There is still time to give a gift that can change everything in the coming year.
The gift? A fresh start. A new beginning. A clean slate.
Give it to everyone with whom you interact — family, colleagues, team members, clients and customers. Extend it even to those from whom you expect to receive little or nothing in return.
And give it to yourself.
Peace on earth. It is a message shared on seasonal greetings. Poets speak of it wistfully. When words fail it is how we express hope for all touched by sorrow, loss and tragedy.
Continue Reading Where Have The Peace Makers Gone?
We are all a little better when we make the decision to be thankful.
Continue Reading Gratitude Never Gets Old
There are at least a hundred things a week that will wind up on the desk of every leader. Maybe a hundred every day.
And much of what lands in your lap really does warrant your attention…especially if you serve as both leader and manager. (A bit on this juggling act in a moment.)
But of all the items that vie for a chunk of time, one job belongs permanently pinned to the top of every leader’s priority list: the challenges associated with casting a Vision of the future.
Continue Reading The One Thing A Leader Must Master
I have never been a “morning person.” Anyone who knows me knows I rely on a strong cup of coffee to help shake the cobwebs.
If you share this “condition” I’ll wager we also share an understanding that being slow to wake isn’t the same as not having a compelling reason to greet each day.
A clear vision and its inexorable link to a mission — to the drive to accomplish something — is the reason to consistently show up and bring the best you’ve got.
The more compelling the vision the more it defines our days and gives rise to intentional acts.
Continue Reading What Prompts You To Show Up In The Morning?
If you’re like most professional service providers I know, the motivation behind your choice of profession had nothing to do with a desire to get into sales…never mind being required to sell in order to do what you set out to do in the first place.
The real-world result of this is a “two-hats” dilemma — requiring one hat for your role as a business builder and a second one as a service provider.
Business development feels like it requires a personality, skill set and tool kit completely different from those associated with the counsel or service you provide.
How do you find prospects? How do you manage your time and create new growth opportunities?
The good news is that there are productive business development strategies that relieve this stress and bridge the disconnect.
The key is to create an approach to business development that grows out of the way you serve your clients. Do this and building a practice becomes much more organic.
Where To Begin
Continue Reading Stressed Over Business Development? Relax, You Don’t Need More Prospects
When was the last time you were in a room where the problem was a shortage of talk?
Each of us has an experience, a perspective or an insight (or two) worth sharing. The challenge, at least as it relates to building productive relationships, is that some of us (I’m looking in the mirror, FYI) act like the insight is so grand as to warrant the lion’s share of attention in any room.
So there is almost never a shortage of talk.
Meanwhile, interactions where the objective is to listen, intent on learning, are rare.
If you’ve encountered anyone skilled at purposeful listening it might have made you a bit uncomfortable. It almost certainly made an impression.
Continue Reading Is Anyone Really Listening?
Here’s why so many marketing and sales messages fail to deliver.
The average person is hit with the equivalent of more than 34 Gb (gigabytes) of information in a single day.
That’s more than enough info to max out my 64 Gb iPad in less than two days. In order to deal with this onslaught of input, the brain engages in some amazing mental gymnastics.
What messages cut through the noise?
Continue Reading For Greater Return From Your BizDev, Sales and Marketing Messages, Do These Three Things
I’ve spent the last couple of decades believing the surest way for any team, tribe, enterprise or community to realize its mission is to identify and build around a set of shared values.
The premise is simple. A group will rarely agree on everything. The identification of a set of common values provides a framework against which strategy, investments and actions can be tested.
Does a particular direction run counter to shared values? If so, it threatens the mission, and should be abandoned or reconstituted.
Shared values are the fabric of culture.
But it turns out I have been cutting the conversation short
Strong groups (of any ilk) intuitively understand that alignment around what we share is the initial hurdle to be cleared in pursuit of any goal. Shared values unite us.
Continue Reading What Do We Value Most?
Succession planning for many firms is what the preparation of a Last Will and Testament is to a majority of individuals. Who wants to take time today to consider the (distant) end to something?
It is easy to move both of these future focused opportunities to the back burner — until urgency takes over.
Continue Reading It’s Time To Rethink Succession Planning
