A discussion about the fundamentals of leadership and success.

The Limits of “E Marketing”

“Technology is a queer thing. It brings you gifts with one hand, and stabs you in the back with the other.”

C.P. Snow

Five Common Errors That Cost Sales and Harm Business

First Law on Holes: When you’re in one, stop digging!

Denis Healy

There’s no shortage of advice regarding new things we can do to improve our sales, but sometimes our problems are coming from things we need to STOP doing. Despite the current focus on positive thinking and affirmations, one problem that holds sales reps back is self-centeredness. When that’s the case, the quickest route to improvement is to face that fact, correct the habits associated with it, and move on.

People, Product & Process: Improving Your Business By Asking the Right Questions

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”

Voltaire

“Strategic thinking is like showering— you have to keep on doing it.”

Olan Hendrix

Human Error in Business Systems: Costly and Pervasive, but Avoidable

“Error is a hardy plant; it flourishes in every soil.”

Martin F. Tupper

With the current emphasis on positive thinking and affirmations, people often overlook one of the biggest drains on profit margins— human error. Outside of engineering circles, it rarely gets discussed. But acknowledging, understanding, and incorporating the problem of human error into strategic planning processes can be very good for the bottom line, no matter what business you’re in.

Improve Your Business By Being Brutally Honest With Yourself

“No persons are more frequently wrong than those who will not admit they are wrong.”

François de La Rochefoucauld

Improve Your Profit Margin by Sharpening Up Your “Emotional Intelligence”

“All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like and trust.” Bob Burg

Using hard data such as productivity and profit margins, psychologist and business specialist Dan Goleman has demonstrated the importance and power of “emotional intelligence” as a determinant of financial success. His work should not be confused with various fads that have ruined workplaces in the past. It’s serious business and should not be taken lightly.

Several Societal Trends That Threaten America's Future

“We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Walt Kelly

Innumerable surveys and polls indicate that a large majority of Americans feel that our country is “going in the wrong direction,” and express deep concerns about our future. Few however, are very specific about exactly what’s wrong, and are able to do little more than point fingers at “the government” as the major reason for their pessimism. I think however, that we’d also better take a look at ourselves.

Improving Your Sales Skills: Six Principles to Keep in Mind

This article is about sales, but its focus is on principles, not tactics. There is a difference, and it’s important. Tactics are scripted ruses that are intended to increase sales but usually don’t. In contrast, principles are timeless and unchanging truisms regarding how people perceive, respond, and relate to one another. Successful sales professionals value principles— amateurs depend upon tactics.

Influence: Science and Practice

The Ability to Listen: An Invaluable But Underdeveloped Business Tool

“Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.”

Bernard M. Baruch

The ability to communicate our ideas to others is essential for success in business. Less often discussed, however, but just as essential to effective communication is the ability to listen. As simple and obvious as this seems, it remains a major problem in business, underlying innumerable breakdowns and failures. Fortunately, the dysfunctions associated with this can be corrected by those who truly wish to.

Four Errors That Can Bring Down Any Business

“Error is a hardy plant; it flourishes in every soil.”

Martin F. Tupper

As a long-term analyst of business and industry, I’ve witnessed the good, the bad, and the ugly in regard successes and failures in enterprise. Human beings are prone to error by nature, and successful entrepreneurs know this and are wary of their own fallibility. This knowledge and wariness are both invaluable tools for avoiding disaster in a competitive and rapidly changing economy.

The problem of human error

A Mind for Business: How Successful People Think

Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right!

Henry Ford

Developing Your Business To Business Sales Skills: The Art of Cultivating Relationships

All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like and trust.

Bob Burg

Six Keys to Succeeding in Business

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."

General Colin Powell

Passing by the shops, storefronts, and warehouses that once housed thriving businesses that are now closed, I always think of those that failed unnecessarily. Given the business I’m in, it always bothers me when I see yet another tragic failure, because I know that many of these can be averted by the systematic and diligent application of known principles.

Success as a Choice: Working Smarter During Tough Times

“The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”

Vince Lombardi

Using Goals to Take Charge of Your Life and Your Business

“Success is how high you bounce after you hit bottom”

General George Patton

Dealing With Tough Times: How Successful Leaders Do It

“When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.”

Benjamin Franklin

Working with various business leaders in these troubled times has given me valuable insights into why some do well during economic downturns while their competitors who serve the very same markets struggle or go out of business. Of course they actually do things differently, and I’ll address that aspect in a bit.

Satisfying Customers by Putting Employees First: How Successful Leaders Produce Results

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”

Jack Welch

An Emphasis on Strategic Planning: One Sign of Effective Leadership

“He who fails to plan is planning to fail.”

Winston Churchill

A lot of discussions of leadership focus on the qualities that define success, and such discussions certainly have their place. We must keep in mind however, that qualities such as “vision,” “determination,” or “empathy” are not actual behaviors, but abstractions. And while abstractions are useful for theorizing, it is what leaders actually do that really matters.

Leaders Innovate While Managers Imitate: A Not-So-Subtle Difference

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Anyone who has paid attention to business management over the past several decades has got to be fascinated by the sheer number of trends that have been touted as being the wave of the future. A look back however, shows that the past is littered with the remains of such trends, along with their jargon, implementation manuals, and training rituals. In the meantime, sound leadership retains its value as the most viable business resource.

Managing Complexity, Chaos and Change: The Value of Systems Thinking

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.”

Abraham Lincoln

“The future ain’t what it used to be.”

Yogi Berra

Thriving in business at any level is tougher now than any time in recent decades, and the challenges to individual business leaders are increasingly daunting. While it used to be argued that “change is the only constant,” even that is no longer true. Change occurs at an ever-accelerating rate, making it anything but a constant. The ability to anticipate and adapt to it has never been more essential.