Where’s April?

Aug 27, 2013 | Sales, Marketing & Customer Service

He didn't realize he'd even said it, yet my husband had stopped in his tracks and had basically bellowed the question across the dining room of one of our favorite lunch spots. Upon entering the dining room, he'd done a quick scan to ensure April was there. When he didn't see her, without thinking, he opened his mouth, the question came out, and all the patrons, the other servers, and the chef stopped and looked at him. "She took the day off. She'll be back tomorrow," the Chef growled. My...

Effective Goal Setting

Aug 6, 2013 | Strategic Planning, WBS

We all set goals in our personal and professional lives. However, many of us fail to set our goals effectively, and therefore never achieve them. Our goals are often stated in terms such as "I'll increase productivity next week." That's too vague to give anyone guidance or to spur motivation to enhance performance. To help ourselves and our employees understand what we want to achieve, we need to implement S.M.A.R.T. goal-setting. "S" Stands for SPECIFIC "M" Refers to MEASURABLE "A" Means...

Building Business Relationships- “Good Enough Never Is”

Jun 11, 2013 | Sales, Marketing & Customer Service

I received a call recently from one of my client’s – let’s call him “Bruce”. Bruce owns a technical services firm. Bruce had just received a letter from one of his long-standing customers – and his customer wasn’t happy. Apparently, one of Bruce’s technicians had been sent out to fix the customer’s problem – and he did fix it very quickly. However, when the customer asked the technician what he'd done, the technician replied – “It’s pretty technical. You wouldn't understand.” The technician...

Are You Doing What You’re Paid To Do?

May 28, 2013 | Leadership Development

At work, how often do you feel like a chicken with your head cut off? You run around all day handling one crisis after another. You run from one meeting to the next. You take one phone call after another. Yet at the end of the day, you feel as if you've achieved nothing. Or, are you in a situation where you have a few key supervisors or managers that you count on to handle the “critical” issues. However, because they're so busy handling issues, they're not getting “big” things done in the...

Fish In The Right Ponds

Feb 12, 2013 | Sales, Marketing & Customer Service

I heard Greg Caruso of Successful Exits share a story recently that I found valuable for my clients because of its simplicity and truth. When he was young, Greg loved to fish. When he grew older, life got in the way until one day he made a conscientious decision to restart his childhood hobby. He started fishing again in his favorite pond. However, now as an adult, he didn't seem to be as lucky. He caught very few fish. One day, as he was unloading his car after another disappointing...