Most knowledgable basketball fans would agree, John Wooden of UCLA is the greatest college coach ever (Coach K of Duke certainly concurs). He was a stickler for mastering details: ”We are what we repeatedly do.” He studied Aristotle: “Excellence, then, is not

We know that every employee needs to communicate effectively with co-workers, with vendors, with customers. Make sure you test them for these skills. Before you hire— 1) Know your profile; have it written out; list skills and behaviors demanded for

Leaders lead.  They lead from the front. They lead by example. They lead regardless of title or role. They need not be asked. They demonstrate courage. They empower their people. They take a stand. They can stand alone. They can

Be basic. Select your foundational principles, practice your fundamentals, pursue the common good. Be brave. Courage is the uncomfortable strength that ensures your character.  Be brilliant. Shine like the star that you are: bedazzle the world. Be brief. Strunk and White say it best:

Trying to do too much is a common problem of my clients. Most of us are trying to do too much in too little time. Yes, it’s true you can only do so much (like the rest of humankind). Constant

To create a mission statement, you must first make choices: about what you want to achieve, about who you will become, and how you will be known. As you think, talk, and write about it, you begin to understand what

Clients ask us how we make decisions, especially when Dave and I disagree. Certainly we talk about it, but we may still be in conflict. And, sometimes, we’re unable to talk in time.  Here’s how we resolve the dilemma—we ask

Everything takes longer, is harder, costs more than we thought, and breaks at the worst times. Those are Murphy’s Laws. Business is outstanding! We’re billing more than ever! Then, cash disappears, bills exceed income. This is perfect, honey! We’ll move by

How do we enjoy ourselves when we’re predisposed to be negative, a product of our evolution? Negativity and discriminating between what helped or hurt protected us from harm. Our brains were anxious so we’d survive. What helped us then harms

He was struggling to do his job, and promising to do everything—everything his boss wanted, everything he could, everyday, to improve his performance. Even in the face of contrary evidence, he maintained his position, sounding so sincere. Over and over,

So many of us are worry-worts. If it ever happened, or could, we worry about it. There’s no sense telling us, “Don’t worry.” That doesn’t help and it certainly won’t stop us from worrying. Worry makes us miss so much,

Three of my all-time favorite questions—When? What day? What time? For example: They say, “I promise to call you.” I ask politely, “When?” They answer, “Next week.” I ask politely, “What day?” They answer, “Tuesday.” I ask politely, “What time?”

We’re often asked for our time. Too often, we give it immediately. Why do we do it? Maybe we want to please. Maybe it’s a bad habit. Maybe it’s guilt, fear, or embarrassment. Maybe we should try something else! Do

When someone says, I don’t know, it’s often a knee-jerk reaction they’ve used since childhood to get themselves off the hook. If you want people to learn, teach them to think for themselves: to look it up, to take a

Ninety-year-olds were asked: If you could live your life over, what would you do differently? Three answers recurred: I would reflect more. I would risk more. I would do more things that would live on after I’m gone. This isn’t

A salesperson meets a prospect. The prospect asks: What does your company do? The salesperson replies: We’ll get to that. Tell me about you. Is that empathy? Isn’t the salesperson really saying: What you want doesn’t matter to me, what

Many business people think sales is about talking, presenting or, what I call yapping. Presenting your information is important. At the right time, the right way, for the right reason, to the right people. Therefore, the key selling skills are:

I was talking to a successful businessperson who’s competent, mature, and experienced. She needs fresh prospects for her new company. She’s trying to learn what she calls social networking to use it to prospect the new way. Cool, I said,

When we screw up, let’s stop calling it “dealing with priorities”. Call it what it more often is: over-promising, knee-jerk decisions, and disrespect. When you screw up, just admit it, then apologize, rectify it, and don’t do it so much

My client asked: How do I measure a new salesperson’s performance before she has enough time to start closing business? My response: Attitude and activities. He replied: I get how to measure activities. Calls. Appointments. That stuff. It’s attitude I

People say it all the time—“It’s not personal, it’s business.” Really? Let’s think about it. Let’s pretend you have to fire me. And during the meeting, you tell me: “It’s not personal, it’s business.” Do I believe you? I don’t

I’ve been asked this so much lately, I thought I’d remind us all.  In sales, if you’re dealing with a qualified prospect, you can answer the following questions, Do they need it? Do they want it? Will they use it? Can

I overheard a conversation this week, which started: “Well, probably we can’t, but, oh, maybe, possibly…we can.” Sounds like they got it backwards…what Zig Ziglar calls, “stinkin’ thinkin’.” Why not start with the possible, the doable, the positive? How ’bout—“Probably

Anything worth doing long-term is worth testing short-term. Whether an idea, a project, or a partnership, try it out, see if it fits—with your vision, your goals, your ideals. The feedback you get will make it easy to decide—for you,

When we train sales people, we ask them to focus on the next step, not every step. The next step must be taken before all the other steps are necessary. A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first

Many businesses have selected integrity as a core value. They’ve written their Mission Statement to reflect it. Their employees are proud to parrot the word. However, when asked, many employees don’t know what the word means. If you really want