at family, house or home, our careers, our physical health, our financial health, community involvement, spiritual growth, and social life. We’re living out one of those visions right now on a Hawaii and South Pacific cruise to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. Hawaii is our first stop since we had our honeymoon there in 1977. Brian Dyson’s September 1996 comments at the Georgia Tech 172nd Commencement Address (he was then President and CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises) have… -
Valuable Insights from New Study on Top Companies for Leaders
17 Jan 2012 | 1:00 amThe RBL Group in partnership with Aon Hewitt and Fortune magazine has just released the latest version of their “Top Companies for Leaders” study. Every few years since 2002 this study has been conducted to look at the talent management practices of the best companies around the world across hundreds of data points. 470 companies completed a detailed questionnaire for this study. These were analyzed and hundreds of interviews were then conducted with senior executives. A panel of judges chose the top 25 companies for leaders. The top four were: IBM General Mills Procter &… -
Why Organizational Change Resolutions Are Easily Broken
12 Jan 2012 | 1:00 amOver the past few decades many organizations have jumped on the change bandwagon with a long list of resolutions to change their ways and develop new habits. Here’s a partial list: Safety culture Customer centric/focus/service Teamwork Innovation Flexibility/adaptability to change Best place to work/top employer Excellence Market/industry leadership Higher employee engagement Like too many New Year’s resolutions, these good intentions have a high failure rate. About 50 – 70% of these organizational efforts fail to change organizational lifestyle and habits. On the other hand…
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Christian Life Coach - Quentin McCall - Knowledge 4 Life
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Do You Hide Behind Faith to Avoid Having a Relationship?
19 Jan 2012 | 10:30 amOften people rationalize their singleness with the fact that God is not ready for them to be married or He has not yet sent “the one.” If you are someone who reads my work often, you know I champion the cause of singleness and truly believe it is the season, in which, we prepare for marriage. Thus, it is very important for us to enjoy our singleness and be “the one” we seek to have. In my article “9 Reasons Singleness is Good for You,” I discussed the beauty of being single and how important it is to be truly single and whole before God. Yet, sometimes Christian Singles find… -
27 Things You Need To Know About Courtship
12 Jan 2012 | 6:03 amCourting is not the same as dating. The purpose, value, or meaning of courting is often misunderstood in today’s society. Courting is step two on the road to marriage (with step one being dating). 23 Things You Need To Know About Dating Contemporary courtship is when couples decide to move into a deeper friendship and relationship, with marriage being the end goal. When courting is present, two people have agreed together as one to intentionally and deliberately say, “we are courting to get married.” They have moved past simply getting to know each other without sex, physical touch, or… -
23 Things You Need to Know About Dating
11 Jan 2012 | 5:03 pmThere is no Biblical position on dating and many people have varying opinions about it (including Pastors, Ministers, and the like). I would like to share my thoughts on the matter. I feel dating should be approached with boundaries and in a way that helps us become better people. Dating can help you learn what you do and do not like, but only if you maintain clear and healthy boundaries. Dating is an activity for getting to know people. It’s not for sex and using people to numb your pain or aloneness. In our contemporary times, many people date for sex or companionship or a variety of… -
7 Types of Women Every Man Should Date (A Deeper Look Part 1)
20 Dec 2011 | 8:02 amThank you! I am so humbled by what has happened in the Knowledge4Life Community in the last 2 weeks. You all made 2 blogs go viral! 7 Types of Women Every Man Should Date and 7 Types of Men Every Woman Should Date have been shared over 50,000 times on Facebook alone! Wow! Truly amazing! Also, I want to say “WELCOME”! We added 1,709 new members to our Knowledge4Life Community and have grown to over 5,000 members. What a blessing! So, WELCOME to all of our newest members! Thank you so much for reading and sharing the blogs. I appreciate each of you. None of this… -
9 Terrible Reasons To Get Married
13 Dec 2011 | 11:28 amI get questions all the time from married people and those who have recently divorced. Additionally, after counseling 100’s over the years, once I was able to get to the root of many of their problems, I’ve noticed a common theme. It relates to the honest reason of why they got married in the first place. I think a lot of you would be surprised at how dishonest people are about the real reason they got married. In counseling sessions, people tend to lie at first and then later admit the truth as I lead them down the path of personal accountability. In my opinion, if most people invested…
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Global NLP Training Blog
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How Assisting in Class has made me a better Coach and Practitioner
26 Jan 2012 | 8:42 amUnconscious competence is a wonderful thing! When first learning to drive a car, there is so much new information that needs to be attended to. All of the mirrors, pedals, blinkers, other cars, sounds etc. can be overwhelming, not knowing what to pay attention to when. Eventually, with repetition, practice, and the occasional guidance from experienced drivers, all of those things become automatic and you have no problems driving even while attending to other tasks, only to realize that you have arrived at your chosen destination without much conscious attention at all! Assisting in the Global… -
Maps, Territories, and the Metamodel of NLP
6 Jan 2012 | 7:47 amThe metamodel of NLP…. At all times we are being bombarded with a tremendous amount of information from our environment that we must filter through. Imagine how overwhelmed and overloaded you would be if all of your senses: the sights, sounds, tastes and smells in your environment in addition to all of your bodily sensations, were all being fired off at their full intensity at the same time! Something as simple as reading an article would be a daunting task if you were unable to selectively attend to the specific information you perceive as important while filtering out the… -
