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We notice that something is not quite right in our world. There is an instrument playing out of tune way far in the back of our marching band, or the engine seems to be making a funny noise, or the fridge doesn't seem to be as cool. It even happens in our relationships as our spouse averts eye contact at the dinner table and our children don't come when called in. Every one of these and many other scenarios cry for attention everyday and yet, we pay them no attention at all. We rationalize it to ourselves with the crazy notion that if "I ignore it for a little while, it just might get better." Ever wonder why things "just don't get better?" Have you been searching a way to start living your life...

ost important attitude for financial success is long-term thinking. Successful people think a long way into the future and they adjust their daily behaviors to assure they achieve their long-term goals. In a longitudinal study done at Harvard University in the 50s and 60s, they studied the reasons for upward socio-economic mobility. They were looking for factors that would predict whether or not an individual or family was going to move upward and be wealthier in the future than in the present. They studied factors like education, intelligence, being born into the right family, or having the right connections. In every case, they found individuals who had been born with every blessing in life who...

It's been a long week. The boss yelled at you, no one seemed to be listening to anything you said, you received a survey from a customer that said "If there was only one place left on earth to have service done and it was here and I had to talk to you, I would rather have it be broken" and at the end of the week you go home. You are tired, used up and brainburned. All you want to do is drop dead on the couch with a bucket of wings and a can of cheeze wiz and numb your brainhousinggroup with cheesy chicken grease while watching reruns of "The Gong Show." (Google it) You open the door to your humble adobe and there, right there in the doorway, the cat has left you a present. A hairball surrounded by a...

In any relationship, if a person feels you have cheated, used or tricked them, they will begin to seek ways to "get back" what they perceive you took from them. In their mind, you have taken advantage of them and now they want "it" back. Customer Service Professionals want to make sure their Customers do not develop these feelings and do so by practicing relationship building during their transactions. You can begin the process of building these relationships by using specific "rules of engagement" and thereby prevent the unhappy circumstances described above. First, be as transparent as possible in your transactions. You can do this by stating everything upfront, pointing out limitations of your...

Is your Service of the "common" variety? Or are you more "exotic" or "specialized." If you are practicing "common" service, you just might be leading your industry. Here are 3 "common" Customer Service items to look at and emulate. Are you part of the "Common Sense" mindset and approach to Customer Service? Do you find practical and pragmatic ways to service your Customers? This means finding solutions that work and can be implemented right away. This means thinking of the Customers "Best Interest" and then taking the right action to satisfy that "Best Interest." Are you on the lookout for roadblocks and barriers to common sense actions? Common sense approaches? Have you asked your Customers for...

A Professional does not worry about what went wrong. They identify what went wrong, devise a solution, take action and apply the fix. I prefer to call this the "Stop Standing Around Action Plan." (Otherwise known as "The Don't Be A Dumbass Action Plan") There are usually several reasons when something goes wrong and there is no action taken. Tell me if any of the following sound familiar to you. A. People are afraid to take action B. They are empowered without authority C. They are poorly trained, or my favorite, D. They just don't give a rats patooi. Professionals are solution driven. They don't worry about what goes wrong because they realize that everything does not go right every time. So, they...

Columbus is the largest city and capital of Ohio, one of the states of the United States of America. It is greatly responsible for the state's economy and has a proud history whose legacy continues to be lived out by the people of the city to this day. Columbus, Ohio is no doubt one of the most interesting cities in the most powerful country in the world, attracting not only tourists but, more importantly, investors who appreciate the advantages of settling on a city that has a rich culture marked by harmonic relationship among the business, science, arts, and sports sectors. One of the reasons why Columbus is famous is its name, which is a tribute to no less than the great explorer Christopher...

Is there such a thing as "Free Money"? Well, read this review and decide for yourself. When I get up in the morning now, I look forward to logging on and finding out how much money I made while I was asleep, from other people in my network who were up later than I, viewing ads. Since no one pays a cent to join this network; this fits my definition of free money. This article is a review of the Web Your Way System. The Web your Way is a free membership that you can give away to your friends, where members make money when people in the network view ads for a minimum of five seconds. The membership includes: Free membership for life, for anyone who joins, allowing you to earn money every time you click...

Line of Sight Management is a term that describes how a Manager "sees" and reacts to Events that happen in daily Operations. Events refer to anything that occurs in daily operations, whether or not a response is required. Line of Sight refers to how a Manager takes in Information about that event and then initiates a Response. It's the "Information" and the "Response" we will be addressing today. How a Manager "sees" the event is very important in Line of Sight Management. You need to have several information flows that deliver news and information so you can form a Response that takes place in time, is relevant and has impact. Let's talk about how information is collected. Relying constantly on one...

