Tag Archives: Professional Development

Habits that Kill Growth

Every business leader wants to see their business grow. All too often, the business owner that launched the business relies on their intuition to sustain it. While Operations professionals study process and collect data, rarely does that practice extend to the front office. Growing skills to build relationships, implement measures, and collect relevant data are […]

How Good People Lose Sales

  The only thing that separates lay people from sales professionals is that sales professionals receive incentives to be good at sales. Some people conclude that sales people are born with the gift of gab and scary, manipulative skills. But know this: all sales skills can be learned and all sales people are better at […]

Is Anybody Listening?

It’s only July, and most everyone I meet is sick, if not distraught, with this campaign season. While I have seen glimpses of positive persuasion and leadership, most of the current news stories illustrate what we should not do as leaders. Personal attacks and political spin invariably make me stop listening. To be a great […]

Dangerous Circumstances

I enjoy speaking with teenagers about their ideas of career and success. In this sluggish economy where it is difficult for young people to find work, I often hear teenagers complain that success is a product of circumstance or luck. These young people perceive acceptance to a top school or an exciting job requires a […]

One Strategy that Will Improve Profitability, Quality, Healthcare Costs…

While perusing a digest on LinkedIn, I came across a link to a Gallup report entitled “State of the American Workplace 2013” (http://bit.ly/1RQ5Bpa to register and download.) This is an informative report that establishes a quantitative value for employee engagement. When measuring employee engagement, the companies in the top quartile reported 22% more profit, 41% fewer […]

More Sales Lessons from the Campaign Trail

Politics is one of my favorite spectator sports; as it brilliantly illuminates the best and worst aspects of our humanity. This month I return to the campaign trail to uncover more lessons in persuasion and perception that can be applied to the sales profession.  The evening news continues to deliver material that’s better than anything […]

Avoid Costly Training Mistakes

A survey by The Economist of over 1100 Millennial employees and 150 managers revealed that 91% of Millennials felt they would spend less than three years in a job before moving on.  Noted author, David Burstein, wrote that it is possible that the Millennial generation will have had 14 jobs by the time they are […]

Skills Managers Need for the Digital World

The successful manager in the digital age will foster innovation and collaboration, respect employees’ desire for work/family balance, and guide workforce development in a rapidly changing landscape. These managers will often cede their place “at the top of the pile” and behave like another node in the organizational network. Managers that rely on authority and structure […]

Five Points for Retaining Young Talent

Many Connecticut businesses, particularly manufacturers, are concerned about how they will replace their aging workforce. These concerns are elevated by graduating students’ perceptions that some industries hold no future for a career where they can find prosperity and fulfillment.  While parents, teachers, government, and industry need to set accurate perceptions, businesses need to honestly assess […]

Three Dimensions of Successful Time Management

Effective use of time is a vital tool for business success. A business leader’s ability to use her time to delegate and motivate will grow an innovative and productive organization. A salesman’s ability to heighten a sense of time scarcity in his customers will close sales.  A passive, reactive style of time management will lead […]