As I write this, it’s the first day of summer in Chicago, and I’m thinking about taking some time off. But not the whole summer! There’s still work to be done, even though some of my clients, partners and prospects may be away or moving at a slower pace right now. The summer months always give…
Business can become very complicated, especially as your business grows. But there’s a need to maintain simplicity amid all of the chaos. At this year’s Chick-fil-A Leadercast, author Andy Stanley talked about simplifying one of the most important tools we have in business — the job description. Usually job descriptions are a page or several pages…
There’s an old joke about entrepreneurship: one benefit of starting your own business is you can set your own hours. Pick any 100 hours of the week you want, and work them. While that may be true when you are starting a business, you should be able to get away once you’ve built your team, right?…
Terence has been a solid team member the last 4 years, and in the last 18 months has really become an essential part of the team. When you hired him right out of school you got a real steal — the economy was down, you could tell he was smart — so you hired him…
I’m not going to mince words here: Request For Proposals (RFPs) are a trap, they are a bad deal and you need to stay away from them. I know, it’s exciting to get an RFP. You are flattered when an organization thinks enough of you that they include you in their RFP process. But you know what is more…
Yesterday I was chatting with a business owner who told me this: ”I just don’t know if my team is as engaged as they need to be. I mean, they are here and they do their work, but none of them are putting in that little bit extra. I feel like it’s all up to…
When I train new advisors, I clue them into something that they will inevitably witness: Business owners cry. Men. Women. Young. Old. All of them. When you think about it, it makes sense why business owners are driven to tears on occasion. Here are four reasons why I think their crying is justified: The stakes…
When social marketing was first introduced, we all jumped onboard just because it was thing to do. We were told it would do great things for our businesses – but we didn’t really know. It was giant experiment that brought about one of two results: Some businesses cashed in big time. Some businesses saw no or little return….
Since switching from my spiral notebook to an iPad, I’ve been working to create a workflow that enables me to take notes on my iPad during meetings, and then make use of them everywhere. The iPad is really the perfect meeting companion. I always felt weird taking notes on a laptop — the screen creates such…
The beginning of the year is always a busy time for hiring. As I work with a number of clients to fill openings, I’m continually amazed by the things I see job candidates say and do during their interviews. Here are a few things that I see regularly that are real deal killers. Electronic buzzes, beeps…