Was 2009 everything you wanted it to be? If not, what are you going to do different in 2010? The one and only constant that can be controlled or changed in our existence, which we name "Our Life", is the ACTIONS we take and the ATTITUDE we cultivate and then grow. What ACTIONS will you take in the coming year? What will your ATTITUDE be? I think it all comes down to the difference between "them and us." They always have it easier; we always have it harder. They always get the best of everything; we always have to make do. They always get away with it; we always get caught. They never have to do it this way; we always have to do it this way. They never follow the rules; we always have to follow the...

There are 5 Simple Steps that you can do that will make a difference in your Customer Service right away. Some of the Steps will seem obvious. It's just that we assume everybody has what is commonly referred to as "The Basics." I'm here to tell you.......WAKE UP! And smell the coffee before it's too late. Here are the 5 Simple Steps to teach that will make a big difference. 1. Teach them to SMILE. I know, it seems too simple, doesn't it? Why would I need to point that out? It's because I travel all over the country and consistently receive better service whenever I am Smiled at. And I can always tell when I am about to receive less than Average Service when I don't receive a Smile. In today's...

Overview from a Successful Serial Intrapreneur The word, in-tra-pre-neur (In tre-pre-nur) did not exist in the dictionary until 1975-1980. The dictionary defines intrapreneur as "an employee of a large corporation who is given freedom and financial support to create new products, services, systems, etc, and [who] does not have to follow the corporation's usual routine or protocols." (Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, 1996, p.1001) This textbook definition is a little naive and simply not realistic within a typical large corporation. Anyone who has worked in a large corporation knows that in most cases a rigid set of corporate rules, corporate standard operating procedures, and corporate...

What would a Customer Service professional do? A Professional will admit when they are wrong. We all like to think that we get it right every time. It would be a wonderful world if it was true, but I think it's more wonderful that we don't get it right every time because this gives us a chance to demonstrate resolve, integrity, ingenuity and courage. The real reasons we are here on this planet. When we make a mistake, we need to own up and face the music. That's the deal. When we admit mistakes we are taking the first step to correcting them. I read recently that "an error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it." Not admitting a mistake is not an option for the Professional. Let me...

Are people whispering? Are they whispering about your business? You know the type I'm talking about; the ones that get back to you from "unnamed outside sources" and never seem to have a verifiable source? Which rumors you ask? The scary ones that start off with "Yeah, I heard the customer went down the street to Joe's Garage because he was being oversold here." Oversold? Oh wait, you mean undersold, don't you? Undersold...that's where the Service Advisor cuts corners....oh...that's right...the personnel in your store never do that. Lately I have been hearing these fairy tales. Oversold. What a crock of gear grease. Oversold means that the Customer somehow got the impression that the only thing that...

How you can apply The Military's 7 Point Formula for Survival Situations. From the U.S. Army Survival Handbook: "Your mission as a soldier in a survival situation is to stay alive...You are going to experience an assortment of thoughts and emotions. These can work for you, or they can be your downfall. Fear, anxiety, anger, frustration, guilt, depression and loneliness are all possible reactions to the many stresses common to survival. When the survivor cannot control these reactions in a healthy way, they can bring him to a standstill. This soldier experiences psychological defeat long before he physically succumbs." There is no doubt that our troops encounter an almost unimaginable stress...

Examples of Intrapreneurial Success in Major Corporations The example of the successful Intrapreneurial creation of 3M's profitable product line Post-it Notes(TM) Intrapreneurs, like their entrepreneurial counterparts, need to envision and create an idea. But instead of convincing outside investors and risking their own personal capital, the intrapreneur needs to create the right team within his company to successfully launch the new products. Then the intrapreneur needs to convince some "mover and shaker" in senior management to approve the new product concept and then to invest the company's time, money, and other resources. Some enlightened corporations, such as 3M, do allow an employee...

Property owners can defer capital gains taxes on the equity in their property by using Internal Revenue Code Section 1031. Known commonly as a "1031 exchange option," this application of the tax code is one of few provisions available to postpone or potentially eliminate taxes due from the sale of qualifying properties. As a property owner, you may also achieve a wide range of investment objectives by using a 1031 exchange. You can diversify your real estate investment portfolio, consolidate your real estate holdings in a single larger property, and possibly improve your cash flow from your real estate investments. What qualifies as a Section 1031 Exchange? Section 1031 states that no gain or loss...

