Image credit: Dr. Henry Cloud Leadership: You Are Ridiculously In Charge – Aren’t You?
Boundaries define things – from nation states to subdivisions to individuals. In an interview, author Dr Henry Cloud talks about examples of leaders who don’t set boundaries and some of the issues they have, seven types of boundaries leaders can create, what happens when co-workers overstep boundaries and more. Get a taste at Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2013/05/10/dr-henry-cloud-how-to-manage-boundaries-in-the-workplace/#112b3568681d How To Manage Boundaries In The Workplace and check out his book: Boundaries for Leaders: Results, Relationships, and Being Ridiculously in Charge
Image credit: Petra Balekic, The Oracles Sales: 6 Ways to Build a Billion-Dollar Sales Machine
OK, maybe your goal is a bit less than a $1,000,000,000 in sales. But principles that drive growth-oriented entrepreneurs work in most any context. Catastrophes as opportunities? Know your #’s? Six ideas that can help raise your top and bottom lines 6 Ways to Build a Billion-Dollar Sales Machine
Image credit: Strombeck Solutions: Business Process Automation
Last month we mentioned how we are helping clients leverage technology to maximize productivity and profits. A fun fact of our programming team is that they are allotted time to invest in creative projects. The result is an affiliate company called Breadboard, which is about to launch a new mobile app. Terra Mango is a Location Based Strategy (LBS) game where players can build virtual towers where real buildings exist, battle with troops, in real space, in real time. https://terramango.com/kickstarter
Image credit: Finance: Is Your Estate Planning Current?
Time for some mid-year evaluation – things that you probably should have done as a New Year’s resolution, but hadn’t gotten to yet. Well, it’s not too late to avoid counting another failed resolution. Is your estate plan up to date? Nothing like some horror stories of people who could have easily afforded the right help, but didn’t. So if you need some motivation to avoid the procrastination: AICPA: Famous People Who Failed Estate Planning
Strombeck Solutions: Business Process Automation
Are you leveraging technology to maximize productivity? (see HBR article above) One of the fastest growth areas of helping you “manage, grow and enjoy your business” is in the area of business process automation. From automating a sales process with integrations to Sales Force, to improved inventory management, to better information dashboards – a little bit of coding to connect your systems can go a long way to driving revenues and productivity. Read more…
Image credit: Getty Images Sales: How the Best Sales Teams Set Goals
The best sales people like a goal—and to be well rewarded if they hit it. But how does that goal get set? Does the process, and the goal, lead to average results, or amazing results? Inc.:How the Best Sales Teams Set Goals for a New Year
Image credit: Harvard Business Review Management: Obsess Over Productivity, Not Efficiency
It was management guru Peter Drucker who pointed out, “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” Business can get focused on squeezing out every last dollar, because it feels like that’s something that’s controllable. “If my people would only work harder, faster, we’d be making more money around here.” Drucker’s point is doing the wrong thing efficiently is inefficient. A recent HBR article gives added advice – instead of doing the same with less, look to do more with the same. HBR: Great Companies Obsess Over Productivity, Not Efficiency
Image credit: Harvard Business Review Leadership: Stop Reading Lists of Things Successful People Do
Last issue we talked about leaders as readers – and what other leaders are reading. This month, Inc. Magazine reminds us not to fall for the click-bait of “X ways to be a successful leader.” Everybody’s got a list these days. And it’s always numbered – “3/5/7/10 ….” They remind us success is personal, with contexts and conditions that aren’t generic. You bite “success’ click-bait at your own peril. HBR:Stop Reading Lists of Things Successful People Do
Management: Fail-Safe Strategies For More Effective Meetings
To grow requires the efforts of others to extend beyond your own capacities and capabilities. And once you engage others, you’ve got to communicate and coordinate. Even in an age of digital technology, people need to meet. Here’s some suggestions: Entrepreneur: Fail-Safe Strategies For More Effective Meetings: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/286643. And here’s some classic John Cleese to drive home the point: Cleese: Meetings Bloody Meetings
Image credit: Harvard Business Review Sales: How Customers Perceive a Price
The internet has had no greater impact on commerce than price transparency. Amazon has become a go-to place not only for purchases but for comparison shopping. Price transparency has done much to drive down prices in the previous decade – increasing the pressure for those who choose to compete in the pricing-strategy quadrant. But it may not be the raw number that we need to worry about. This author says the perception of the price is as important as the numerical value. HBR: How Customers Perceive a Price Is as Important as the Price Itself
