Stop trying to delight your customers! Get ready to rethink your business. Perhaps you have been going about your customer service all wrong? The concept of WOWing your customer is so common that most companies build their entire business on creating the most amazing customer service. BUT, a new study and book show that customers don’t want to be “wowed” ; they want an effortless experience. [Read more…]
Business Strategies
Business Strategies for Growth & Development
Without strategy, we are just like the band Kansas says, “Dust in the Wind.” Take the time to REALLY understand the purpose, vision, and processes that will lead you to success. “Failure to plan is planning to fail.” How much time do you spend ON your business rather than IN the business? If you are not taking the time to develop a long-term vision and the strategy to accompany it, you are making a huge mistake. Read the posts below to get some insights on strategic planning ideas.
The Germ Theory of Management: Is Your Business Unhealthy?
I am going to keep it short and sweet today. I want to talk about the “germ theory” of management. A term I first read about in a book called Avoiding Man Made Chaos by Don Wheeler. It’s funny because the book is all about statistics and variation, but the way he illustrates a common problem in management today really hits home. [Read more…]
But That’s Not What Other Business Coaches or Consultants Do
This morning we hosted a great session for a group of businesses as part of our five week series. The focus of today was all about thinking differently. At the end of the session, I was told by one of the participants that it was very freeing and unique from other messages she had heard from business coaches she had previously worked with. She said that usually coaches would just tell her what to do to solve her problems. They just provided solutions and tactics.
Instead, we focused on asking the right questions and creating the right thinking processes BEFORE we can even imagine to talk solutions. [Read more…]
Strategy vs Tactic: Choose Wisely
Oooh look a squirrel! We all know that as the battle cry for our ADD culture of today, where every shiny thing grabs our attention.
I know I am guilty of it myself.
There are so many cool ideas out there that you can apply to your business and it’s easy to get excited to try new things. But that is precisely what causes trouble for a lot of professionals – attention on the wrong stuff. Before you bring on that next big idea, ask yourself it it fits your long-term strategy. [Read more…]
3 Little Words to Use for Effective Meetings
More meetings? Hooray! Oh wait, you’re NOT saying that? Okay, well hopefully this post will help you out. Remember in my previous post I talked about:
Two things that kill productivity?
M & Ms.
Managers and Meetings. [Read more…]
Build Genuine Relationships to Grow Your Network
Expanding your network doesn’t happen by chance. We all need to focus on building genuine relationships to grow our communities. I see a lot of “professional networkers” out there who miss out on the wonderful opportunities they have to really connect with people. It is that lack of authentic relationship building that gives networking a bad rap. In today’s video, I share a few ways to build relationships and WHY it’s so important. [Read more…]
Four Stages of Team Development: Leading Through Change
Change is hard. If you have ever worked with launching new projects, creating new teams, or just trying to rally people around a new idea, you understand the challenges that teams go through. Today we are going to discuss the paths that teams go through as you lead them towards high performance. If you want to create a winning team, it all starts with first understanding of the natural ways that teams develop.
Yesterday, I wrote a post about how the movie “Moneyball” was an effective lesson in organizational change and referenced the four stages of team development.
- Forming
- Storming
- Norming
- Performing [Read more…]
