Using Your Brain to Win

Using Your Brain to Sell

    The human brain is a marvelous instrument. But, it has many built-in tendencies that can get in the way of making smart decisions and helping our organizations win. That’s why in today’s global markets, where everyone has access to the same information and technologies.  Using your brain more effectively is a critical leadership skill….

Read More ›

How To Build Real Accountability

  Accountability –an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions Accountability is a word that gets tossed around a lot in the business world these days.  Unfortunately, most of what I hear revolves around the lack of accountability rather than how companies are winning by holding each other accountable. At…

Read More ›

Prompt Employees to Think Strategically

In today’s hyper-paced markets, leaders must prompt employees to think strategically.  Gone are the days of employees plodding along waiting for the next big thing to roll down from corporate.  Companies need to innovate on a consistent basis in order to win. However, ongoing innovation is no easy task. First of all, innovation doesn’t mean…

Read More ›

Customer Engagement Is More Important than Ever

  Every CEO or business owner knows the importance of attracting new customers. That’s why most companies spend a significant part of their budgets on marketing and advertising to develop customer engagement among repeat and new customers. But a recent Gallup survey suggests that developing customer engagement – which the company describes as “a customer’s…

Read More ›

Six Rules for Mid-Year Performance Review

June has arrived, and you know what that means – for most of you it’s time for mid-year employee performance reviews. I can hear the pushback already. Who has time for mid-year reviews?! My employees know what to do; they should just focus on doing it! The better question is, who doesn’t have time for…

Read More ›

Oh, The Things you Can Thunk

Dr. Seuss has always been one of my favorite authors, especially his book Oh, The Thinks You Can Think. As a child I loved his clever rhymes, wild imagination, and endless array of made-up creatures. As an adult, I love his playfulness with the English language and how he really gets what a marvelous instrument…

Read More ›

Is Your Strategic Plate Too Full?

What is strategy? A simple question, but the answer may be more complex than you think. The dictionary defines strategy as “a plan, method, or series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result.” Hard to argue with that. But while the basic definition may not have changed, how we go about…

Read More ›

Ready for 3D Printed Rocketry?

If think you’re doing a pretty good job adjusting to today’s light-speed rate of change, take a deep breath, because in the words of Bachman Turner Overdrive, b-b-b-baby you ain’t seen nothing yet! Ever heard of a company called Planetary Resources? Its long-term vision involves landing robots on asteroids and planets to mine them for…

Read More ›

Set Up Your Team To Be Successful

The first month of 2016 has already come and gone. By now you’ve (hopefully) set your primary strategic goals for the year, pinpointed the destination, and painted a clear picture of what winning looks like for your organization. The next step involves one of the most important leadership roles and skills – setting up everyone…

Read More ›

Five More Ways to Sustain Your Innovation Efforts

  Innovation often requires us to think and act differently from the way the human brain likes to operate.  For example, some of the most important innovation leadership skills require conscious effort to override the brain’s innate tendency to see what it wants to see. These include: Challenging your assumptions Changing your perspective Asking the…

Read More ›

Put the Resolve Back into Your New Year’s Resolutions

Thinking about making New Year’s resolutions but worried about not being able to follow through? If so, you’re not alone. According to a recent survey, 16% of people decided not to set any New Year’s resolutions in 2015, and that number is expected to increase for 2016. Of those who do plunge ahead with well-intentioned resolutions,…

Read More ›

Teach Employees the Business of Your Business

This won’t come as a surprise to anyone who hasn’t been asleep at the wheel lately, but we don’t work in the same business world as 20, 10, or even five years ago. Things move so fast these days that much of what we learned about how to lead an organization no longer applies. It…

Read More ›