Jim’s “Tru Leadership” Blog

Tell Me The Truth… Nobody Reads These Things! What do you think?   Am I right? We read blogs, listen to podcasts, write articles, read articles, and give presentations, yet it seems like the only one listening, is us. We the few – who get it. There […]

5 Keys To Leading Your Remote Team (And A Challenge) When you see your team every day in the office, that’s one type of leadership. When it comes o remote team leadership, it’s less about time clocks, absenteeism, and “where are you going?” Leading remotely, you don’t […]

A Wish List For Our Leaders Here’s 6 things we wish our leader’s would stop: 1. Correcting people in harsh tones in front of other team mates 2. Being first in line for food and fighting for the best parking spot 3. Believing ‘serious face’ and being […]

My Mind Won’t Turn Off! I have got to get more sleep but I have so many worries. Do you want to be less worried and sleep better? Then perform small acts of kindness everyday. Oh come on, are you kidding? Nobody notices that! No one even […]

Work hard play hard as a company mantra is done! Celebration for accomplishment is critical, and to plan a party or team trip may be invaluable. It says “In order to do great things, it will take extra effort and that effort will be acknowledged and rewarded.” Play hard – hmmmm, […]

Recent research from Judith Glaser at Columbia University outlined the impact of technology speeding up our reaction times. First impressions are now formed in as little as .07 seconds and not your grandmother’s 15 seconds. Wow! .07 seconds! Here are 15 tips to improve your first impressions […]

Several years ago, I had a manager, Jason, trying to decide which job role and career path he should take. I suggested he start with what we used to call the ole Ben Franklin exercise. Making a “T” chart with + on the left and – on […]

Remember as a kid, standing in front of the candy or ice cream counter looking at all the flavors to choose from? You wander across the counter drooling and imagining the possibilities. Today as adults, we wander across our values, looking at buckets of integrity, trust, family, […]

The following blog is edited from Chopra Center and gives us great perspective about how to become more creative. We often think of creativity as something that only certain people are gifted with, and we have special words for such people, including brilliant, inspired, or ingenious. Creativity […]

Coaches in sport are on stage in such a totally exposed manner that it generates an amazing laboratory, showcased by bright lights and microscopes, to study visuals we can utilize to improve our daily coaching practices. Do sports coaches have favorite players to coach and those they […]

Reportedly, a person’s direct manager is the #1 reason people leave companies. However, in a recent study it was revealed the manager is actually number 7, out of 8  key reasons for why people stay with companies. The top reasons Americans give for not leaving their current […]

Coaching is so much more about the situation and task, yet instead we mistakenly make it about the person. Coaching for a task is a dialogue to resolve a possible problem. Coaching for a person is much more messy. One thing they both have in common is […]

Ever say “good luck” to somebody before a business presentation, or sports tournament? We all do! There’s nothing wrong with that, and yet it may imply that they need ‘luck’ in order to succeed. Travis Bradberry, founder of TalentSmart® and author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0®, suggests a […]

Before we plan, we reflect on the past, whether that is our past actions, last year’s results, or the things that went wrong at the holiday family gathering. Our past shapes what we want in the future as well as the changes we need to make for […]

There are 4 simple things that, when stopped, will help you achieve real success. Here they are: 1. Stop Multitasking – after all the research which shows that our brains cannot effectively occupy two activities at once, we still try to do it anyway! Technology makes us […]

Can’t we just get along? I am speaking specifically about the two most dominant populations in the workforce – one group which is leaving the workforce and the other just entering the workforce interacting in all businesses today. Those organizations engaging people, not labels, will win more […]

The cultures of Rip Curl surfboards and JP Morgan start with the way they dress and the way they talk. Culture is most noticeable in extrinsic observables. Culture, in many ways, reflects the style and tone of our customer. Customers shape the culture of our companies. This […]

Below, is a wonderful update from AIIR executive coach Harvey Floyd. He raises some interesting perspectives for improving success for women in leadership. If you are interested and haven’t read “How Women Rise” by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith, you must! Insights on 12 Habits and their […]

So you walk in the house and it’s “Alexa, lights, air conditioning, and curtains.”  And yet, when we say, “Alexa, I had a bad day” the device says “I do not understand.” We are so connected with technology but not connected with communicating! “The greatest mistake in […]

