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Engaging Everyone's Head and Heart: Managing Self, Leading Others
Employee Engagement is the way that management includes the thinking and commitment of all employees to resolve organizational problems and develop improvements to key processes, products and services.
I'm Someone's Management Style
I realize that in my many years of working with educational leaders, numerous corporate leaders and as a management consultant, I have taken to heart the beliefs of the best of them and made their beliefs and practices my own.
Preparing Customer Facing Staff - Managing Expectations
Sometimes it is difficult draw the line between being a business person, a coach or consultant and just being a consumer. I always wonder if I am too critical or demanding because I know what should happen in the "customer experience" and have minimal patience when it doesn't.
Technology's Internal Customer Facing Issues
How technology is enhancing your customers' experience with your organization. We have chosen to address it from the internal customers' perspectives.
Knowing Who We Are Helps In Determining Who We Want To Be: The Power of Personal Assessments
Given the pressures of day-to-day business, it is hard to step away and get an objective look at how we are operating and what our strengths are. There are simple to administer tools that objectively measure effectiveness both at an organizational and individual level.
Closing the Technology Leadership Gap
Think about closing this leadership gap in technology from multiple vantage points, and have an enabling strategy for overall business success.
21 Ideas for Succession Achieving
At Paradigm Associates, we make a distinction between goal setting and planning and goal achievement. Setting and planning are necessary, but not sufficient to bring about the desired results. Think about succession the same way, i.e. succession achieving instead of succession planning.
Using Technology to Improve Processes across the Business
As you look at your business today, many realize that one key element to remaining competitive, is to use technology more effectively to reduce time to market and to save internal cost and confusion.
A coach is a person who engages in an interaction intended to enhance performance or facilitate change in another. A coach helps others to discover and do what works, that is, do the right things in the right way for the right reasons to achieve the right results.
Pass Problems Down And Solutions Up
How can you engage your employees in their work and the success of your company? Here are two powerful ways: (1) get rid of inner circles, and (2) pass problems down and solutions up.
With many businesses operating lean, the result is staff members who are struggling to keep up, and senior managers who are likely being told to and/or are worrying about getting "more" with fewer employees.
Trade Show Return On Investment
Once your company decides to attend a trade show, you need to maximize the return on the investment for the time spent by the staff from your company in addition to the cost of the space.
9 ¾ Tips to Get Things Done Video Script
Over the past 20 plus years we have been helping businesses to get things done. During that time, we have found that some of the main reasons that "things don't get done" are related to an incomplete understanding of the: scope, urgency, overall risk, as well as customer perspective of the job.
Organizational Assessment - Why You Get The Results You Do
I've often used the term "operationalizing your strategy" for the process of getting every part and every person in your organization understanding and consistently doing whatever needs to be done to implement your strategy and achieve your business goals. In other words all parts of your organization are aligned, people, structure, processes, and working together, horizontally and vertically, to accomplish what needs to be accomplished.
You Can't Lead or Manage Without a Large Dose of Confidence
Confidence is the expectation of positive outcomes. Confidence is not arrogance, conceit, or complacency. The confident leader or manager believes that persistance and hard work will win out most every time over talented but insecure people. Confidence is contagious.
Stephen Covey expressed it in terms of a compass being a better tool for time management than a watch. In other words they shifted their paradigm from trying to cram more activities into less time to just doing the things that were really important to do. They concentrated on the few activities that contributed the greatest value.
Planning For Next Year – It Starts With Tomorrow!
Many folks tend to put off things like planning because they're reacting to customer needs; filing year-end reports and juggling holidays.
Capitalizing on Electronic Health Records (EHR) to Take Your Practice Where You Really Want It to Be
If EHR is to become a boon to medical organizations and practices, a shift in thinking and perspective can help it happen. It begins with looking for a quantum improvement rather than just incremental improvements.
Article Archives
Sales Articles (click to expand)
When implementing sales team goal setting sessions, placing a dollar value on minutes and hours is a key way to help prioritize behaviors.
Customer Service: Back to Basics
When times are good, it is easy to forget the smaller or one time clients, almost taking them for granted. But when times are tough, every purchase or sale becomes very important and suddenly many organizations begin to re-evaluate their customer service teams and policies.
A Sure Bet During These Uncertain Times
A loyal customer is someone who wouldn't even think of going elsewhere, in good times or bad. When there is an issue, you are the first one they call to help solve their problem.
Pssst - - - -Here's a Sales Secret for You
If you want to be successful in generating leads and creating a situation in which one makes a decision to pay you or your company for goods or services, don't SELL to people. Instead - earn trust and establish relationships.
Secrets to Getting In Front of Your Best Prospects
"Just get me in front of the right person, a qualified decision-maker and I will be certain to get the business." As sales directors, specifically in the insurance industry, we deal with this challenge on a daily basis.
Success Proportional to Customer Service Quality
It's evident that the bottom line success of most customer service oriented companies is directly proportional to the quality levels of their customer service.
Leadership Articles (click to expand)
A Closer Look @ Employee Engagement
Some frightening possibilities follow! According to research, it is estimated that American businesses may only be operating at one-third of their capacity because of the lack of a true connection with their people.
Advertising Values or "Living our Values" Can We Tell the Difference anymore?
The principle role of leadership of any group be it government organization, company, department or work team is to set the core values that drive the team.
Helping Employees Think Better
Some recent discoveries about the brain indicate that technology is largely ineffective at helping others think, give advice or solve work-related problems. To be sure, it is time to give up guessing what peoples' brains need and, instead, to help them think for themselves.