NLP and Children
7 Dec 2011 | 4:35 pm“Should I be doing NLP work with children?” It’s a question I often get from students whom plan to apply NLP on someone other than their own kids. Especially going into the therapeutic realm, much like with adults, you are at risk to travel slippery slopes. I think in the application on NLP and children not your own, there are a few things that could be useful for you to consider. 1. The age and maturity of the child + the presenting NLP application or problem. There is a big difference between teaching a 6 year old how to self anchor to feel happy, versus doing an NLP… -
Emotional Intelligence, Wellness, and NLP
11 Nov 2011 | 4:33 pmEmotional Intelligence plays a crucial role in the overall wellness of an individual. In NLP it is taught that there are 3 components to experience: Internal state (emotion), Internal computation (thinking), and external behavior (physiology), and by changing any of those components the others are affected. While in our culture a lot of emphasis is placed on the physical and mental components, emotions are an often overlooked and are just as powerful way to influence the wellbeing of yourself and others. When I first began to deal with the effects of living with chronic pain, I put a lot of… -
Top 10 tips and tricks for a NLP Beginner
25 Oct 2011 | 10:20 amThe methodology of NLP along with all of the techniques and patterns lead to an immense amount of information and skills that are available to the NLP beginner. Here are a few tips and tricks from my personal experience to not only make this learning task manageable, but enjoyable! 1. Chunk down – Even just one piece of NLP such as the meta-model can be overwhelming if you attempt to master the whole skill-set at once. The first task in any large learning process is to break it down into manageable chunks. Here is the test: if the piece that you are considering learning overwhelms…
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Corporate Class Inc.
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Managing Internal Email Overload
25 Jan 2012 | 8:18 pmBookmark this on Delicious We send and receive dozens of work-related emails every day. Messages – often ones that are internal communications – crowd our inboxes and our time. But how many of those incoming emails are truly necessary and important? When does the amount of spent reading and responding to colleagues’ emails become counter-productive? These questions have surfaced as companies have begun to explore new ways to improve efficiency and to relieve their employees from daily floods of redundant messages. In this post I will discuss one CEO’s sweeping change… -
Strengthening Your Client Relationships – and Your Muscles
17 Jan 2012 | 6:44 pmBookmark this on Delicious How do you build strong relationships with your clients? For many, networking with clients outside the office is as important as the work done during business hours. This often takes the form of extensive dinners or late nights of eating and drinking. However, as we head into the New Year after a season of hefty holiday meals and endless Christmas cookies, dining lavishly with clients may seem unappealing. But just before the holidays I read an article in the New York Times that provided an intriguing alternative: taking a client to the gym for networking and… -
3 Killer Ways to Build Your Executive Presence
10 Jan 2012 | 7:43 pmBookmark this on Delicious Being a highly productive employee, a great communicator, or even a leader of influence is just not enough if you want to keep moving to the top rungs of the corporate ladder. No matter what position you’re currently in, you need executive presence to advance. The higher up you go, the more executive presence you need. Executive presence is not just one particular trait or quality but a personal distinctiveness that leaves a strong, long-lasting impression, making people want to listen to you and, more importantly, follow you. Three great ways to develop… -
Finding a Work-Life Balance During the Holidays
23 Dec 2011 | 5:06 pmBookmark this on Delicious Happy holidays! It’s time for most businesses to close down in observance of Christmas and the New Year. But when we’re constantly caught up in the fast pace of the office, it can be hard to stop working entirely and to enjoy the time off. A few extra days without constant meetings and incoming requests: it seems like the perfect opportunity to catch up on forgotten emails and unfinished to-do lists, or to start on projects planned for next year. Feel free to get a head start on January, but be aware that over-working – especially during the holidays –… -
Checking In: The Etiquette of Hotel Stays
18 Dec 2011 | 9:32 amBookmark this on Delicious Are you vacationing this Christmas on a sunny beach or in a faraway romantic city? Or will the New Year bring business travels to out-of-town meetings or conferences? Wherever your travels take you, most likely you will choose to stay in a hotel as your accommodation. There’s nothing new about a weekend in a standard hotel – we’ve been checking in and out of them since our childhood vacations and continue to frequent them on our business trips. Even so, a reminder of the protocol for hotel visits is always beneficial when packing up to leave home. Whether…
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Team Building Blog - Corporate Team Building
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Corporate Politics: 10 Sure-Fire Strategies to Reduce Turf Wars and Power Struggles
12 Jan 2012 | 9:52 amIn large corporations, corporate politics (with its accompanying turf wars and power struggles) seems to be inevitable. These dynamics are not limited to large profit-making corporations. Unfortunately, I don't have a magic bullet that will eliminate turf wars but I do have some ideas about what is behind some of the in-fighting and a few ideas for leadership practices that can reduce it. The following suggestions will help executives and senior team leaders avoid practices that foster a climate of fear, insecurity and mistrust that fuels in-fighting. -
Corporate Team Building Blog – 2011 in review
5 Jan 2012 | 6:36 pmThe concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it. -
Is Decision-Making a Dying Senior Leadership Competency?