Branding You strategist Diana Jenkins, in a recent speech with executive networking team Ethos, posed these thoughtful comments regarding the blueprint for leaders’ branding:. Branding involves many facets: A purposeful appearance equals results. Branding is a game, or puzzle, of perception management. We leverage our best self […]

Like a great mechanic, a great leader has many tools. Tools both to aid listening and tools to help decision-making. The key is not using a hammer when a wrench is needed and vice versa. Leaders are able to utilize numerous tools in the right situations. When […]

I have heard, over the years, that sales reps are just about the money. Many organizations spend incredible amounts of time doing and redoing sales compensation plans. The sales compensation plan is the most highly scrutinized compensation plan when compared to all other job plans. All of […]

We want more choices in our life. If we suffer during a hard workout we can choose to stop and relieve this minor suffering. But the suffering that comes from a job loss, problems with our children, or the death of loved one – these are less […]

Have you ever received a gift from someone you don’t know? Would you guess that gift might be the greatest gift ever received by anybody? Would you ever expect to give a gift so special and have that person receiving the gift not ever even knowing your […]

Perfection is a word that guarantees failure. Perfection in life, unlike in spelling or in math, is unattainable. And yet 40% of youth identify as perfectionists. If we aim for perfection we will miss it, but we might hit excellence along the way. ~ Vince Lombardi Strong […]

Stress. It’s defining us. We are under so much stress – it is the state of our emotional and mental strain and the tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances. Circumstances are external in nature but choices are internal. We cannot control outside circumstances yet we have […]

We don’t see it – the gorilla. The obvious thing that no one notices. Gorillas undermine, distract, mislead, yet they hide so well they are not seen or heard. 54% of motorcycle accidents are caused by  a car turning left in front of an oncoming motorcycle. The […]

We are so busy these days we could fill up an entire career just responding to our inbox. All the work we are doing, does it produce anything of significance or contribute to others? All the work we do may matter to the business, and all the […]

Any negotiation, at home or at work, can become a battle. Even the word ‘negotiation’ sounds daunting and implies there will be a loser and a winner. First we need to change our paradigm to more of “need sharing” and “people agreement.” The word ‘negotiation’ sounds too […]

Recently in Managing People at Work, Cal Butera highlighted 5 very noticeable reactions we face when confronting difficult employees. Principally, we all are more difficult to work with when we are in unsafe environments. We can handle the truth, but what we can’t handle is being shamed. […]

In situations where we have to deliver bad news to an employee, boss, or family member, we sometimes screw it up. Here are 9 things that to avoid when sharing bad news, thereby short-circuiting  a bad outcome: 1. We overcommunicate. With bad news, less is more. Our […]

Happiness is not our goal. We are so busy doing so much, that happiness shifts with us as we move through our life experiences. Viktor Frankl, the famous Austrian Jewish psychiatrist, survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, and author of Man’s Search for Meaning, has since discussed […]

Humor is the oil that greases the gears of life. ~ Anonymous How do you know if you are funny? Tim Allen, the famous star of Home Improvement, has openly shared how he developed his sense of humor, which has carried him to wealth and fame. For […]

As kids, we observe everything and we process our world quickly. We decide if what we do, or what others do, results in good or bad outcomes. And we adjust our behavior accordingly. Leadership begins with observing. Secondly, it involves looking outside at others, then turning that […]

Help someone feel a little better about themselves and they will like you a lot. ~ Lord Chesterfield We say “Thanks” and “Nice job” and the people on the receiving end of those words, may feel that we are simply saying “Whatever.” We throw around the words […]

Money often costs too much. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson I love money. I love everything about it. I bought some pretty good stuff. Got me a $300 pair of socks. Got a fur sink. An electric dog polisher. A gasoline powered turtleneck sweater. And, of course, I bought some […]

Our business lives are about superior performance, over-achieving results, and greater productivity. We get that, and the comments we hear are the by-product of a powerful machine leading with a servant’s heart, not the engine. Servant leadership is not being a doormat to people’s wants, it is […]

You are trying to manage 1,000 things at once and somebody questions your leadership style. C’mon man! You say to yourself, “Do I really  have to stop everything I’m doing, just to listen to some employee whine and gripe about something neither of us can control or […]

Try this: What U.S. phrase do all Americans know from the age of 4 to the age of 94? It’s “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” This phrase gives insight to our sense of independence and individualism, and it drives our communications, decisions, and judgements. It’s about […]

What does your employer think when you say you want better balance in life? Right away, they may think you are going to want more personal time and not to work as hard. They may assume they are going to get less work out of you. The […]

