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I always tell my executive coaching clients that surrounding yourself with positive people is a great way to build self confidence. I urge them to find a mentor, someone who can help them on their success journey. Typically, mentors are older than the people they help. However, in this new world of technology, that is not always the case. I have a mentor who is about 20 years younger than me, but he has some specialized knowledge that I lack. Whether you do it in person, or on line, find yourself a mentor to help you on your journey of career and life success.

Have you got a heart
Like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, we all need a "heart". Not the pump thing that keeps us going, but something more subtle. This heart is the seat of our emotions, of empathy and of love. We need to recognise its existence and to find a balance between our heart and our head. Only with this balance will we find harmony in our lives.

Rules for Homed Based Business Success pt.3

In this installment we arelooking at the importance of you being able to see the big picture clearly. Because this is very important how you are able to see the big picture wiil prove to be a asset as you are build yourself and you business. These things go hand and hand in are and must be putinto action for success.Be very careful of who you surround yourself with the people who you surround yourself with are the people who you will model yourself behind so if you want to make 10,000 a month then you want to be around people who make 50,000 . Do not be around people who do not share your vision and your dream

Stakeholder Management Skills - Taking In The Big Picture
Stakeholder management is a vital element of ensuring that your projects are delivered without hindrance or delay. When considering just who can impact on progress, you need to think as broadly as you can...

Live Consultant Thinking: Looking at Honest, Confidence and Integrity
We talk about things like honesty, respect, confidence and integrity. You and I are enough alike. Yet, with our individual minds, we see nothing precisely the same. It is important to business owners and their managers that everyone see the big picture, to better understand the business goals. I think it is equally important to question the big picture, to question and study what we are seeing.

Lesson #1: “Take care of your people and they will take care of your customers.”
Marriott got to where he did in the business world by relying on a strong team of colleagues and employees around him. He rose through the ranks by focusing on honing his managerial skills, by ensuring that he was building the best possible team around him.

Lesson #4: Turn a Learning Disability into a Learning Opportunity

For the 30 years that Orfalea served as CEO of Kinko’s, his office would have been unrecognizable as such. He had no stacks of reports piling up in his desks. He had filing cabinets, but a quick peek inside would reveal no files. He had no computer and often times, not even a pen. Why? Because Orfalea suffered from both dyslexia and ADHD. He ran his company differently from most CEOs because he had no other choice.

Two Important Qualities
There are a lot of similarities between business and baseball, and in ways they are interchangeable. I played baseball in high school and became captain of the team. I learned a lot about how teams can excel with the right leadership and with regard to the specific talents of each player. It was a great education.

STRESS & How to become Stress-Free Quickly !
This article is a first aid kit against stress. It provides fast solutions to handle and get rid of stress.

Email Etiquette - 6 Key Guidelines to Consider Before You Hit Send
The internet and email can provide a fast and easy way to communicate information but there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it. Follow these guidelines before writing your next email.

The Power of Support
It may sound like a paradox - being ‘in need’ of support to claim your own life or ‘leaning on’ others in order to stand on one’s own - and life is about paradoxes. What I observe and have experienced is that opening to the support that is there for us allows us to move forward with an ease and grace that might not have been present otherwise. The foundation of life is all about love.

Leadership Development is Key to Organizational Success
Financial measures are not effective measures you can put on a leadership course. What you can do is measure changes in behavior and attitude in the company over a period of time. The effectiveness of leadership training can be measured through a rolling employee survey. Ask employees how their managers are behaving.

The Time To Act is Now On Becoming a
Leadership is one of the most salient ingredients of a community that is searching for improvement. Today, potential leaders are scattered everywhere and all that's left to do is to arouse their leadership vein and let it run into their blood and become the best of who they are in whatever endeavor they would want to lead to.

PRODUCTS COME IN MANY FORMS, THERE IS NO NORM!

