Jump-Start Your Business

As a leader in your business, try these ideas to give your business a jump-start:

Ask for ideas from employees in all parts of your business. Don't ask for ideas only from your product development or marketing departments.
Be sure all employees clearly understand your vision and the mission of your business.
Brainstorm ways to take advantage of your strengths.
Determine how to overcome your business' weaknesses.
Choose which opportunities you will prioritize to help keep everyone focused on a common goal.
Celebrate your successes regularly and encourage learning from your mistakes.

Comments

The Five Critical Roles You Need To Build A Winning Team

The new book, Team Players , by leadership expert and New York Times bestselling author, Mark Murphy , explains why a team needs more than strong leaders—it needs the right mix of five roles and talents to succeed. In addition, Murphy reveals that the secret to extraordinary teams isn’t making everyone the same—it’s embracing and leveraging fundamental differences through those five distinct team roles. No amount of teambuilding, trust, or cohesion can overcome having the wrong mix of people in the room. The five essential roles and talents are: The Director assumes a leadership role within the team, guiding its direction and making important, difficult, and even unpopular decisions. The Achiever immerses themselves in the details of accomplishing tasks and getting things done, with a keen eye for delivering error-free work. The Stabilizer keeps the team on track with meticulous planning, processes and procedures, clear timelines, and organi...

How To Be An Inspirational Leader

Today, I bring back one of my most-read blog posts from 2017. It read as follows: At the end of each year, I select my choice for the best new leadership book for that year and then highlight that book on my blog. Well, we're only five months into 2017 and there is a new leadership book so good that I can't wait until year-end to share it with you. And it's likely to be among the select few options for best new leadership book of 2017. It's called, The Inspiration Code , by Kristi Hedges . Perhaps now more than any other time, the need for inspirational leadership is critical in the workplace. Filled with profound insights and compelling data and based on a commissioned survey on who and what inspires people, Hedges uncovers a set of consistent, learnable behaviors that dramatically enhance leadership success. And shows you how to inspire those you lead. And, how to energize people every day . Kristi Hedges But, first, what exactly is inspiration? Hedges ex...

How To Break Through The Beliefs That Limit Your Potential

As a leader, do you find yourself frustrated, wondering why employees don't meet expectations, peers are slow to act, or pressure from your boss falls unfairly on your shoulders? It's easy to point a finger at others and double down on getting results. But have you ever considered that the problem might not be them—that it might be you? “Your mindset may be the only thing standing between you and your potential. It’s time to break free from the beliefs that hold you back,” says Muriel M. Wilkins , author of the new book, Leadership Unblocked: Break Through The Beliefs That Limit Your Potential . Through countless hours coaching executives over the past twenty years, Wilkins has pinpointed the biggest reason behind these common leadership challenges: hidden blockers . These unconscious beliefs can actively stall progress if leaders aren't aware of their existence, preventing them from seeing a situation clearly, solving problems effectively, and advancing their caree...

10 Quotes From The 5 Levels Of Leadership -- John C. Maxwell

Soon I'll post my full review of John C. Maxwell's latest book, The 5 Levels of Leadership . In the meantime, here are some of my favorites quotes from the book that I believe should become a must-read book by any workplace/organizational leader: Good leadership isn't about advancing yourself. It's about advancing your team. Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others. Leadership is action, not position. When people feel liked, cared for, included, valued, and trusted, they begin to work together with their leader and each other. If you have integrity with people, you develop trust. The more trust you develop, the stronger the relationship becomes. In times of difficulty, relationships are a shelter. In times of opportunity, they are a launching pad. Good leaders must embrace both care and candor. People buy into the leader, then the vision. Bringing out the best in a person is often a catal...

How Businesses Hone And Also Avoid Drift

“Honing, not sharpening is a metaphor for how successful businesses keep their competitive edge,” explain authors Geoff Tuff and Steven Goldbach , authors of the new book, Hone: How Leaders Defy Drift . “Today’s leaders seem to be highly focused on increasingly frequent transformation (akin to knife sharpening), when in fact they would be better served by building daily habits to hone their organization like a chef hones a knife.” Sharpening : This process restores a dull knife edge by removing material to create a new, sharper edge. Honing : This process realigns the existing edge of a knife, maintaining its sharpness without removing material. The book is a call to action for leaders to build the capability and mindset to hone their organizations, minimizing—but not eliminating—the need for transformation. “Choosing and honing the set of management systems that promote an organization's desired outcomes (and uninstalling them when they are past the...