We often look at the ‘proven track record of success’ in past performance as being a great way to predict future success. I am a huge advocate of past behavior forecasting future behavior, and the process works great when we are hiring someone from another company to […]

Salespeople are already behind the eight ball. They have dug a hole for themselves and don’t even realize they are in a “professional” hole. The only difference between a rut and a grave is depth and distance. ~ John Maxwell Every day, many salespeople are digging themselves […]

Ken Blanchard recently wrote an article about servant leadership, saying: I love to tell the story about a friend of mine who went to Nordstrom to get some perfume for his wife. The salesperson said, “I’m sorry we don’t sell that brand in our store. But I […]

How we communicate change is the prevailing issue. Get it wrong, and the water cooler talk of bungled speeches, misinformed executives, and downright dumb comments can be lethal to the business results. The change may not be that significant, but if the communication about the ‘change’ is […]

Change may be hard and can represent grief. Grief caused from the way activities we liked or our values before a change are now no longer able to be adhered to or enjoyed on a daily basis. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, the famous Swiss psychiatrist, professor at University of […]

“People don’t resist change, they resist being changed. When someone decides to make a change on their terms, the possibilities are endless!” ~ Jamie Ramsden In order to facilitate or drive change in any way requires saying goodbye to the old. There is a sense of grief […]

“Man, I need help. I have too much on my plate and I can’t get it all done.” This is the battle cry of today’s working talent. And it’s true, we may need help and we need to delegate to others. Some of us try asking for […]

How do we get kids who don’t like spinach, to eat spinach? Well, we threaten, force, trick, or promise rewards – you know – carrots and sticks. It’s the same tactic our companies use to manage us. The tools we use to get our kids to eat […]

Where do our values come from? The traits that drive our beliefs, feelings, attitudes, and actions come from our past experiences – our memories. Our pains and joys in the moment are magnified from our past, creating feelings of grief or satisfaction. It’s how we remember these […]

Why can’t all people be like our best friends -those that listen, seem to understand, and offer just the right amount of love and guidance? Think about a recent phone call or meeting with someone you like to be around. Someone you trust, care about, and whom […]

I work with many senior leaders, and I listen as they speak negatively about millennials. They talk about this age group in terms of entitlement or that they were spoiled with soccer trophies as kids. And that seems so unfair. Ever use the word “spry” or “geezer” […]

Recent comments from Joe Cavallo and others, have inspired me to do a review about creativity and decision-making. In May 2017, Harvard Business Review, Srini Pillay MD and CEO of the NeuroBusiness Group, wrote a very interesting article summarizing new research in the area of gaining creativity. […]

Last week we reviewed the power or safety on one word. The word “why” may create defensiveness and unintentionally poor communication, as the listener may feel threatened. What is one word that can instead lead to leadership safety? What is a word that builds up the listener, […]

So you wanted to lead people and be the manager. Congratulations! And be careful what you ask for. So often the idealistic image of what promotion into management role means and the raw reality are drastically different, and it tends to be a collision. I have asked […]

If you have a big project due in two weeks, do you think about it for 1 ½ weeks, and then rush to finish it on time? How’s that working for you? Are you approaching most tasks with anxiety, fear, too much thought, and then racing to […]

Are you lying to me? – Probably. University of Massachusetts psychologist Robert Feldman has studied lying, and has reached some startling conclusions. Most shocking is that 60% of people lie 2-3 times during a typical 10-minute conversation! Most of the people in Feldman’s studies didn’t even realize […]

Q: What do the U.S. Navy, Blue Angel pilots, and Radio City Music Hall Rockette dancers have in common? A: Synchronization Building successful business teams is not like swim teams, where individual contributors’ points are rolled up into one team score. Rather, business teams results are only […]

In a study by Dr. Lynn Adler (Forbes: 2013) reporting the Life Secrets of Centurions, over 500 people older than 100 were studied. Can you guess their answer to these two questions? A. What was your favorite age? B. What are you doing today to increase your […]

You made it! You are at the top of the heap, a newly minted Manager/Director/VP or CEO – congratulations!! You are now 1-2 actions away from becoming a jerk. As we rise, all the accolades of our once friends, and also our family, quickly pull us back […]

Retention starts before an employee even looks for another job. Too many managers are surprised when someone says “I quit,” but who’s fault is that? It’s the manager’s fault because they did not create a safe enough environment to have open communications, thereby avoiding an employee surprising […]