5 Jan 2012 | 12:45 pmIs decision-making a dying art and a disappearing leadership competency? I believe that it is. It shows up in many ways. Scenario: A Canadian company sends out a bid for a major equipment acquisition. The process drags on for months. Eventually, they decide to stick with what they have. Why do companies seem to have so much difficulty making decisions these days? Why do some CEOs put their teams and suppliers through weeks of work that is then scrapped? Is decision-making a dying leadership competency? Is so why and what can be done about it? What is behind some of the poor judgement that is… -
Instant Team Building: What’s up with the 30 Minute Debriefs?
19 Dec 2011 | 11:47 amIt's happened before and it seems to be happening with increasing frequency. It's the focus on instant results. "Hurry sickness" is a disease that is now plaguing corporations all over the globe. It is not surprising that this has been showing up in team building sessions in North America for well over a decade and it's not getting any better. It's spreading. Companies are pushing and burning out employees and expecting them to produce results in ridiculously short timeframes. When team members try to set realistic boundaries, they are branded "inflexible". As a result, companies are losing… -
Team Building in the Midst of Turbulence
5 Aug 2011 | 9:45 amWhat a week! First the debt ceiling crisis kept the world at the edge of its seat. Then, financial woes in Europe and concerns about the Euro and the Yen. Now stock markets around the globe are spiraling downward. In the midst of this, I uncovered more incidents of wasteful spending on playtime for executives and employees by companies with declining performance. Have some executives learned nothing from the events of the past 3 years? No amount of playtime, golf, jamming in a rock band, or other placebos can substitute for good old fashioned brainstorming to tap into the collective wisdom of…
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Content for Coaches and Consultants
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5 Golden Rules for Leadership
20 Jan 2012 | 3:49 pmAre leaders born or made? One could argue for either position. The real issue is that all leaders can improve. Whether you’re a seasoned executive or a high-potential team member, you can boost your performance in five crucial leadership areas. More than half a million business books deal with leadership acumen, but studying the most respected experts’ ideas reveals a consensus on the foremost roles required for effectiveness. (photo courtesy renjith krishnan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net) In The Leadership Code, Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood and Kate Sweetman have synthesized current thinking on… -
Competing Commitments: Are You Immune to Change?
17 Jan 2012 | 9:31 amIt doesn’t matter whether your goal is to lose 5 or 50 pounds, quit smoking or stop drinking. New Year’s resolutions and other goals are hard to keep beyond the first month. Change is hard. Why? Because the brain is tricky. No matter how sincerely we want to break a habit, we have an inherent immunity to change. This means we’re physiologically “lured” into doing what we’ve always done, no matter how strong our intentions. And yet, some people do succeed. We all know ex-smokers, ex-drinkers and former fatties. You cannot fix an adaptive problem with a technical solution. A diet,… -
Focus on the Future: How to Be More Forward-Looking
21 Dec 2011 | 5:12 amWhat single quality differentiates high-potential leaders from ordinary contributors in an organization? It’s their ability to be forward-looking and focus on the future. To become a better leader or distinguish yourself as someone primed for promotion, you’ll want to develop your capacity to envision the future. Focusing on the future sets leaders apart. The capacity to imagine and articulate exciting future possibilities is a defining competency — perhaps the most important one, next to honesty. Leaders must be able to answer the question, “Where are we going?” We look to our… -
Be A Better Listener
6 Dec 2011 | 12:08 pmWhy do we admire celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer and Bill Clinton? They make you feel like you’re the most important person in the room. They excel at listening—a skill that separates great personalities from the near-great. (photo courtesy Michal Marcol / FreeDigitalPhotos.net) When you meet Clinton for the first time, he says something positive to acknowledge you. His listening skills are laser-focused on the person he’s with. We spend 80 percent of our waking time on four communications tasks: Reading Writing Speaking Listening While listening accounts for… -
Inside the Mind at Work: Manage for Progress
20 Nov 2011 | 1:18 pm“So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to do work.” ~ Peter Drucker As any fan of The Office can attest, negative managerial behavior severely affects employees’ work lives. Managers’ day-to-day and moment-to-moment actions also create a ripple effect, directly facilitating or impeding the organization’s ability to function. (photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net) The best managers recognize their power to influence and strive to build teams with great inner work lives. In The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and…
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Innovative Influence (Suzi Pomerantz's Blog)
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Decision Theory in Complex Systems by John Bush
27 Jan 2012 | 12:21 pmThere’s some great leadership research papers posted in the Library of Professional Coaching. Here’s an excerpt from one that’s about complex systems and decision theory by John Bush. Organizations are complex systems. A system can be considered complex if its agents meet four qualifications: diversity, connection, interdependence, and adaptation. In an organization the agents are all the people who work within the organization. These agents are diverse in that they are individuals with their own unique personalities, experiences, intelligence, emotions, preferences, etc. -
Should leaders motivate or inspire or both?