Information masters who possess a great deal of knowledge when it comes to their craft fully comprehend that product creation is only half the battle. It is imperative that one figures out how to present all of their material in a clean looking fashion so that they can come up with a product that is user-friendly. The bottom line is that you must develop something that buyers will want to purchase or you will not make any money. If the appearance of a product is worth a thousand words, it can also be worth 1000 dollars if it is put into the right hands of a product creation specialist. Since there are so many ways to present your product, the words below will merely focus on a few of the many methods available.

The Fine Art of Dealing with Dominant People

Direct, decisive, determined, domineering. These are just some of the words that describe a highly dominant personality. Everyone knows one. You might even be one. Dominant people are the leaders, the pioneers, the risk-takers. Companies are run by them, wars are led by them, innovation follows in their wake. These are the people that we look to lead us where we might not otherwise go. If you are lucky, you will work for one. If you are really lucky, their office will be in another state. Yes, dominant people are the ones we love to hate, or at least hate to talk to (notice that I did not mention listening as a strong point). Get off on the wrong foot with one and your career can take an unwelcome sidetrack. Have them on your side and you have a strong champion. So how can you effectively communicate with such a power personality?

How to Speak With a Business Underwriter?

When speaking to an underwriter do yourself a favor and make sure you are prepared. You should know your business better than anyone else. Be positive; believe in your own cause. If you do not believe in your business why then would an underwriter extend your business credit? Help the underwriter to see the “big picture” and why you are successful. Do not ramble on and on with no purpose. We are all busy. Keep it short and to the point.

How to Use the Wordpress Admin Page - Posts - Wordpress Design
Blogging is all the rage for businesses today. With more than 115 million blogs, individuals and businesses are jumping on the bandwagon in droves. This article deals with what a "blog post" is and how to create a post using the WordPress blogging platform. If you're new to blogging, posts are the entries that bloggers usually (but not always) display on their home page.

TurboCharge Your Goals in 2009
Write It Down, Make It Happen!

When Everyone Is Right, Who's Wrong? Uncovering the Mystery of Perceptual Styles
Each of us perceives the world differently, not only because of differing perceptual styles, but also because of the various circumstances, goals, aspirations, ages and lifestyles we have. These individual experiences create different realities, each of which represents only part of the whole picture.

Is Your Website Media Friendly?
A media friendly website makes it easy for news editors, commentators, and journalists to find the information they need. Here's a quick guide to making your website media friendly.

Opportunity Knocks, Jane Answers: Three Women Entrepreneurs, Three Ways of Dealing With New Prospects
In every female entrepreneur’s life, opportunity comes and goes. The way a business owner deals with each chance can determine her business’ growth and direction – and on a larger scale, success or failure.

Improve Yourself, Improve Your Business
For your business to be better, you need to be better, and you don’t get better by doing nothing! To do this you may have to get right out of your comfort zone and join a coaching program, go along to seminars where you meet other like-minded people or those playing at a higher level of business than you.

Lifting the Hood of Your Small Business Engine: An Introduction to the Business Diamond Framework

Entrepreneurs need to understand their small businesses in order to fix problems and optimize their companies for greater profitability. However, when most business owners view the engine of their business, they see a complicated mess of moving parts. In this article, you will learn about the Business Diamond Framework, a strategic tool for small business success that helps business owners understand their business.

Business Concepts: Determining the What, the How and the When For Your Business
You may have asked yourself a question when you've been frustrated, stuck or overwhelmed when trying to come up with business concept clarity. The question is this: I know what I want to do as a business because I am passionate about it but I can't see the BIG picture of it all in order to really gain clarity about the next steps.

Have A Little Faith To Your Internet Based Business Opportunity
The opportunities provided by the internet today to make money are unbelievable. However, because it's so easy to start an internet business many people do not take it seriously. Even though, people from all over the world are making full-time income on the internet and you can do the same.

Use Live Webinars For The Most Effective Presentations

There are four ways you can format any live webinars that you host. Today I will focus on the first way, which is the free webinar for prospects that you offer to sell your product offering. The idea behind this format is to give the participants value in the first sixty minutes so that they will be willing to buy from you in the final ten to fifteen minutes when you tell them about your product offering. You do this by explaining how to do whatever your topic is about and then selling them the step-by-step strategies and techniques behind how to do it.