Researchers from the Clinical Psychophysiology Lab at Michigan State University found that people fall into one of two camps when it comes to mistakes: those who have a fixed mindset (Forget this. I’ll never be good at it) and those who have a growth mindset (What a […]

We know that building a world-class team of talented, diverse individuals is key to our success. Most leaders want better teams, since we all know what bad teams look like, and how unproductive they are. The larger the team, the more distant and complicated team building can […]

Here you go, these are 8 secrets to achieving your greatness: Secret #1:  Read minds. Who is your audience and what are their frustrations, fears, joys, and dreams?  If you want people to believe in you, then invest time to learn their levers for both pain and […]

Amy Cuddy, Susan Cain, and other key leaders have said, “Fake it til you make it” or Fake it till you become it.” Careful! Too much acting takes away from our sense of authenticity and honesty, especially if we claim these as part of our high core […]

Do you feel like your boss has no emotional intelligence? If we are high in Emotional Intelligence (EI) we may decide to give them a break, since they are low on EI, but it also means we have work to do to help them improve, and that […]

Sadly I hear too many people say, “I am just so slammed. My job doesn’t allow me to say “no” to my work, my clients, my boss, or my family. I work and worry all the time!” Research from Family Practical Management concluded, that with current technology, […]

I recently spoke with Manuelle Charbonneau, a senior executive coach, regarding her perspective on a leader’s evolution from being in a primarily technical expert role into a broader more people responsibility role. She related how interesting the work is with high IQ leaders from technical backgrounds as […]

A man fluent in 2 languages recently went into a deep coma, and upon coming out of the coma, could only speak one language. And after a horrific beating, another man,became a Mensa-qualified genius. These are true stories and reflect how much we are still learning about […]

Culture is a lot like trust, we recognize when it is not present, better than how to actually define it. We learn best in contrasts, and to learn what culture is almost requires knowing what it isn’t.  “Culture is the 2 worst behaviors we tolerate. Because what […]

We all talk about team-building, but one of the best ways to understand greatness is to first comprehend the other side – the bad. Marshall Goldsmith once said, “We should spend less time teaching leaders how to be better, and more time simply teaching them what not […]

Yes, public speaking can be scary, and for other people, public speaking is exhilarating and fun.  Regardless of how we feel about it, there are 3 simple keys in making public speaking even more successful. David Crystal of the Yale University Press, recently recognized that in ancient […]

Viktor Frankl the famous teacher, novelist, and Jewish Austrian psychiatrist, was severely beaten and tortured in a WWII Nazi concentration camp. He was fascinated how, at the lowest points of their lives, prisoners viewed their same horrible circumstances differently. Some wanted and begged desperately to die. He […]

My experience, through many years of coaching hundreds of people in numerous industries, is this – the higher we climb on the corporate ladder, the further we get from where real people do real work. The emotional intelligence that launched executive success years earlier seems to be […]

Despite all our positive leadership efforts, we often still have people who are addicted and obsessed with complaining. It’s as if complaining feeds some dark empty sore spot for some people, and that if they didn’t complain, they’d have nothing to say. So, here are the 3 […]

Sometimes it’s the simple things that seem so normal that cause us the biggest challenges.   1. So, we have a good team and one or two players become our “A” players. To make sure we get tasks done…. We pile on. We don’t mean too overwork […]

Let’s say, you are traveling home late Thursday night and checking your appointments for Friday, and you see you have a meeting with a person from another company at 3:00pm – a 3:00 pm appointment on a Friday after a long week on the road. You have […]

Who is Coaching Your Team? How can we optimize performance and ensure success? The Intertwine Group has researched the reasons why teams need coaches. This included looking at critical factors for customer-facing teams such as sales, customer service, and marketing. We could be the leader of our […]

We get so easily distracted that we have a term for it –“squirrel.” We are so busy being in the next moment we aren’t fully present in this moment. Our technology, and our lack of awareness of its proper use, are to blame. “Looking down to read […]

At different events, we often get stuck at the end of the table with people we barely know for over 2 hours! These situations apply to certain family events, business dinners, and celebrations of all kinds, and it causes us to say, “Oh no, another dinner event […]

Our great small team success got us promoted, and now we need new skills to manage managers. Especially since managers, by their very job definition, are very different than individual contributors. What got you here won’t get you there. – Marshall Goldsmith Large team management requires different […]