A resolution can be viewed as something we desire to happen aka "desirement". A goal can be viewed as a need aka a "requirement".
Leading Yourself and Others: It All Begins With You
Leaders represent the elite among the many managers and officers found in corporate America. However, for all their diversity, there is one thing all leaders have in common - true leaders get results.
Secrets to Leading and Managing Technical Professionals to Be More Than They Could Be
Instinctively, most technical professionals realize that the nature of their job may not put them in the limelight. The challenge then is twofold: make people feel appreciated, and make them feel that what they do matters in the absence of the limelight and the accolades that can come with that attention.
A good strategy is a necessary foundation; however, having a solid strategy doesn't get it done in and of itself. Many times executives can get so wrapped up in the execution issues, they can lose sight of where they are really going.
Research indicates that team(s) committed to producing different results; display several significant characteristics.
A disciplined, repeatable, measurable process that can be adjusted, based on the outcome desired is the crux of achieving improved results.
A clear definition of the plan, helps to crystallize the vision and set the direction for the team. The small discreet action steps that can be accomplished cause the team to start building confidence as the successes add up.
In Part 5 we focus on creating a tight enough linkage between execution and strategy to form an iterative cycle. This linkage creates a self sustaining operational way of doing business that keeps the team focused and ready for the next challenges.
Trusting Your Gut: How to Lead Using Your Instincts
Instinct is insight based not on reason but on awareness. When we allow it back into our consciousness, we can become more effective in many parts of life, including our role as a leader.
Never has it been more important to understand exactly what "good leadership" means. And more importantly, what good leadership does.
Team Building Articles (click to expand)
Building effective teams is one of the greatest challenges for business leaders today in dealing with a multi-generational workforce and weak economic climate.
The Devil and God Are In The Details: Increasing The Ability To Get Results In Your Organization
You've no doubt heard the phrase, "the Devil is in the details." I recently read an article that started, "God is in the details." Interesting thought, looking at both phrases metaphorically as they might apply to leadership in the sense that the good, the positive, and the bad, the negative, are in the details.
Growing Your Business In Challenging Times
As the current business environment is causing tremendous mental upheaval among so many people, I thought that it could be helpful to provide several quick to read and implement tips.
Not Just A Fist In A Bucket Of Water
Many of us will agree that low performance does not grow a company nor secure the future.
If you are reluctant to hire, because of the frustration and disappointment from previous hiring decisions, this article is for you.
Using Your Head to Help Your Bottom Line-Focusing on Cycle Time Reduction Techniques
Reducing cycle time is one of the most sought after goals in almost any industry (manufacturing or service) today. If you can increase productivity and customer responsiveness without compromising quality, everyone wants to know about it.
Marketing. What exactly is it? Simply put, it's everything a business does to attract customers/clients and keep them coming back and referring others to your business.
Capitalizing on the Change Curve
Imagine that there was a relatively simple tool that could help you understand and predict how members of your team and organization would likely perform over a period of time.
Individual Coaching and Self-Improvement Articles (click to expand)
Getting the *%$^%$ Project Done!
What is the difference between those who can and those who will struggle? Here is a tongue-in-cheek treatment that you may appreciate.
Managing a project, especially on a large scale, requires thorough planning which will pay off in the completion of it. The more thought you put into it, the smoother things will run and the less time you will be spending scrambling on your contingency plan.
Have We Become Attention Deficit Tacticians?
As we become a nation of "attention deficit tacticians", we will struggle with maintaining the focus needed to implement a viable solution.
To purge, according to Encarta is to get rid of opponents or remove something undesirable. Personal is self explanatory and paralysis is defined as loss of movement or inactivity, failure to take action or make progress. Putting it altogether--it describes getting rid of our own failure to take action or make progress.
Create a notebook or journal and dare to dream on paper. Create a "Dream Inventory" to help you crystallize your dreams.
Quite often I find myself in a conversation about the even flow of energy. You know what I mean: you get back what you send out.
Most people think about what they DON'T want! Often we avoid the work necessary to achieve the goal or perhaps avoid recognizing the consequences of not achieving a goal
Trusting Your Gut: How to Lead Using Your Instincts
Instinct is insight based not on reason but on awareness. When we allow it back into our consciousness, we can become more effective in many parts of life, including our role as a leader.
Learn This To Develop An Even Greater Competitive Advantage
In the business world, if we want to succeed common sense dictates that we must never stop growing. And growth comes from the desire to learn and better oneself. It's important to know how you, as an individual, learn; it's also necessary to learn how other people learn so that you can effectively communicate with them.
Leading Yourself and Others: It All Begins With You
Leaders represent the elite among the many managers and officers found in corporate America. However, for all their diversity, there is one thing all leaders have in common - true leaders get results.
Responsibility means doing what you are supposed to do and doing what you say you will do. It means to persevere. To keep on trying and always do your best.
Bullying is defined as words or behaviors which are intentional, repeated & frequent, hurtful and manifest a perceived imbalance of power.
Caring is feeling kindness for people, animals and the earth and expressing feeling through acts of generosity and service. Caring people understand the feelings of others and go out of their way to help them
Building character in youth and maintaining the tenants of character throughout their development, promises a society of adults who live their lives based on principles. The ethics I learned from my parents and teachers has helped me understand my role in this development and guide me through difficult decisions.
Perpetuation Plan; Retirement Plan; Exit Strategy Call It Whatever You Want, Just Do It.
An agency that is well prepared for long-term perpetuation has more value than one not so well prepared. An important element of a perpetuation plan is an exit strategy for the agency principals.