Launching a New Product or Service – Things Two Types of Women Business Owners Should Consider
In the journey of a business, launching a product is a key step. It provides many new opportunities for expansion, growth and excitement. But it’s not a step to be taken lightly. Business owners of all types should consider several things to ensure this step is carefully mapped out.

"Think Big To Go Big" "Online Marketing"
Thinking big is what drives you to where ever you want to go. Learn to think big and what you want and take action towards that and see how things change when you actually focus.

Managing Up in a Down Economy
Secure your future by proving yourself indispensable on the job

The Two-Word Secret Weapon to Effective Leadership
“Performance Management” is a term coined by Dr. Aubrey Daniels in the late 1970s to describe a technology for managing, both behavior, and results, the two critical elements of what is known as performance. As an entrepreneur and a leader it is critical in your business.

Life without Leaders
A discussion on how leadership makes a difference and what makes a leader.

Ten Ways to Greater Ease in Life
For many of us, including me, a life of greater ease is most appealing. Yet ease runs counter to our stress-producing, complex culture. As a result, it’s essential to increase its presence in our lives.

Consulting Practice Tips: Delegate Weaknesses to Virtual Assistants
Do you know the business activities to focus on to build your consulting practice? Learn from my mistakes that cost me dearly when I was new, and where to put your time and effort for the maximum results. Part of the answer is doing what you do best, and finding the help you need for the rest.

10 Commandments of Leadership-Coaching and Providing Feedback

Coaching is defined in many ways, terms and contexts. For our purpose, coaching is a stream of communication from the leader to team members for the purpose of maintaining and improving performance. Often times, coaching is viewed as an athletic function and visions of Bobby Knight, Dean Smith, Tom Osborne or Lou Holtz are summoned. The model provided by the athletic version of coaching is not far off from the business model but there are some distinct differences. One of the comments that has often been expressed about coaching is the lack of time to devote to this activity. This is a classic symptom of a leader being too involved in doing and not involved in leading. When debunked this comment is really more about a lack of comfort in coaching skills than it is about available time.

12 Tips for New Managers and Managers Who Want to Improve Results

The transition from individual contributor to Manager/Leader is difficult because a whole new mindset is required. You must now get work done through others, think from “Big Picture” to detail rather than the other way around and become an expert at delegation, which is a learned skill. People are very smart. They will always figure out your agenda because your actions speak louder than your words. Authoritarian management no longer works because people are too well informed and have many other choices. Under authoritarian management the best people will leave, poor performers will sabotage and mediocre performers will stop thinking and just follow the rules even if the rules are getting poor results. These 12 tips will help you to think through the transition.

Think and Prepare for the Future with Strategic Planning
Great leaders understand that the thought and planning process is critical to long term sustainability, future business growth and achievement of goals. In the big picture, this is more important than day to day operations and activities read on to learn more...

Why Confusion Between Vision and Mission Statements Hurts Sales Growth and Sales Managers
As a sales manager do you sometimes find confusion between the vision and mission statements? Do not feel bad because you are not alone. Learn how to end the confusion and start realizing your goal goal to increase sales.

The Invisible Close Sales Nugget: Where to Start When Designing Irresistible Offers
When service professionals start working on crafting Irresistible Offers in hopes of closing more business, it’s very common for them to start thinking about giving discounts or giving away free products and services to entice prospects to buy. In other words, they start with the question, “What would make this offer Irresistible to my prospects?”

Internet Marketing Optimization Factors; Turn Your Blues Into Gold!
Launching a new online business is exciting. You have an opportunity to live the life of your dreams, be your own boss, have more time to spend with your family, travel. The dream becomes a nightmare, however, for a lot of us who invest our time and money into a new home based business, only to learn we have to be experts at online marketing.