Some people believe that if they have conviction, they don’t need to apologize. Needing to apologize makes it sound like it’s required – like a child that has to say “I’m sorry,” or is punished with penalties of fewer food choices, shortened playtimes, or limits on other […]

Our brand starts long before we show-up with people, and ends as soon as we leave the room. Brand building is created as we leave the room, just like muscle builds after we leave the gym. We plan a vacation or a workout toward a goal, and […]

How fast do we assume the worst? Media is no longer the traditional forms of BBC, Washington Post, or NBC. Rather, media today is anybody with a cell phone. What pictures and texts are people sharing of us as we live our daily lives? When we act […]

Compared to your website, your social media business page is an informal outlet, so keep your posts fun and positive but always remain professional. Post questions on a regular basis to create engagement. Social media should be the start of a conversation between you and your potential […]

It all started with our darn parents. They said we couldn’t have dessert until we were done with our dinner. They told us we could not go outside and play, until all our homework and chores were done. Today, can we get all our work done in […]

Well, we are kind of wired for self-preservation. We are the most dependent species on the planet, and to get what we want we have learned as children how to control the external environment. Even to the extent we disregard our own bad behavior as being necessary […]

Gallup®  in their 1993-1998 survey of thousands of organizations at all levels, collected and built these 12 elements as standard predictors of high employee and team performance. Seems to me, we still have a long way to go to do even half of these! 1. I know […]

Leaders are people. And like all people we sometimes just get it wrong. Real wrong. Stinking it up bad. We have had bosses who tell us, “Look, we have real work to do, and making people feel good is not my job or your job!” “Just tell […]

Could I COACH you? Sure. A great coach blends emotional intelligence (EQ) with listening, tailored questions, making few statements, discussing, and curiosity, for the coachee to locate their own best path for success. In coaching, high EQ transforms to high IQ. EQ is a part of the […]

We may be addicted, because we like work a lot! And for good reason – it heightens our intellectual and mental capabilities. Work is exciting, challenging, and feeds our appetite to be valued and to contribute. Research from Sarah Damaske showed that mothers in full time jobs […]

Go. When I was a kid growing up in Cincinnati, I wanted to grow up to be an astronaut. My friend said he couldn’t wait to grow up and work for Procter & Gamble just like his dad. As I look back on it now, I find […]

Stay. Deal with the devil you know versus leave and discover the devil you don’t know. Remember how excited we were just a few short years ago when we created a business marriage to join our current company? What changed? Is it them or is it us? […]

Great leadership is shown through what we do and say on a daily basis. It is exemplified in a sense of P.R.I.D.E. – Personal Responsibility in Individual Daily Effort ~ Tom Sullivan “Dream more than others think practical. Expect more than others think possible. Care more than […]

Meetings are where minutes are kept and hours are lost. They get such a bad rap! What criteria should we use to decide to attend or conduct any meeting? It seems ½ the meetings we take via conference call, we are trying to do email at the […]

Many years ago, at the end of a long day, I had a client interested in our conversation and preparing to acquire my product. I was sensing he was interested and I kept on pressing for commitment and action. That was not a good decision. He fairly […]

Want to follow a leader? In the book, The Leadership Challenge(r) by Barry Posner and James Kouzes, they conducted research that has been collecting responses since 1987, with over 1.4 million responses to the question, What will we Follow? Here are the most common answers:     Honesty     Vision […]

Do you have a great mentor or average mentor? Are you being promoted by your mentor to senior leaders?   How often do we ask ourselves, “In my organization – who is my champion, my advocate, the one who believes in me?” “The one who is stepping […]

Some of us take feedback so personally. We fret, worry, feel anxious, and decide that the world is against us – even as a response to clear, helpful feedback. The feedback process can be brutal, for three main reasons: 1. The way feedback is delivered, as if […]

Influence begins with a “Sure, I’ll do that.” The old adage is “selling begins with yes.” This is an acknowledgement of our knowledge, our friendliness, our product value, or it might even be a commitment to further action. Sometimes the actual response of doing what we think […]

Knowing people’s names is over 50% of our culture and personal engagement! I have a friend, Ryan Larson, who was receiving an award at a formal banquet. The president of the company stood on stage and read a list of Ryan’s accomplishments, and then summarized by saying, […]

We all want to be more valued, recognized, promoted, or get a raise. And our supervisor says to us, “You need to improve your visibility or be seen more by others.” You think your boss likes your colleague Bling Bam Biff, who is so far out there, […]

