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Are Your Thought Bubbles Killing Your Strategic Plan?

Those who follow my blog or have heard me speak to business groups and conventions know that I constantly talk about the dangers of MSU, or making stuff up. Making stuff up occurs when we listen to the thought bubbles inside our heads that tell us the world must be a certain way; when we…

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Are You Killing Innovation in Your Company (Without Even Knowing It)?

In today’s world, innovation is a business imperative. You either find new and better ways to add value to your customers, you play follow the leader with those who do, or you go out of business as others change the game and you lose. Most business leaders intuitively know this. Which is why more and…

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Thinking the Unthinkable: The New Leadership Imperative

People ask me all the time what I consider to be the biggest challenge facing today’s business leaders. I don’t even hesitate on this one. It’s the automatic assumption by most business leaders that we still live in a fairly predictable world. Think about it. Six months ago, who would have thought that Toyota would…

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Winning the Gold Medal

I love the Olympics. I am fascinated by curling (although like most of you I can’t quite figure out the rules). I love the thrill of the downhill, the luge, the speed skating, hockey, and the snowboarding events. And I am especially enthralled when I watch the Olympic athletes visibly get clear on winning. Did…

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Are Your Best Practices Your Worst Enemy?

When I speak to CEO groups, trade associations, and industry conventions, this is one of my favorite questions to ask. Why? Because I love the reaction from the audience. They look at me like I’m nuts! Questioning the sanctity of best practices in a roomful of corporate leaders and managers is like walking into a…

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Focus on Your Winners: Four Ways to Keep Your Top Performers From Jumping Ship

Have you ever lost a top performer to a competitor? I see it happen all the time, even in good companies. Surprisingly, it rarely has to do with money. More often than not, it’s due to indifference, apathy, or neglect on the part of a leader or manager. Why the neglect? Because most leaders and…

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Is there a monster living under your bed? We make up even better stuff at work these days

Remember all the things as a young child that you knew to be fact but later on found out weren’t quite so true? Things like, every night a monster lives under my bed. When I grow up, I’m going to be a movie star. If I wish upon a star all my dreams will come…

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Part 3: Lessons Learned – Taking Action

Setting a new course for your organization may generate some anxiety for you since there are no guarantees when an economic turnaround will be firmly in place. You may feel like it’s time to turn right… but the economy might make a few more left turns along the way and leave you as road kill….

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On Saying No

We are pleased to have another guest blog, this time by Amy Rasdal, founder of Rasdal Associates, Inc. and Billable at the BeachTM. Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to say “no”? Some people find it nearly impossible and end up with too many commitments. We’ve all done it at one time or…

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The Secret Sauce For Successful Implementation

We are pleased to have a guest Blog by Miki Saxon, RampUp Solutions while Holly is off on vacation! How many times during your career have you attended training, or read a book, that offered tools and taught techniques that fired you up only to find yourself unable to implement them? A frustrating experience and…

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Trust: The New Business Imperative

Social media and trust are two concepts not often used in the same sentence. But in a linked-in world where applications and sites including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are rapidly changing the way people communicate with each other, social media and trust will play increasingly important roles in determining how your company is perceived by…

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How to Give Your Employees the Positive Feedback They Want and Need

Have you told an employee what a great job he/she is doing recently? Have you received positive feedback for going above and beyond in the past month? Have you overheard others in your organization praise someone for doing more than was expected? Positive feedback has long been recognized as a critical element in high performing…

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