So, how can you stay ahead of your blog? If you're reading this, I'm guessing you're behind on your blog. We've all clicked the blog tab on a website to find the last post was published three months ago or longer. It may have happened to you. First, you're not alone. Second, you can get [...]
Serving others is the new sales. Unfortunately the old sales hasn't totally withered away. Let me explain. I was introduced to sales in an era when understanding the psychology behind the sale was considered the key to successful selling. I was trained to manipulate prospects to "make" the sale and was good at it. Eventually, [...]
So, has modern messaging become a multimedia meltdown? Maybe. In my most recent in-person office job I had a landline phone. I didn't use it. I had a cell phone. Why did I need this desk phone? I seldom checked my landline messages or my cell phone voicemail. So, I've missed a few messages. You? [...]
Employee training retention especially with new trainees may be the biggest organizational training failure. A lack of follow-up training is not only common it's typical. So, why is follow up training critical? How much do trainees forget? "Research on the forgetting curve (Figure 1) shows that within one hour, people will have forgotten an average [...]
Have you conducted a SWOT audit on yourself? I've facilitated SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis for organizations and teams, but I recently had an epiphany — why not perform a SWOT analysis on myself? Would it work? A SWOT analysis is an auditing tool to determine possibilities, direction, and help define the mission [...]
I didn't come up with this new employee common mistakes checklist. A group of department team leaders did. I facilitate bi-weekly leadership development meetings with six team leaders. They're all involved with training new hires. In our last meeting, we discussed the importance of giving new hires clear objective expectations. One of the discussion points [...]
While working with a corporate staff on leadership development, one of the managers asked what they should expect from follow-up training with their team. We had just held the first meeting of a new class with entry level managers on leadership. The topic was one of my favorites, the need to manage projects but the [...]
How essential is praise in business? I’ve seen various surveys over the last three decades demonstrating the power of praise in business. I’m often met with doubt when I claim recognition to be the number one factor in retaining or losing valuable employees. Many managers believe money is the prime motivator for most employees. While [...]
So, does your organization have a leadership development program? Too often, businesses put people in management roles with little or no training and support. I was surprised in 2008 when I began facilitating leadership training by how often new managers were promoted and thrown into the pool's deep end. I shouldn't be surprised that this continues [...]
The story I’m about to tell about a path to promotion is one I've told but not written. It’s a story I often shared when completing new hire orientation. I used it as an example of creating a position. The story begins during a call-center employment interview. How to Create a Path to Promotion The [...]