Executive presence is less about how we show up, and more how others say they feel when we show up. Our executive presence used to rely on character and integrity as the ruling kings of leadership and boardroom ethos. Then in the 1880’s robber barons took hold […]

Management is Doing Things Right and Leadership is Doing Right Things. ~ Peter Drucker Many others have further described management as more task focused versus leadership as more people focused. Which is more important? The answer is both. It depends if we need compliance or commitment. Growth […]

The #1 trait of a leader is self-awareness. If we say we want to be authentic leaders, that requires knowing fully our strengths and weaknesses. If we think – “Oh, I’m a good person,” and we shoot-from-the-hip our thoughts, feelings, and statements, we make sense to ourselves […]

People often ask me, as we’re completing exercises in workshops, “Should I answer this as me at work, or me at home?” Well, if we believe we need to truly ‘act’ a certain way to survive or be accepted in either place, that is a tough place […]

Our success in interviews is no longer about our preparation of our resume or reporting of our achievements. In fact, the resume is now more unimportant than ever. It used to be that a job required specific skills, and so we summarized our skills, successes, and accomplishments […]

Henry Ford launched the assembly line, and he may have killed our purpose. It used to take 12 hours to build one car and the assembly line dropped that time to less than 1 hour. Pay went from $1.25/day, to $5.00/day. Henry got seriously good workers. Real […]

I have learned from interviews, surveys, and research that we have two huge blocks to our leadership success at home and at work.     Worry     Forgiveness (we’ll save forgiveness for another day) Worry just chokes us! Particularly women – in the area of worry, women outshine men, by […]

I had a boss once, Ted, and we were in a critical business meeting where tempers were flying and agitation was high – things were clearly getting personal between my boss and his boss. Boardroom dynamics are usually so professional and staged, much like a business dance. […]

I run a small upholstery company and we have many staff members in a  confined space. Personal habits have become a real problem. Some people talk too loudly, or have jarring noises coming from their computers. People bark at each other, tattle to me, use the silent […]

81% of the time, our next job will come from a friend, referral, or friend-of-a-friend. So, maybe we should spend less time beefing up our resumes and more time beefing up our networking skills! Networking sounds so hard and clinical. It can be no fun if the […]

Brittany, told me she had the best boss ever. I asked her why and she said, he (Jason) was lazy, weak, kind of a liar, and overall he was unsure of himself. Huh? She laughed, and said, “Well no, not really, only it could look that way” […]

How do we avoid dealing with the crazies? We know the more emotionally stable a person is the more they can handle and they make the best teammates, employees and friends. Emotionally healthy people relate well to others. They can deal with stress, tension and failures with […]

We go to restaurants and we see people looking down at their cell phones and avoiding interaction with each other.  We know we need to dis-connect to connect, and yet it seems so hard to actually do. We are connecting electronically with everyone and communicating with no […]

Managers light a fire under their people, while leaders light a fire inside their people. The question, “How do I get ahead?” was asked of key US executives and the responses were reported on by Harvey MacKay. Warren Buffett (CEO, Berkshire Hathaway) – “Follow your passions. Find […]

Do you find your best sleep is in a crowded, overly warm, cramped meeting room, while your boss talks about 2016 performance and goals? Well, that’s not good. Turning off our power-plant of a brain is nearly impossible. Our desire for information is overwhelming our circuitry. People […]

I recall interviewing some potential sales people who would tell me, “I’m really good with people.” “I like people.” “People like me.” or “I like a job being with people.” I would then ask them, “How many sales calls do you think you’ll make in a day?” […]

Really top performers have learned how, in the heat of battle, not to wilt. Our lives in some ways are more difficult than the lives of professional athletes because, while they are under bright lights a few hours a week, we have to perform at a high […]

Here are my 8 simple rules to help us succeed in business:     Learn To Handle Adversity Focus on the things we can control Give others the ownership of projects Anticipate and plan for contingencies Over-communicate updates and options     Lead People Effectively Respect everyone Analyze and recognize each […]

Have you ever been asked a really great question? 3 aspects of great questions are: 1. They make us think. 2. They lead us deeper inside our own purpose and toward finding our own answer. 3. We believe the person asking a great question has great value. […]

Changes in our business and relationships are happening faster now than ever before. Our first response is often, “This is terrible!” or “Now what?” and “So all my success will be forgotten?” and “Great, another new boss or team?” As we keep saying these things,  we drive […]