26 Jan 2012 | 10:16 amWhat’s the difference, really? I tend to think of motivation as motion or causing movement in someone. And inspiration, to inspire, means to breathe in. Take a look at the article below and add your thoughts and definitions! In a provocative article on the Library of Professional Coaching, Bill Burtch tackles this question in his article titled, Motivation or Inspiration. Here’s an excerpt: Motivation is something that comes from within. As a manager or leader, I don’t believe I can motivate you to do something, especially something that you aren’t interested in doing. -
Dr. Marcia Reynolds shows us how to outsmart our brains!
25 Jan 2012 | 8:08 amMarcia Reynolds is a prolific author, speaker, coach and blogger, and you can read the first chapter of her book “Outsmart Your Brain” at the Library of Professional Coaching. The first chapter of Outsmart Your Brain: How to Make Success Fell Easy, by Dr. Marcia Reynolds, lays out the case for being emotionally aware at work. It then goes into how the brain processes input and what triggers emotions. Finally, the chapter includes exercises coaches can use with their clients to help them become emotionally aware as the first step toward emotional mastery. READ IT HERE:… -
Using social media for relationship marketing online
24 Jan 2012 | 10:00 amIf you’re in a professional services business, you know how important relationship marketing is! The undisputed queen of online relationship marketing is my friend, Mari Smith, who wrote the book on the subject! She was kind enough to join a recent Leading Coaches’ Center Mastermind Call, where she shared with us all sorts of practical tools, strategies, and mindsets for succeeding in the rapidly changing online world. Her specialty is Facebook. You can access the recording of that call at your leisure here at the Leader’s Clubhouse! Mari was recently named by Forbes… -
Wanna become an exceptional executive coach?
23 Jan 2012 | 9:54 amThen you’ve gotta know Jeremy Robinson. He’s one of a team of authors who wrote the book Becoming an Exceptional Executive Coach! Use your knowledge, experience and intuition to help leaders excel, which is featured in the Library of Professional Coaching, where you can access a sample chapter and then click through to buy your own copy. Jeremy also was a featured Leading Coach on a recent Leading Coaches’ Community Mastermind call, and he share with us 29 points for being an exceptional executive coach. The first few are posted below, and you can access the rest as well…
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Patty Azzarello's Business Leadership Blog
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4 steps to achieve long term goals
23 Jan 2012 | 7:15 pmThe hard part Long term goals are hard to achieve for 2 main reasons where our human nature betrays us. 1. At any moment, when we feel something is important, we want to do it right now. But you can’t accomplish a long term goal in a day. 2. It’s almost impossible to accomplish long term goals without some checkpoints and measures along the way. And checkpoints and measures are not a natural way of living. It’s an additional effort that many people don’t believe they have time for and are not practiced at. So it’s hard. Your Career Year of Action In this month’s webinar we talked… -
Something worth noting
17 Jan 2012 | 12:06 pmDo you have the data? People often ask me if they should keep a work journal of some kind. I was encouraged to do this early in my career — I did it for awhile. Was it worthwhile? I wasn’t sure. But then something happened… A manager who worked for me was really annoying me. It got to the point where I decided the organization would be better off without him. When I talked to my boss about it he said, “Oh, I don’t know… he’s been in place for a long time, and I’m not sure you’ll have the support to make that move.” But then he said, “Can you give me an… -
Get 3 Months Free Membership
9 Jan 2012 | 4:24 pmMore Work Satisfaction Sometimes work can pressure you into being less than you can be. As we begin 2011, I encourage you to take back your career. Succeed More. Like your Life. I created my membership program to give people the tools, support and confidence they need to create a permanent improvement in their career. You can thrive more at work I was lucky to have a lot of help in my own career. I built this program to help others. Help works. People love this program. If you enjoy reading this blog, you’ll benefit from membership. Membership gives you specific, practical and actions… -
How to like your job more (really)
4 Jan 2012 | 12:05 pmHappy New Year! I want to kick off 2012 with some big (maybe controversial) ideas about how you can genuinely like your job more. 1. Don’t try to LOVE your work This may sound heretical, but I just don’t believe in trying to LOVE your work. I know I am going against people like Oprah and the late Steve Jobs who keep telling us that the only path to true success and happiness is to find what you love and do that for work, and the money will follow. But “You must love your work” is just BAD ADVICE. Here is a picture that shows how we are told to think about this. Obviously you… -
Build Career Value
20 Dec 2011 | 5:23 amSuccess and Satisfaction In this month’s webinar we talked about how to maximize your success and get more personal satisfaction from your work. BUILD CAREER VALUE Listen or download the webinar to learn more. The Magic Intersection Your Strengths Where you Get Energy What the Business Values . Satisfaction does not come from loving your work. It comes from working at this intersection where you get energy, you are using your greatest strengths, and you are doing things the business values — so you’re good at your job, you get the recognition and rewards you deserve, and you…
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Raising the Bar Blog
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Want to Make More Rain in 2012? Here's How...
