Sales agents and advisors have a life cycle, similar to that of the life cycle of a franchisee. There’s a beginning stage, an intermediate stage, and the final result stage. Most agents and advisors behave in a similar fashion during the first two stages, but their behavior can differ dramatically in the final result stage. [...]
Manage Stress to Boost Productivity
October 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment
We live in a time when it seems like we’re regularly put into situations that cause us stress. Sometimes we feel a little stress for a short time and sometimes we feel a lot of stress for a long time. The fact is that when we feel stress, especially for extended periods of time, not [...]
Three Common Recruiting Mistakes to Avoid
September 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment
At a time when so many people are looking for opportunities, one would think that it should be relatively easy to find great sales agents. But it’s not as easy as it seems. In fact, there are three mistakes many of us are prone to make in selecting new agents which can cause a cascade [...]
How to Attract and Retain the Right People
August 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment
If you’re one of the many executives struggling with finding and keeping the right people to propel your business forward, you’ll find these insights helpful. If you’re frustrated by trying to motivate people, work instead to develop a company where people are self-motivated – where they do things because they want to. When we’re inspired, [...]
Decisive Executives Have a Hard Time Being Effective
July 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Most of us have developed our leadership style by observing the leaders, executives and managers we worked with or for throughout our career. Of course, we inject our leadership style with our own take on the world including our values. However, these are usually modifications of the model we’ve observed and been a part of [...]
Dealing with Difficult People
June 15, 2009 By 2 Comments
You know, this would be a great business if it weren’t for having to deal with people all the time… OK, so maybe I’ve exaggerated things a bit, but we’ve all certainly heard that saying before. Why does that sentiment ring true for so many folks? Obviously it’s because of all the people challenges we’re [...]
On the Importance of Gratitude
May 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment
There are very few things more influential in our success than the practice of being grateful – having an attitude of gratitude. It affects our perspective, our energy, our ability to see the good, and our effectiveness at creating the future we want. Being grateful means enjoying and being appreciative of the things we have [...]
The Key to High Productivity
April 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment
One of the issues most often raised by my clients is better time management. People have tried prioritizing tasks, blocking out parts of their day for certain tasks, implementing new systems and getting better at delegation. While all of those things can make a difference, there is something else that will have an even greater [...]
Stop Interviewing Potential Agents!
March 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment
There’s no question that an important key to business success is building a productive team of agents or advisors. This, in fact, is a three-step process. The first step is to find good candidates to begin with, the second step is to properly select the candidates who are most likely to succeed, and the third [...]
Leadership Finesse: The Art of Asking Questions
February 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Whenever I ask people what they feel the biggest leadership problem is, I always get the same answer. It’s not lack of integrity, poor decision making, or lack of vision (although that’s #2). Poor Communication is cited as the number one shortcoming of leaders. Poor communication is often the cause for unnecessary conflict, improperly done [...]