Seeing the Big Picture

The Fourth of July weekend is a great time to kick back and look around at your family. This is the time of year that most of us stop and see the big picture….the reasons why we work so much; the reasons for putting up with the daily stresses; the reasons for 40-60 hours of labor. It is all part of a bigger picture……it is not the money that we get every other Friday! It is the joy, the memories, the time we get to cherish with our friends and family.

Employee engagement -How do great leaders do it?
Great leaders set worthwhile goals and champion exciting ideas. They create 'meaningful' work for their people. These are the hallmarks of great leaders. Such leaders keep their people engaged.

Can You Take a Baby Step?
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the big picture or larger goal. Even breaking goals down into milestones and individual tasks can leave you feeling stuck. When you begin to feel that way, just think about taking baby steps.

HR Department Basic Functions

Even though there are many ways to structure an HR department, most of them generally look the same. They are typically made up of “generalists” or “specialists” or some combination thereof. Sometimes one generalist will oversee a group of specialists and sometimes the reverse is true depending on the needs of the organization and the available talent on hand. But in all, whether you have a formalized HR department or not, there are a few necessary skill sets that make up, and round out the overall practice.

Are you living to work?
Do you feel like all you do is work? Are you noticing dissatisfaction in your personal life? Here are some tips from a life coach that can help you evaluate your quality of life. A happy person is a productive person.

Recession Slump…Helping Employees During the Crunch
There’s no denying it. There are hiring freezes everywhere, and unemployment statistics increase daily. This recession slump is hitting America hard, and organizations everywhere are trying to stay afloat. In previous recessions, layoffs have been the number one solution to combat rising expenses in the face of lower revenues.

No Time To Plan
Planning is key to long-term success. Some say there is no time to plan, but I beg to differ.

Gather Your Own Information

We have become a society terrorized by information overload. There are no longer any mysteries in our surroundings. We are kept aware of everything at the speed of 24 hour news, internet sites, breaking news, severe weather, along with the minutiae of the subtle changes that occur thousands of times per day. Everything in real time. It’s George Orwell's 1984 on steroids. “Big Brother “ is not only watching but he’s reporting. What we have today pales in comparison to the fear instilled in us by that classic novel.

Keep Cool, Calm and Connected with your Bank Manager!

Professionals and bank managers alike cannot recall a crisis of this scale, consequently they lack experience in managing such distress. Recently, the majority of my counselling has been for couples and business owners who are having difficulty meeting their loan repayments. If this includes you, here’s an effective plan, but you’ll need to take urgent action to minimise the chances of becoming victim to the current crisis.

Lead Like Obama
If you lead or aspire to lead in politics, business or the public sector you really need to understand the paradigm shift that leadership and peoples expectations of leadership has undergone.

Smart Women Know How to Work the Puzzle
This article is about taking quiet time for reflection about what we want our life to look like moving forward. A woman’s life is a bit like a puzzle with many pieces that weave together to create a meaningful life. The key is to create a puzzle that fits your life—that offers the most meaning and fulfillment both personally and professionally.

How to Design Your Book to Grow Your Business (and Your Income)
Many savvy business owners know that a book can be the ultimate marketing tool. Writing a book on a topic related to your business establishes expertise, expands your marketing influence, and generates new leads—all while bringing in income from book sales.

The Retail Jungle…where vision become real( part1)
Information for about what to do if your planning to launch a product in Retail

Changes to Your Credit Score
Veteran financial planner explains the new rules in regards to credit scores.

Five Keys to Book Writing Success
Writing a book isn’t hard, but you have to make a commitment and put in the work to actually make your dream of becoming an author a reality. If you’ve been searching through web sites and books for a writing strategy that ensures success, then look no further. Use the following five tips to get your book done!

Formula for Sales Templating

Sales templating is a technique that can help you develop a consistent sales process regardless of the background of your individual salespeople. What is sales templating? It is the technique by which you document the steps of the ideal typical sale. Sales templating allows you to capture the best practices and nuances of each of your salespeople to create a model sales process that all of them can follow. In addition to making your job as manager easier, sales templating will improve the performance of your sales force. By creating an overt, step-wise sales template or process, you give the salesperson the means to maintain control of the sales situation.