9 Jan 2012 | 7:10 pmWho do you want to target for more business in 2012? Who is an ideal potential new client? What is your plan for developing those relationships? It’s a fact! People who set goals and have a written business development plan outperform those who don’t—even in a down economy. The secret lies in asking yourself the right questions, writing down your answers and following through with your commitments. If you haven’t proven this to yourself yet or you know it works but need a jolt to get you going, this is your chance to get a Jump Start on making more rain in 2012. Based… -
Happy Holidays from Robin Hensley and Raising the Bar
21 Dec 2011 | 10:00 amWishing you a happy holiday and safe travels. We'll be back in January with our annual Jump Start Program to help you make 2012 your best year yet. Until then, Robin -
A Thanksgiving Message from Rabbi Feldstein
23 Nov 2011 | 8:15 amHave a joyous Thanksgiving Holiday. Robin An interesting tidbit: The top turkey-eating country in the world is Israel, at 11.5 kg per person every year as compared to the United States at 7.7 kg per person. Tomorrow afternoon many, if not most of citizens of this great nation, will sit at their tables enjoying a festive and bountiful meal with family and/ or friends. While the classic Norman Rockwell painting of a traditional Thanksgiving is probably more reflective of the exception rather than the rule (particularly in an age of tremendous national mobility and changing familial patterns),… -
OMPs get some love from the New York Law Journal
17 Oct 2011 | 12:30 pmThank you to the New York Law Journal for helping us shine a light on the numerous and daunting challenges OMPs face in staying motivated and on course in today's environment while still making it rain. "Firms can't just rely on reputation and referrals, anymore. They have to make business development a priority and help their team hone client development and management skills," says David Schaefer, New York Office Managing Partner at Loeb & Loeb LLP. The good news is that it is never too late to get back in the game. Read the full article, "Making It Rain: How to Develop and… -
MPs, OMPs and PTLs need a little TLC
12 Sep 2011 | 9:15 amAfter more than 16 years providing business development coaching and with 40 percent of my practice devoted to coaching law and accounting firm managing partners and other firm leaders, I have found that MPs, OMPs and PTLs need more than a traditional coaching program. They need an approach that is unique to their situation. That is why I am so pleased to introduce new programs designed specifically for them. Three keys to improved results A focus on business development and business management and productivity is the best way to produce results that will be felt throughout the firm. For…
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aliciadunams.com
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Before and After: The Art of the Business Makeover
16 Jan 2012 | 4:39 pmAna Maria Sanchez "AFTER" They say the definition of insanity is doing the same things and expecting different results. I would like to extend that definition to business owners: The definition of insanity is doing the same things, expecting excellent results and being frustrated when you are still operating in a state of mediocrity. I have an example of a woman who wanted excellence, a business makeover (if you will), and to achieve this excellence she decided to do things differently, and now it is paying for itself with dividends that are both rich in experience and her bottom… -
Why you should write a book and get published (Interview on Social Jumpstart TV)
22 Dec 2011 | 9:09 amMike Wolpert, host of Social Jumpstart TV, interviewed me on the value of being a published author, especially in today’s social media ecosphere. Here’s what you’ll discover in the video: 1) All business owners need to create content (Kindle ebooks, books, professional video, etc) so that are discoverable online. 2) Amazon.com is a search engine. Are you coming up in the results? 3) How to write a book fast. + much more Of course, the video is 28 minutes, so we go into more depth. I hope you enjoy. – Alicia Dunams -
3 Tell-Tale Signs You Need to Write a Book (Case Study from #TEDxBAW)
12 Dec 2011 | 11:51 amLast week, I had the pleasure to attend the TEDx Bay Area Women event, which highlighted speakers doing great work in the areas of global and social entrepreneurship. There was, of course, significant discourse on empowering Africa and women worldwide, and why more women need to get involved in starting and funding technology start-ups right here in the United States. [Click here for for a tweetview of the event.] One speaker to note was Ann Winblad. Ann Winblad is the co-founder and a Managing Director of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners (a Venture Capital company), which is solely focused… -
How to Profit from a Bestseller (Write and Publish a Book for 6-Figure Success!)