Force a smile in a tough situation Help an elderly person in the grocery store Smile at noisy kids – you were noisy once too! Count 3 things others like about you, right now Go compliment someone Think about your traits and values you are most proud […]

For your team it’s a party, but for you, the leader, it’s not. Here are tips for toasting and surviving the holiday party excerpted from business consultant Roz Usheroff. The Art of Toasting The concept of toasting is to honor someone who has made a difference or […]

“Wisdom is the reward you get from a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk.” Doug Larson These brains of ours are so loaded with information we can’t seem to sleep or listen. We read more information in one New York Times newspaper, than people […]

Oh, we get it! We need business success, productivity, and results at yearend, and we’ll reschedule training when things calm down. But they don’t calm down. Many pit crews of fast performing race cars stand ready with arms crossed shaking their heads while their driver continues speeding […]

I hear from so many emerging leaders,  “I’ve got the responsibility, but I have no authority. How can I lead teams if they won’t give me the authority?” Well, how is leading with authority working? Not well. We are not led by titles or power. We give leaders respect with titles or […]

The difficult employee – is it their intent to be difficult? As leaders we know employees push our buttons and the buttons of others on our team including our boss. We are on point to “fix” this or everyone looks at us as not fully competent to […]

I’m not a bad boss! I don’t yell, threaten, or manipulate. Really? Do I leverage bonuses, special projects, leadership awards, or trips as factors to motivate people? That’s “carrot manipulation.” The other type of manipulation is “stick manipulation.” – Many years ago, my boss, as we were driving in my […]

Speaking is an audience-centered sport ~ Marjorie Brody Please note: Boardroom presentations versus all other presentations. Boardroom presentations are unique in that they are designed to disseminate information, mostly instructional, and are in presenter-to-the-audience format. The presenter is expected to have the knowledge, and is presenting less for […]

Bronnie Ware, an Australian hospice nurse, has released her report from discussions with patients at the end of their lives, regarding what regrets they have or things they would like to have done differently in their lives. In the past, the #1 response has been, “I wish […]

Have we forgotten, how hard it was to find the new hire? – All the interviews and debates with yourself and others to find the right person. The last thing any manager wants to do is start this process all over again. As leaders, it’s up to […]

We spend so much time selling; if only we recognized our best sales results did not come from our efforts, rather they come from our customer. We are in the business of creating buyers, not pushing product. Companies hire sales forces, train them with product knowledge, and convince […]

We talk so much and it is all about us. We actually have an acronym for it – WIIFM (What’s In It For Me). WIIFM needs to evolve to WIIFO. (What’s In It For Others) * WIIFO involves getting to know “why” someone states something. It involves […]

What are the most productive people doing? We all have the same 24 hours in a day, and yet some people seem to have things under control, get things done, and get ahead. Is there a secret? Yes, after years of interviews with top performers and highly […]

We learn in direct contrasts – how we GO when the traffic light is green is also how we learn to STOP when the light turns red. Hitting a great golf shot is also about learning what club will not work to hit that same shot. Being a better […]

Real World Leading Versus Managing Revealed 1. Short-Term versus Long-Term Focus When I am managing, I am focused on week-to-week fluctuations in the numbers versus the long-term accomplishment of our bigger goals. When I am managing, I allow my mood to be dictated by the ink spots […]

A brain discovering a question can never return to its previous state. “How can I finish this project in this limited timeframe?” “Am I really supposed to get all this done by myself?” “What can I do to make my kids’ be more responsible?” If only we […]

Leadership is a choice and sometimes we chose not to act in a leadership way. The opposite of leadership is not management – it’s DRAMA. Our favorite movies, books, and TV shows all have villains, victims, and heroes. We identify with all these characters in different ways, since […]

Training implies, “something you need to learn.” Like somebody else has the knowledge and is prepared to share it with us. That applied in 1960, but today we all have knowledge only a google click away! Some leaders instruct us, tell us, or impart their knowledge and their […]

Ever get behind a car going slowly? How do you get them to go faster? If we tailgate they get angry and go even slower. We get a better result when we are in their sights (not too close) and they feel bad, and will, on their own, pick up the […]

Wanna be a better Salesperson …. be a better Person !! Take P.R.I.D.E. in being a better Leader of ourselves: Personal Responsibility in Individual Daily Effort Before recent advancements in sports science, the elite athletes’ coping strategies were limited. The approach was typically to push harder, train […]