Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Micah Solomon’s new book, High-tech, High-touch Customer Service, is all about how to inspire timeless loyalty in the demanding new world of social commerce -- one where businesses today face the increasingly challenging world of customer interactions, both online and off.

The book is a must-read for any business leader. And, fortunately, the content is grounded in decades of experience and proven methodology.

Some key lessons I learned from the book include:
If you can anticipate, you can differentiate. If your customers feel at home. They’re unlikely to roam. If things go wrong for a customer initially, do a grand job of getting to the other side of that challenge and you may create a positive memory that literally supplants the initial unpleasantness.
Also, Solomon states that the four components to solid value that creates customer satisfaction are:   A perfect product or service Delivery in a caring, friendly manner Timeliness The backing of an effective problem-resolution process …

Drive your leadership success by: Funding what makes your business unique and valuable Not rushing to cut prices Hiring talented castoffs from competitors Being seen and being seen often by your team Making decisions in a timely manner Using a story to put situations in context

Here's one more piece of great advice from Eli Broad's book, The Art of Being Unreasonable:

"Philanthropy isn't just a pursuit for the wealthy.  Philanthropy is about involvement.  Pick your issue, work at it, and do your best to make things happen.  Even if you're not wealthy, you have time, expertise, skills and other resources you may not even have realized that can be used to serve others."

Early on in Eli Broad's new book, The Art of Being Unresaonable, he reminds us of the power of a child's instinctive asking, "Why not?"  Unfortunately, most adults lose that habit and Broad goes on to explain that it was his continuing to ask "Why not?" throughout his career that brought him success.

"The questions you're willing to ask when others think they have all the answers are doors todiscovery," says Broad.

Other words of wisdom from the book, and my favorite takeaways, include:

Most successful businesses have to begin by bucking conventional wisdom.  Invention and innovation don't happen without it.Do your homework no matter how much time it takes.Big ideas don't happen in a moment.You can't do it all yourself, so ask questions and delegate.The trick to delegating is to make sure your employees share your priorities.Find the best people to whom you can delegate, and know their strengths and weaknesses.  Younger employees si…

From Eli Broad's new book, The Art of Being Unreasonable -- Lessons In Unconventional Thinking:

"Show me a person with an unblemished track record, and I'll show you a person who has dramatically underachieved."

Broad is a firm believer in "let them fail as long as they learn from the experience."

I'm a big fan of Marcus Buckingham and his case for leveraging each person's individual strengths. 

In the above video, he speaks about the power of effective teams (where each team member plays to his or her strengths) and makes that case that the experience of a team always trumps the experience of the company.

Buckingham broke the bestseller lists in 1999 with First, Break All the Rules and then went on to co-author Now, Discover Your Strengths, where he helped create StrengthsFinder, the personal assessment tool that gives each person a vocabulary to positively describe their ingrained talents.

His latest project, StandOut, is a book and strengths assessment combination that uses a new research methodology to reveal your top two "strength Roles" — your areas of comparative advantage.

StandOut goes beyond description to give people practical innovations that fit their stren…

A former co-worker shared a great blog post with me this past week about the most common complaints about the annoying things bosses do without even realizing it.  Here are the highlights: 1. Making social events unofficially required. 2. Pressuring employees to donate to charity. 3. Calling employees who are on vacation. 4. Holding endless meetings. 5. Not making hard decisions. 6. Delegating without truly delegating. 7. Hinting, rather than speaking straightforwardly. Read on for the details behind each of the above statements.

Your employees have lots of ideas. So, be sure you provide the forums and mechanisms for your employees to share their ideas with you. Hold at least a few brainstorming sessions each year, as well.

And, when you are brainstorming with your employees, try these five tips:

Encourage ALL ideas. Don't evaluate or criticize ideas when they are first suggested.Ask for wild ideas. Often, the craziest ideas end up being the most useful.Shoot for quantity not quality during brainstorming.Encourage everyone to offer new combinations and improvements of old ideas.