8 Dec 2011 | 11:18 amAre you writing a book to make more money in your business? Business book authors need to understand the “end game” before they begin writing and publishing their book. Business owners need a road map, if you will. That’s why I created the Bestseller Profit Revenue Model, which shows you how to earn a 6-Figure Income as a Published Author in 5 Proven Steps. If you don’t have a plan you will see your book as a loss leader or expensive business card. By creating your Bestseller Profit Revenue Model, you can map out how you can earn an extra 4-7 figures a… -
What is your hardship?
4 Nov 2011 | 6:09 pmToday, I spent the morning with my clients, Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey, authors of the forthcoming, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle and Heart Built a Bestseller. Personally, I know hardship is often an igniter to creating a great business and life. Hardship ignites your reptilian brain, and forces you to focus on survival. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as many businesses are created out of a need to survive. In a time when self-employment may be the only time of employment, you may have to use this as a motivator to create something new, innovate, invent, fulfill…
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THE Jewish Mother Coach's Blog for Professional Success
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How Many Leaders are Too Many?
20 Jan 2012 | 12:34 pmA group of ten people are sitting around a table discussing a business issue. How many leaders should there be? Answer: Ten. The notion that only one person can lead a group describes a group that doesn’t contribute much. Each leader holds a piece to the puzzle. Some of the most successful companies recognize that every person who works in it, at some point or other, has something to offer and can, in fact, lead others around that issue. Talent is not unique to the managers, or the C-Suite. Talent is systemic within any company. Not everyone has talent at everything, but everyone is… -
It’s Official
12 Jan 2012 | 11:39 amRenowned Executive Coach Ruth Mott Releases New Book Coaching Jewish Mother Style helps professionals find success in the real world. Portsmouth, NH (PRWEB) January 10, 2012 Ruth Mott, an experienced and sought-after executive coach, has released her new book, “I Love You—Now Get Over Yourself: 7 Secrets for Professional Success from The Jewish Mother Executive Coach.” “The professional world is a difficult and complex place, said Mott. “In this book, it’s my goal to give readers the tools they need to get out of their own way so they can be successful –… -
THE BOOK – WHAT A TRIP!
5 Jan 2012 | 1:47 pmHappy New Year! I hope 2012 brings you everything you hope for yourself. For me, the New Year begins with the release of my new book! Friday, January 6th! At last! The title is “I Love You – Now Get Over Yourself: 7 Secrets for Professional Success from The Jewish Mother Executive Coach” (phew)! For the last 3 years, working on writing this book, I changed topics several times trying to find the most useful thing to write about. I went through the agonies of self-doubt, crises of confidence, and just plain laziness. In the end, it was crystal clear that whatever I was to write had to… -
Wisdom=Winging It? Not So Much!
23 Dec 2011 | 9:33 amSo last night, two friends of mine came to see me with a video camera and a set of questions to ask. The idea was to create some clips to put up on YouTube as part of the marketing/promotion activity for my new book, I Love You – Now Get Over Yourself, soft cover due to be released on Jan 6, 2012. (Although somebody slipped up, didn’t wait for the official release date, and the e-book is now available on Amazon.com – I Love You – Now Get Over Yourself). It was an experience. I’m probably not going to use any of the clips mostly because my answers were not sharp, clear,… -
Who’s On Your Bus?
15 Dec 2011 | 8:19 amIt’s a wonderful thing when a Boy thanks his Mother – Of Course I LOVE this! The best advice Mike Krzyzewski ever got was: “To make sure that I only let good people on my bus. And if I ever get on someone else’s bus, make sure to take it great places.” This was Krzyzewski’s advice from his mother and it is what, he said, led him on the path to being one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time (Duke University). When he accepted Sports Illustrated award for Sportsman of the Year, it was his mother he recognized as the reason he was able to do what he’s…
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Coaches Training Blog
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The Top 5 Life Coach Books
27 Jan 2012 | 8:03 amOne of the keys in becoming a good life coach is proper training and education education; gathering a good assortment of life coach books is a good way to supplement your training and education. There are many great life coach books available for purchase that will make a wonderful addition to your training. Here is [...] -
The Fairest Approach to Executive Coaching Fees
26 Jan 2012 | 8:03 amWhen it comes to executive coaching fees, there are a lot of approaches. So much for a session. So much per hour. And something called the value-based approach. There are some pros and cons, but if done right, I believe that using value-based fees can be the fairest approach. Besides, it puts your wallet where [...] -
The Single Biggest Mistake You Can Make As A Business Leadership Coach
25 Jan 2012 | 8:03 amOne of the biggest mistakes that a business leadership coach can make is getting confused between application and benefit. If you are not truly clear about the difference, your business leadership coaching clients can miss the boat entirely. The result will can be costly in terms of blood, sweat, and tears. Application vs. Benefit: What [...] -
STARTING YOUR COACHING BUSINESS: WHAT DO I DO FIRST?
24 Jan 2012 | 8:03 amStarting your coaching business could feel like a far-fetched dream to you. I remember that feeling of wonder and excitement buried under loads of overwhelm, fear and laziness. It is a very slight and distant memory over powered by the best memory of my life. The day I took action and trusted my instincts was [...] -
Bizarre Ways to Get Coaching Training
23 Jan 2012 | 8:03 am“Bizarre ways to get coaching training.” OK. I picked that title to get your attention. But I am so committed to it that I looked up the word “bizarre” and what do you suppose I found? The definition, of course… “strikingly out of the ordinary.” Hum. Here are three sensible, if perhaps strikingly out of [...]
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The CEO Challenge
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Sales Is a Relationship Business – Right???
23 Jan 2012 | 10:00 amThis post was first developed for the CEO membership of VistageConnect.com, Vistage International revolutionary new online community built for the express purpose of developing executives using virtual peer advisory sessions. TV’s hottest show is Mad Men. “Viewers see Mad Men as a polished reflection of their own -- and their parents' -- life and times.” I grew up in that world of the ‘50s and ‘60s where “a relationship” was born from and measured by booze, lunches, expensive Christmas gifts, trips and other benefits. My grandfather was a purchasing agent for General Motors,… -
The CEO’s Formula for Applying the Science of “Revenue Generation” – Part 3
6 Jan 2012 | 11:00 amIn the past two blogs we covered the first three variables of revenue generation as defined by the CEO's Formula. In part 3 of this series we will look at the 4th and 5th variables and provide a summary to recap. The CEO’s Formula: Alignment (Revenue Strategy + Execution) x (Leverage x Structure) Alignment (Revenue Strategy + Execution) x (Structure) Variable 4 - Structure: Every organization has applied structure intentionally or unintentionally. Companies create process, brands, messages, literature, training, software tools, etc. to help the execution deliver more results. The… -
The CEO’s Formula for Applying the Science of “Revenue Generation” – Part 2
26 Dec 2011 | 11:00 amLast week we discussed the first variable of revenue generation - revenue strategy. In today's blog we will now look at the second and third variables in the CEO's Formula. The CEO’s Formula: Alignment (Revenue Strategy + Execution) x (Leverage x Structure) Revenue Strategy + Execution Variable 2 - Execution: Execution is what separates survival and success from frustration and failure. Great execution is a variable that leaders have control over. Leaders have control over how their teams engage, how many hours are worked, the level of training, who is hired and the words that are… -
The CEO’s Formula for Applying the Science of “Revenue Generation” – Part 1
12 Dec 2011 | 11:05 amUsing the Power of Algebra to Influence “Revenue Generation” The science of “Revenue Generation” has uncovered a formula for CEOs and CROs (Chief Revenue Officers) to use to successfully manage the growth of profitable revenue. This formula has 5 variables that determine the revenue outcome. The 5 variables aren’t optional the only question is how are they managed - intentionally or unintentionally? If you influence the variables then you have control over the revenue outcomes, which is how to exercise control over the growth and profitability of the business. The CEO’s Formula:… -
Uuuuuuuuuh, So WHAT’S My Job Again? The CEO’s Top Concern Is …
5 Dec 2011 | 1:57 pmThis post was first developed for the CEO membership of VistageConnect.com, Vistage International's revolutionary new online community built for the express purpose of developing executives using virtual peer advisory sessions. What is the one job the CEO must be accountable for? Imagine you just got the right people on the bus, and they are in the right seats. Imagine that, in addition, you have successfully implemented 360 feedback, nailed down a good health insurance program that’s affordable, successfully tested a cross-generational leadership model, your team developed an offshore…
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CMI
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Enigma #4
24 Jan 2012 | 2:00 amHow do you make the core values of the organization relevant to day-to-day employee behavior? The core values often sound great. They are lofty and inspirational. The leadership team typically feels exhilarated at their creation. However, then comes a failure of performance. The values somehow do not make the difference they were designed to make. As improbable as this sound for most employees within organizations, core values are seldom relevant. They are not accessible or usable. (Read more about this phenomenon in “Posters, Plaques, Horse Manure, and Resignation.”) Regarding coaching… -
Enigma #3
17 Jan 2012 | 2:00 amEveryone hates the annual review process (except you, Mr. or Mrs. Perfect Executive). No one likes feeling judged, to start. Employees find the whole thing meaningless. Managers, at best, find it flawed and, most often, not well executed. So the third enigma is this: how do you make the annual performance appraisal more than something that is disliked and disrespected? One organization I know of did not set its yearly goals until more than halfway through the year. (I’m sure this is shocking behavior to you.) Then the leadership team started the appraisal process based on the goals they’d… -