The Inspiration Code

At the end of each year, I select my choice for the best new leadership book for that year, and then highlight that book on my blog. Well, only five months into 2017, I had already found a new leadership book so good that I couldn't wait until year-end 2017 to share it. Reflecting back, and sharing again, that book is, The Inspiration Code , by Kristi Hedges . Perhaps now more than any other time, the need for inspirational leadership is critical in the workplace. Filled with profound insights and compelling data, and based on a commissioned survey on who and what inspires people, Hedges uncovers a set of consistent, learnable behaviors that dramatically enhance leadership success. And, shows you how to inspire those you lead. And, how to energize people every day . Kristi Hedges But, first, what exactly is inspiration? Hedges explains that psychology professors Todd Thrash and Andrew Elliot have determined that inspiration is :...

How To Align Sales And Marketing To Drive Company Success

Nearly 90 percent of startups will fail without ever reaching a point of positive return on investment. Founders and entrepreneurs are facing unprecedented challenges in pursuit of becoming one of the coveted 10 percent. Who better to turn to for advice than the duo behind the most successful software IPO in history? That is where Denise Persson and Chris Degnan come in, authors of the new book, Make It Snow . During the nearly nine years they worked together at Snowflake, they built one of the longest-running and most effective sales-marketing partnerships from the ground up, unifying two historically divided groups in corporate America. Together, they took Snowflake from struggling startup to a tech powerhouse on par with Google and Amazon. Over the years, Snowflake surged to more than 9,000 employes and $3 billion in annual sales. “Sales and marketing are often neglected in startups, with focus squarely placed on the engineerin...

The 5 Open-Ended Questions To Ask Your Customers

I really like author Paul R. Timm's advice to stop asking your customers the "typical" questions and instead ask them open-ended questions. Here's what Timm recommends: Don't Ask : How was everything? Can I get you something else? Did you find everything you need? Will that be all? Was everything satisfactory? Instead Ask : What else can I do for you? What else can I get for you? What else can I help you with? What else could we do to better serve you? How else can we be of help? These open-ended questions will let your customers really express their ideas, opinions and needs. Timm is the author of, 50 Powerful Ideas You Can Use To Keep Your Customers .

The Definitive Book On Servant Leadership

Be sure to read the definitive book on servant leadership . It's a curated collection of incredibly insightful and motivational perspectives on servant leadership via essays by 44 servant leaders. Edited by Ken Blanchard and Renee Broadwell , Servant Leadership in Action , includes the personal stories from some of the most well-respected authorities on leadership: Patrick Lencioni John C. Maxwell Marshall Goldsmith Stephen M. R. Covey Plus, you'll read keen advice from celebrated sports coaches, company CEO's, pastors and retired military leaders. Each of the 44 stories/chapters stands strong on its own. However, Blanchard and Broadwell group them within six parts : Fundamentals of Servant Leadership Elements of Servant Leadership Lessons in Servant Leadership Examples of Servant Leadership Putting Servant Leadership to Work Servant Leadership Turnarounds Get your pen or highlighter ready. You're sure to take lots of notes as you capture ...

Discover How Ken Blanchard Changed The Way The World Leads

I would be hard pressed to find a leader, someone who studies leadership, or an aspiring leader who during the past 43 years hasn’t read the iconic and business classic The One Minute Manager (1982) or the updated new addition, The New One Minute Manager (2015). For decades, these two books, both co-authored by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson , have helped millions achieve more successful professional and personal lives. Now, in Chapter 9 of the new biography of Ken Blanchard, you’ll discover the story behind the idea and ultimate launch of the original The One Minute Manager . Chapter 9 is in the insightful and intimate biography, Catch People Doing Things Right , authored by Martha C. Lawrence . In it and through extensive access to personal papers, letters, and interviews spanning six decades, she reveals how Blanchard became a leadership guru and bestselling author of more than 70 books. Lawrence shares insights and intimate details about Blanchar...

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog