May 18, 2012

Eliciting Excellence Leadership Summit

Just wanted to let everyone know about the Eliciting Excellence Leadership Summit starting October 11. I’ve researched literally hundreds of experts from around the world to bring you fresh, practical ideas to help enhance your leadership effectiveness. Attendance to the Summit is FREE and you can listen to the programs online. By attending this virtual [...]

Leaders Can’t Be Trained

Despite the hundreds of books, programs and websites devoted to leadership, the truth is that leaders can’t be trained. Leaders need to be developed. Hopefully this doesn’t seem like a simple matter of semantics, because it isn’t. Let me illustrate this distinction. Leadership is more about WHO you are than about what you do or [...]

Instilling Pride ~ A Key to Eliciting Excellence

Eliciting excellence in others is the essence of leadership, and one of the most effective means of eliciting excellence is to instill a sense of pride in those around us. Instilling pride has a myriad of benefits – quality of work and workmanship improves, creativity and innovation increases, collaboration is facilitated more easily, and people [...]

The Zen of Leadership

There are many aspects to leadership that parallel the philosophies, concepts, and perspectives of Zen Buddhism.  I don’t profess to have a great depth of knowledge regarding Zen Buddhism, but from the insights I do have, I can see the application with respect to effective leadership. The parallel exists within the concept of leading without [...]

Most Companies Get Leadership Wrong

Most companies take a good approach to developing leaders, but generally miss the point. There’s a lot of emphasis placed on good decision making, effective communication, and team building. And all those are important, but don’t address what matters most. When you get right down to it, the essence of leadership – the thing that [...]

Does Success Change You?

Imagine this scenario… You spend years working hard to succeed. During these years, you have some success, mixed with lots of false starts. But you never really reach the level of success you dream of. And then something shifts. Everything begins to work, and your fame and fortune take off. Here’s the question: Does success [...]

Don’t Bother Setting Goals

Don’t bother setting goals. It’s a waste of time. Let me explain why I feel this way about goals and then offer a better alternative. See if this scenario sounds familiar…

Stop Trying to Be Normal

Stop trying to be normal. It undermines your success and keeps you in a state of mediocrity. It’s an interesting phenomenon.

If You Want Things The Way They Were…

If you long for “the good old days” the way they were a couple of years ago, then things have to change.  I’m not talking about the economy or the politicians.  I’m talking about us and our business. If we want to regain the success of days past, then we need to change our marketing [...]

Stop Managing Your Agents

I’ve seen it repeated over and over again. Sales managers managing their agents. Or more accurately, sales managers “trying” to manage their agents. And it never works. This is especially fruitless with respect to teams of independent sales agents. You see… people can’t be “managed”. Things get managed. People get led. It’s not simply a [...]