Posted on October 2, 2015
In 2000, I attended my first sales kickoff at Yahoo!. Our company (broadcast.com) had been purchased by them, and I had just moved to California to lead a sales-enablement/swat team. Little did I know at the time, but this kickoff event would change my life. Usually, you’d think that the kickoff’s purpose was to introduce …
Posted on September 25, 2015
It’s that time of year when publishers release copious amounts of business books. You’ve probably seen them popping up in the airport book shops. As a voracious reader and blurb-giving-author, I have the opportunity to review dozens of them between July and September. My interests range from sales & marketing to leadership to futurism to …
Posted on September 16, 2015
There are many ways we can improve our ability to drive employee engagement and loyalty. We can pay people more (that doesn’t scale), let them off easy (that’s bad for business) or play tough-coach with them (that’s bad for your employership brand.) During the course of my career, I’ve found a better way to manage …
Posted on August 12, 2015
Ask a strategic consultant about the value of a strong organizational culture and she’ll likely remark: “Culture eats strategy for lunch!” Her reasoning is usually based on the consistency of behavior that strong culture creates – enabling every associate to make “the right decision” even when the leader is not around. The name of the …
Posted on July 7, 2015
Years ago, I discovered a technique for converting every meeting, conversation or interaction into a success-building opportunity. I followed a maxim, taught to me as a child: Everywhere you go, always bring a gift. It had long been a part of my social style, but when I applied this to my business life, success quickly …
Posted on April 1, 2015
Too many <entrepreneurial> people I know are constantly multi-tasking in their careers. Sure, when Benjamin Franklin endorsed pursuing “a network of enterprises,” he was promoting career and interest diversity. It was good for our creative thinking. But he emphasized they be “networked” with each other. Lately, I’ve wondered if our constant spreading out of business …
Posted on October 21, 2014
It’s late October, the heart of the Fall season where we finish off the year and set strategies for the next one. Of all months, it’s the crunch one that counts. By mid-November, you are into the holiday season and before you know it, January is pressing down on you asking, “What have you done …
Posted on September 25, 2014
If you’ve attended a conference or visited the business section of a bookstore recently, you’ve likely been encouraged to bring your creativity to work. There are dozens of books out, promising help you get unstuck and start your creative juices flowing. Almost half of the lectures involve a discussion on the pressing need to be …
Posted on September 9, 2014
Quick, name a Hall Of Fame player that was also a head coach. It’s quite rare, actually. but if you take this test on a company’s sales or product group, the answer would be different. We often graduate the rock stars of business to middle management and beyond. That’s the bench strength program of the …
Posted on September 4, 2014
Over the last decade, I’ve had the opportunity to be the opening keynote speaker at over 300 conferences, meetings and conventions around the world. Agents at speaker bureaus instinctively knew to recommend me when a meeting planner was “looking for someone to set the tone for our event.” Instead of defining my current vocation as …