Ready to Save Time?
Learn what you need to do and have in order to maximize your time...

Top 7 Pitfalls That Keep Sales Professionals from Their Goals to Increase Sales
Most individuals are involved in selling whether it is selling learning to selling an idea. However a few are compensated for their sales efforts because they sell products or services. Far more sales professional could dramatically increase sales if they would change their behaviors (sales skills) by avoiding these top 7 reasons for sales failure.

Will your business be successful? Shouldn’t you be the first to know?
So you have a great idea, you are ready to be your own boss so how do you get started? Well sit down with a pen and paper – a few trusted friends also help and see if you have answers to the following:

Hard Working Entrepreneurs– Are Your Staff Efficient?
Are you working very hard but your staff seem to be very inefficient and are holding you back? Maybe the problem is with you and you don’t delegate properly?

10 Effective Copywriting Tips for SEO
10 ways to make your pages more digestable for readers, and for the search engines.

Landscape Your Way to Success with a Metaphor
Metaphors are a powerful tool to reach desired outcomes. Make one up. Use the metaphor as a blueprint to build your dreams to have more money, better relationships, and higher levels of success. It doesn’t cost anything. It will only take a few minutes to develop. So simple, yet so powerful!

Writing Great Copy for Supplements
Alan Serinsky has used his copywriting skills to build a successful supplement business, Vitalmax Vitamins. Today, he’s going to share his insider secrets on what propels supplement copy toward success

The Joy of True Teamwork
If you've ever been in a great team, you'll know there's nothing like it. But great teamwork shouldn't be down to luck or good fortune. You can make it happen if you follow these seven rules.

Your Inner Entrepreneur
Recently I was asked by a friend “how do you see so many opportunities?” I thought about her question for a while and was not sure how to answer and said “My mind always sees the big picture, but I’m not sure why.”

The Sum of the Whole: Part 2
Learn how to integrate professional design elements and techniques into your brand identity and marketing materials with these 5 easy to use tips.

Double-Entry Accounting: A Place to Start
A brief explanation of double-entry accounting and the framework upon which it is based.

APPLYING FOR A BUSINESS LOAN: PUTTING YOUR BEST FOOT FORWARD
Some tips on how to prepare properly before sitting down with a loan officer at the bank. Understanding what criteria the loan officer will be looking for.

Productivity Management 555 for Today
I wrote this advice for my son as he entered his first management job, as a managing editor of an e-zine. Shortly it went under in the dot com bust, but the content is still sound.

Five Keys to Effective Idea and Creativity Management
Ideas are your greatest asset. Getting these ideas into your products can turn a good company to an exceptional company. But so many companies struggle with creativity. Many ideas get lost and a lack of decision making can cause confusion and kill productivity. This article describes the basics for managing and evaluating ideas and make sure the right ones become part of your company.

Think Big to Get Big
Thinking big - knowing the larger purpose for which you apply yourself at any given moment - always alters how you understand your contribution and role, leads to acting with greater focus, and produces better results.

Thats What Makes Media Magic
You never know who is going to see or read a particular story, and if you don't do the interviews and utilize your press, you never will.

Roadsigns and Retention
Retaining the talent we work so hard to recruit and train is important and deserves attention. Good managers know this. Unfortunately, these same good managers often get so sidetracked putting out fires that so-called ‘maintenance’ activities get pushed to the bottom of the priority list. Read on for more...

Diagnosing a Troubled Company – Part II ©
This article is Part II of a series of articles. It suggests a number of criteria to consider in reviewing a company's financial statements. It also addresses why it is important to properly handle a customer's complaint.

A Major Media Hit And Not Even One Phone Call
To be effective in this field you have to look at the big picture. Your short-term goals may not be met by a particular article or TV spot, but it affords you new, powerful ammunition to reach your long-term goals.

What Makes A Good Leader Ask Uncle Sam
What do the major generals who are leading the war efforts in Iraq have in common with executives and entrepreneurs who are conducting business back home? When it comes to leadership, the answer is probably a lot more than you think.

Social Media – Marketing for Small Business Gets Social
With all of the talk about sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn some small businesses have been asking "Does this mean websites are out these days?" So in the interests of giving everyone a bit of a road map here is your crash course in Web 2.0 marketing for small business, starting with a few society trends to give the REALLY big picture.

Hot Party Franchises For The Fun Entrepreneur
All work and no play makes jack a dull boy. While you probably have to type that quote a couple hundred times to really drive the point home, it's true that without balance in your life, you're likely to go as crazy as Jack Nicholson in The Shining. Here's a few party franchises that let you run your own successful business and have fun at the same time.

What Is Your One Thing?
Your business has one thing that makes it unique against all other businesses – no other business in the world has this one thing. Your business has one thing that can make or break its success in the blink of an eye – no other business can get the same results without this one thing

How to Survive the Tough Times
Look… Let’s be honest. There’s no “one size fits all” solution to survival during challenging times. But there are some strategies that will help no matter what situation you and your business are in.

Sales Big Picture - Top Salespeople Combine the Art and the Skill
One of the frequent complaints of salespeople is the delay of a prospect’s decision. You can be highly effective in sales attraction, and find a graveyard for your efforts because of lacking the art and skills of sales effectiveness. Top salespeople are always, regularly and even on their own dollar, increasing their sales effectiveness.

Sales Big Picture - Top Salespeople Sell Attractively on Purpose
One of the most frequent complaints of salespeople is the ebb and flow of sales. Getting sales is the goal of a salesperson. Now step back. What is one of the first pieces in selling? Maybe prospecting? Take another step back. Maybe marketing? There are at least three strategic pieces with their tactics to increase both your understanding and successful actions in the buying and selling process.

10 Things You Need to Know About Your Prospects
It's important to understand your prospects, but it can be hard to get inside their heads. Here are 10 things you need to know.

Money Management With No Excuses
The way you deal with personal money, business money, and the attitude you have towards money-matters are important factors in the success of your business. This article speaks to the self-employed individual or small business owner about money management.

Role of Leadership in Planning

Executives love to talk about planning… most complain their processes don’t work very well. Harvard Business Review reports that only 11% of CEOs believe that strategic planning is worth the effort. Most planning processes are too complex, and only document decisions already made. CEOs have the responsibility to make their planning processes effective; I believe the key is to keep the processes simple and focused.

When to Fold ‘Em
I should get a reaction here; after all I’m the guy who keeps saying “never quit,” right? Let’s not call it quitting then; let’s call it a “tactical re-deployment!” Just to make things a little more complicated, I’ve also traditionally been the guy who says not to listen to the detractors when they’re telling you to lay down. Today I’m going contrarian on that view as well.

10 Steps to Mapping Out Your Plan
Once you have a vision and values-based S.M.A.R.T goals, it’s time to put a plan together for achieving them. Here are 10 easy steps for completing your plan:

Back to Basics: HR Lessons the Boss Needs to Know

Building a happy and productive workforce doesn't have to be rocket science. By maintaining fair policies, providing good feedback and cultivating a respectful and positive work environment, organizations can reap huge rewards. But organizations sometimes forget to cover the basics of proper human resources management. From absenteeism and a demoralized workplace atmosphere to outright sabotage, the consequences to a company of not implementing some basic HR techniques can be devastating.

What Will You Achieve This Year?
Take the time. Make the investment. Hire the experts. Take the initiative. Get away from the daily details to see the big picture and create the future you want.

Home Based Business Stressing You Out? Three Ways to Restore Your Sanity
No one can ever say that having a home based business is boring!

The Importance of a Sitemap
A sitemap literally acts as a map of your site. If your visitors browses your site and gets lost between the thousands of pages on your site, they can always refer to your sitemap to see where they are, and navigate through your pages with the utmost ease.

Making it Work!
What will happen when you start to make things work in your life? Would you like to join me and start “making it work” in 2008?

Working with Wisdom: Control Freak Confidential
Linda Naiman answers questions about workplace challenges

Five Steps to a Business Plan

Many women business owners struggle through their first years of business without a business plan. There’s so much to do, they think. It’s hard enough just earning a profit. Who has time to write a business plan? You may be one of these people. You know you should write a business plan, but don’t know where to get started. You’ve tried some of the templates that are out there, but they just didn’t work for you. This may particularly be true if you don’t want to borrow money from a bank. TThis article shows you why you need a business plan and some simple steps to get past the resistance and write one!

Stop Singin' the Blues

Sometimes home based business owners need to hear some "tough love”. It isn’t necessarily fun to hear, but at times, it is needed to make sure that you are staying on track with how you should be running your business. I am worn out from hearing the "poor poor me" bit; the complaining over and over again. Instead of whining about your situation, DO something about it. Instead of making excuses about WHY you can't succeed, leap into action to change things.

Finding the Right Business Coach
Finding the right Business Coach is a working partnership between you and your coach and is directly related to your success.

Branding Is Not Selling Out ITS SELLING IN
Ever see an amazing band perform and wonder why you’ve never heard of them before? Ever see an astonishing artist on the street and wonder why isn’t their work isn’t in a gallery? Ever see an astounding independent film and wonder why people all over the world don’t know about it?

How Aikido Can Save Your Business Marketing
Aikido is a Japanese martial art based on “blending with your opponents energy”. As I learned during my 12+ years of training on the mat, victory over others is a matter of physical and mental training. In business, you need to win over your customer prospects and stand out from your competition.

Does "Education" Expand or Limit Your Options?
Sometimes when we position ourselves as "experts" we get locked into a certain way of thinking and learning. Maybe it's better to remain with a "beginner's mind" to see the big picture of opportunity waiting!

Strategic Actions For Learning How To Think Strategically, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach

What is strategic thinking? What does that term mean? My research into definitions brought me to the following thoughts. Strategic thinking is a process that defines the manner in which people think about, assess, view, and create the future for themselves and others. It is more about creating tomorrow than responding to both day-to-day as well as long-term problems, opportunities, and new realities. It is proactive rather than reactive. Fortunately, it also can be applied on any day at any time and is responsive to the new realities and the accelerated rate of change of today and tomorrow’s world. Strategic thinking always involves change, and many times that means profound personal change. Here are nine actions to learn how to think strategically.

Business Plans 101: Part 2

A business has a substantially better chance of succeeding if the entrepreneur takes the time to write a business plan. Not only can missteps be avoided, but the process of writing a business plan also allows the entrepreneur the opportunity to think proactively instead of reactively. When dealing with the day-to-day needs of a business the entrepreneur is typically in “firefighter mode,” putting out the fires of the day. Writing a business plan lets the entrepreneur take a step back and think about the business in a “big picture” context. This article continues the discussion of what needs to be included in a business plan, specifically outlining what needs to be included in the financial (or "numbers") portion.

You DON'T Need a Business Plan? 3 Excuses That Reduce Your Chances for Success

Most entrepreneurs avoid writing a business plan until they’re confronted with the ultimate obstacle: a need for outside funding. The first question out of a lender’s mouth, whether an angel, venture capitalist or banker* is inevitably, “Can I see your business plan?” If you don’t have one, the conversation ends there. So if you’re unsure about needing a business plan, or if you’re sure you DON'T need one, you should ask yourself the following questions—just one “yes” means you need a business plan.

Shades of Grey

A paperweight sits on my desk, etched in silver the message: Life isn't always black and white. It serves as a reminder there are few absolutes at work (or in life). Yet, it would be easier if there were; if good ideas from bad, trustworthy people from non-trustworthy, and right paths from the wrong ones could easily be discerned. I've learned in twenty years in management that increasing one's perspective increases the grey, as words like always and never become obsolete for describing most situations and most people.

