Are your people sold on what they are selling?

December 15, 2011

If you REALLY want to be inspired, and to grow your leadership abilities, I wish I could introduce you to my new friend, Klaus Kibsgaard, CEO of BMW Nordic. You’ll be reading more very soon here about my visit to his incredible meeting last week in Stockholm — however, I wanted to first share with [...]

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If you want to learn more, listen more…

December 8, 2011

During my recent trip to Slovakia, I had the honor of being interviewed by the “Larry King,” so to speak, of that country. Her name is Andrea Vadkerti — and she’s a quite remarkable broadcast journalist and personality. Looking back, I was trying to think of what made her so good at getting her subjects [...]

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Seasonal employees can make an enduring impression…

November 29, 2011

It’s the time of year many organizations are adding “seasonal help.” In other words, they are increasing staff through temporary hires to get them through the busy holiday season. A quick web search revealed many companies adding employees to get them through the crunch of business. Of particular note was the number of newspapers both [...]

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ThanksLIVING, not just “Thanksgiving”

November 24, 2011

My mentor, Grady Nutt, had a remarkable insight I always remember, even these almost three decades later, every time we in the United States celebrate this weekend’s holiday. Grady always said he wished we called it “ThanksLIVING” instead of “Thanksgiving.” “It is important to give thanks,” he would say, “but it is much more important [...]

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What exactly IS “customer loyalty”?

1 comment November 18, 2011

In response to a recent post, I received a great comment and question from Tom Penney, who wrote: “You talk a lot about loyalty, I wonder if you’d care to define it. That’s the wrong word for me. Businesses and people may want to experience the feelings of loyalty but essentially it’s one sided, it [...]

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Customer and employee loyalty is reciprocal…

1 comment November 16, 2011

Ever since I posted about CNN terminating longtime employees during “Employee Appreciation Week,” I have received scads of email messages, Tweets, Facebook contact, and more, sharing a litany of stories of what I find to be horrific behavior by organizations toward their team. Yes, I understand the liability issues and need from an HR perspective [...]

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Here’s a story you won’t see on CNN: They announce cutbacks during “Employee Appreciation Week”

12 comments November 13, 2011

In a volatile economy, organizations announcing a reduction in their number of employees is nothing new. The fact there is a story today of a company that just cut dozens of jobs — while sad for the people involved — isn’t unusual. However, WHEN it was done should cause us all to stop and think. [...]

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The Apple steps of service…a distinctive rap video on sales!

2 comments November 10, 2011

I ran across a video today while searching for new information on customer service and sales. There are several aspects that make it unique from many other videos on the subjects. First, it wasn’t produced by a training company, author, or professional speaker. Instead, the staff at an Apple Store in New Hampshire created their [...]

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Where is YOUR authority?

1 comment November 10, 2011

As the newscasts and sportscasts are filled with the tragic and terrible information regarding the situation at Penn State, all of us have been overwhelmed with a gut-level — and gut-wrenching — reaction. Perhaps there is an important question that has been a bit overlooked because of the sad and sordid details of this supremely [...]

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If you think you’re a “life coach” in 16 hours, you may need coaching…

8 comments November 9, 2011

Yesterday, I received an email that aggravated me just from the subject line. “Become a Certified Life Coach in Only 16 Hours!” it read. Before I even opened the message, I thought, “What kind of idiot would entrust their time and their life getting coaching from someone who had only SIXTEEN HOURS of training and [...]

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