Enigma #2
10 Jan 2012 | 2:00 amAs a busy manager and business leader, how do you make time to coach and develop your employees and direct reports? How do you find time to meet with them and discuss their progress on yearly goals? How do you know that your employee’s actions will directly (and positively) impact the initiatives that have been outlined in the strategic plan? How do you even you know if they’re engaged with the strategic plan? Many of us intuitively know that we need to meet with employees from time to time to provide real coaching and receive feedback. We also know we should eat less if we want to shed… -
Enigma #1
20 Dec 2011 | 2:00 amA company and its leadership team can spend a lot of time and effort creating a strategic plan. They may even spend money on the process and bring in a bloodsucker like me to facilitate. Creating the plan, however, is the easy part. Implementation and execution is the real challenge. So, once you have a plan, how do you ensure follow-through and implementation? How do you support real action throughout the year and prevent the unintended syndrome that results from a beautiful plan in a beautiful binder sitting with all the other similar binders in the CEOs office? My breakthrough came when we… -
Holiday Team Building Party
13 Dec 2011 | 2:00 amThe holidays are generally a time filled with festivities, good cheer and even better food. Unfortunately today’s rough economic climate brings more and more cutbacks in the workplace. Don’t let your end of year celebrations and holiday parties “make the cut.” Instead, save money with CMI’s Holiday Team Building Party. This is the perfect time to let your guards down, bond with your co-workers, celebrate 2011 accomplishments and toast to 2012. Overview CMI’s customized team building party will boost your employees’ morale and spur their motivation for the upcoming year. CMI’s…
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Balanced WorkLife
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How To Blow Your Interview: Just 6 Little Letters
25 Jan 2012 | 4:37 pmEditor’s Note: It’s my pleasure to introduce you all to our newest team member at Balanced WorkLife, Michelle Agner. She will be helping me with Marketing and the Blog, so expect to see more of her. Enjoy! – Bryce Hi, I’m new here. Nice to meet you! A few weeks back, Bryce indicated that he was seeking some assistance with the growing online community we have at Balanced WorkLife. His Many Hats Matrix appealed to my marketing interests and it revealed the possibility that perhaps I really could contribute to a team and remain balanced enough to be mentally present… -
3 Benefits of Taking Your Dog to Work
25 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amEditorial Note: Today’s guest post comes from Jackie Roberts. I know, this is a post from 1-800-PETMEDS, but Jackie really did a good job and it resonates well with our culture at Balanced WorkLife. Hope you enjoy. A wagging tail greeting you every day when you get home from work is always a mood-lifter, especially if you’ve had a particularly rough day at the office. But what if you didn’t have to wait until you got home to see your furry friend? More and more businesses are allowing employees to bring their dogs to work. Those companies recognize the positive effects… -
Where to Look If You Want the Best Starting Salaries for Your Major
23 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amThe first thing on any starving student’s mind when it comes to graduation is…money. After all, we didn’t spend hundreds of weekends studying and days without sleep for nothing. We want to graduate and make tons of money. I think we all understood, not all degrees were created equal. Never did I see a Sociology major expecting to have the starting salary of an Engineering major. But what we might not have thought of is just where in our industry would we make the biggest bang for our buck? For instance, if I was graduating in Business Management, what employers would pay… -
Has Social Media Become Our Higher Education?
20 Jan 2012 | 10:00 amEditor’s Note: Today’s guest post comes from Mark Babbitt from YouTern. We are thrilled to have Mark and his team as regular contributors for Balanced WorkLife. I started my career as a Silicon Valley engineer. As such, my on-the-job learning was full of “ah-ha” moments. We all have them – the second when someone communicates the point of the lesson in a way that makes something click in your head – and you suddenly “get it”. Not to disparage higher education at all. But to be honest, for me these moments have rarely happened in the classroom or have come from formal… -
How to Not Miss Life While Working
18 Jan 2012 | 10:50 amEditor’s note: guest post by Courtney Johnston. If you haven’t seen her site The Rule Breaker’s Club, you have to check it out. Unlike many of our guests who come to me requesting to write a guest post, I sought Courtney out to write for us after reading a guest post she shared at another site. Courtney has a fascinating voice and a fabulous sense of humor when it comes to life, hope you enjoy. – Bryce “And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge, And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge, And all knowledge is vain save when…