21 Secrets of Shared Leadership
A list of 21 leadership secrets provides you insight you can use as you continue to form your leadership core competencies.

The SEO Fools Errand for the SEO Fool

The other day I received an email from a client noting that some of his Yahoo rankings have slipped as of late. They are still ranking strong on Google as well as MSN and heck, many of their Yahoo rankings are still very strong. But there was, in fact, some slippage and the client was concerned. Well, first we know that there is more to web marketing than top rankings. In fact rankings are just a small piece of the bigger web marketing pie. I know that and you know that, but for whatever reason, we all still have to deal with clients that refuse to accept that. But that's a story for another post.

Why Invest In Leadership Development

There is a growing leadership crisis in America. Large numbers of "baby boomer's" are reaching retirement age. As a country we decimated mid-level management for the past several decades. We did not spend the time, money and effort to groom the next generation of leaders. Many organizations will now have to play catchup if they are going to have the leadership to remain competitive. Leadership or executive coaching is a viable path forward.

Sustainability Growth and Talent Are Key
All organizational stakeholders need to be thinking and driving toward the big picture, while still mastering the details. With this objective in mind, the organization must also build a dream team of talent. This allows the organization to be both compliance (sustainable) and performance (growth) oriented.

Here is A Quick Way For New Managers To Be Successful By Sharing Information
We can share many different things with others, such as material things, money and time, but one of the easiest and most useful things we can share are thoughts and ideas. New managers have a tendency to hold onto knowledge and information thinking it will make them look good or indispensable. It will not - sharing the knowledge or information will make you look great!

Urgency
If you’re serious about success and if time is valuable to you, you only want to deal with Joint Venture Partners who are seriously motivated and make your interaction, project, Joint Venture a priority.

Employee Satisfaction Surveys Stink
Truth is, in many organizations, the doing of the survey is more than enough. Only rarely does anyone get down to what happens next.

Get Into Flow

When people produce their best results, they talk about being in a state known as 'the zone'. Put simply, this is a highly productive state of mind and body where you are simultaneously intense and calm, able to focus on the specific whilst monitoring the big picture, all whilst appearing natural and effortless. For many, however, this state happens by accident and hence they are unable to harness it when needed. Interestingly, the key is not about how to push yourself to achieve more, but rather how to remove the obstacles that stop you from staying in flow

Your Coaching Clients Will Never Let You Go If
There's no greater excitement and satisfaction than seeing your calendar fill with clients. It's a feeling like no other - except - the experience of having the same clients continue booking time with you and turning to you for more! Can you imagine your clients, not only coming back for more but being happy to pay you higher rates too?

“Buy on Emotion” now supported by brain scans.
There's a tendency for Salespeople to concentrate on logic because they feel that emotions are too flaky to have any real importance on a buying decision. But Economists have recently embraced the idea that irrational psychology, rather than cool calculation, plays a significant role in buying decisions.

Have a clear vision and focus on the people
Have a clear vision – Know what your future looks like, feels like, and acts like. It has to be a compelling vision that gets your people excited and focused. Latch onto that picture as though it has already happened. Transport yourself into the future so you can see it with picture clarity. Share it with your team so they can see it and do what it takes to achieve it.

What's That You Said? Using Metaphors and Analogies to Sell More Effectively
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Why is it, then, in our conversations, in our written correspondence, and in our presentations, we act as if the opposite is true - that a thousand words will create the picture we want?

Proof Anthony Weiner is Lying
No one knows yet whether Congressman Anthony Weiner is lying about tweeting a picture of his bulging boxers to a pretty female college student. In fact, even Weiner admitted he “can’t say with certitude” whether the picture is of him.

Three Key Elements for Addressing Organizational Challenges Effectively
One critical success factor stands out above others as a determinant of leaders’ effectiveness in addressing them: having a clearly articulated “big picture.” More specifically, an optimal “big picture” focuses on outcomes or impact, and it is stated in the affirmative.

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