Ramblings From a Glass Half Full
I’m in Chicago today to prepare for my labor of love with my biz partner Liz Strauss, SOBCon Chicago 2011, which starts tomorrow (check out our website for more information, and here is the livestream of the event) Yesterday I was in Milwaukee visiting family, and while I was there I stopped at a Starbucks on …
It’s almost May now, and you’re starting to feel a little restless. A little stale, maybe. You’ve had your head down and your team focused for 120 days straight, and with the days now getting longer and the temptation to start “coasting” getting even stronger, you’ve hit a critical time of the year. It’s time …
Today (4/23) is William Shakespeare’s 447th birthday, and it’s amazing to observe how much of an impact his plays, written so long ago, still have in today’s world. I was introduced to the Bard in High School back in the late 70′s – in an English class dedicated to the study of several of his works. One …
I’ve seen a lot of books out there lately that have taken a lot of pages to explain how to get and keep customers, but it’s really pretty simple: Thank your customers for their business, preferably with a smile Follow the Golden Rule in all your communications with customers, no matter the form If you mess up with …
I was presenting our quarterly operations review to the executive team at my cable TV company. It had been a particularly good quarter for all of our operating metrics, and I was pumped. It was time to lay it all out there, and gather up the kudos. Because after all, who doesn’t like to be praised? The …
There is no question that having a high level of accountability in the workplace is a good thing -the trick is getting your teammates to that point of clarity without tipping the scale over too far. That is, how do you avoid what I call the “accountability trap“, where teammates are so focused on what happens …
“Terry, a fish stinks from its head down” It was three months into my maiden voyage as an executive, at age 27. I was in the middle of going over a laundry list of problems with my boss that had been vexing me for weeks. They were all coming from one particular region, and because of these …
Recently I sat down in Portland for an interview with Greg Hartle, author of the site “10 Dollars and a Laptop”. It was a wide ranging discussion that hit on several topics, but the core of it dealt with change and how to make it happen, even in a down economy. My very best thanks to …
“R-E-S-P-E-C-T Find out what it means to me” Aretha Franklin is one of the best singers ever. So when she sings, I listen. Especially to her biggest hit. I love the conviction behind the lyric – it’s respect that she wants, and it’s respect that she’ll get. Or she’ll walk. And within the meaning of that song is …
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