Here it is - The Top Ten Signs of Poor Customer Service! Drum roll please. Number 10 An Us vs Them Mindset. This person thinks that Customers are out to get him or her. They feel the Customer decided to wake up that day and "mess with me for no reason." This also includes the "Poor me" and the "I hate my _____" (insert job, life, spouse, etc) person who feels that everyone is out to get them. Number 9 Poorly trained staff. Yep. It seems to be everywhere. And I hear the same things all the time. "I don't have time to train" or "I train them and they quit" or "I want to try them out for awhile before I train them. " These are poor excuses. Heck, I've even used the "try for awhile" one myself. You know...

Here are the top 50 Rules for Managers. Put them in any order you like. Hopefully they will remind you of something or reinforce a concept you have been using. And if not, maybe you will have an "Aha" moment from using this reminder list. 1. You get all of the blame. 2. You get none of the credit. 3. You are always talking about the future. 4. Your job is to make your boss look good and remind him/her of their excellent choice in making you a manager. 5. Make it difficult for your people to fail, as long as they stay in the game. 6. Encourage action. 7. Become what I refer to as "Obnoxiously Optimistic." 8. Always complain up the chain. 9. Always praise down the chain. 10. Learn all you can and pass...

In Leadership or Management we often find ourselves, our company or our accomplishments being compared. People compare everything. Leaders are compared against other Leaders past and present, companies are compared against other companies. Comparisons include everything from "How well Bob leads us compared to Mary" to "Does our company's benefits stack up to ABC Company's benefits?" It seems there is no end to these comparisons sometimes and as Leaders or Managers we often times wish people would just shut up and do their job without all of this "complaining." Right? Can I get an amen here. And, as an added benefit to our job, some employees will use comparisons to point out perceived deficiencies...

This is Zig Ziglar's story which was part of groundbreaking leadership research by has received extensive endorsements and enthusiastic reviews from well-known prominent business, political, and academic leaders who either participated in the study or reviewed the research findings. You will discover the proven success habits and secrets of people who, in spite of difficult or life threatening challenges shaped their own destiny to become successful, effective leaders. Ziglar's story was gathered as one of the initial nine prominent leaders, that I interviewed, who overcame adversity included: Dr. Tony Bonanzino, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, Monzer Hourani, U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye, Dr. John Malone...

Will Rogers wrote "Know what you are doing. Love what you are doing. Believe in what you are doing." And we must have all three in order to be effective Leaders. Know what you are doing is the first basic law for anyone who is aspiring to be a more effective Leader or anyone who wishes to take a Leadership role in their organization. Leaders who do not know what they are doing and who have not planned to learn what they need in order to become true Leaders are better off staying in the position they currently occupy. Charging ahead without a clear purpose is the surest way to end up at the end of a dead end road. Action without knowledge is a clear sign that a person is not ready to be a Leader...

Mistakes are a chance to correct an action or a change a course of action. It is an entirely human characteristic to acknowledge mistakes and then correct them. It is also characteristic to not admit mistakes, blame others or deny that a mistake happened. Leaders cannot afford the luxury of those ineffective actions, as people are dependent on the Leader to recognize that something is awry, decide on a course of action to correct it, and then take the action necessary. What follows is the Leaders Decision Tree for Correcting Mistakes. We begin with the first step which is Acknowledgment. This is probably where most mistakes stop being corrected. It's because we are all blessed with this human thing...

As Leaders, We Take Action With Positive Intent! These have been my words to live by since this past summer. I have to tell you, that I am not proud of the way that I came to be reinforced by that particular Leadership concept and philosophy. I would like to tell you two stories. One in which you may think of me as a horses rear end, and you would be right. The second is the application of this Leadership principle and how that made a huge difference in someone else's life. I was standing in the security line at San Francisco airport, returning home after a series of seminars. On this particular day, the lines were long and tempers were short (surprise) as passengers and airport personnel alike...

What is the best definition of Leadership? I grew up in the 1950-s and 1060's as a "baby boomer." As I was growing up, my idea or definition of what leadership was consisted of a combination of role models gleaned from dozens of biographies, including those of political and military leaders, captains of industry, robber barons, and sports coaches. I read with real interest biographies and autobiographies of the "titans of industry," with their amazing "rags-to-riches" tycoons of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Carnegie, DuPont, Edison, Ford, Goodyear, Huntington, Morgan, Stanford, Vanderbilt, as well as those of moguls of the middle 20th century like Watson (IBM) and Sloan (General Motors...

I will make the case that Leadership traits exist, and admit that the situation faced may call from different traits or different application, or combinations of traits. Some scholars discount the value of traits in leaders, or their impact on individuals becoming successful and effective leaders. My published leadership and adversity Doctoral research documents the value of leadership traits for the sixteen prominent leaders that I personally interviewed who all overcame adversity and became successful leaders, in spite of their adversities, included: Dr. Tony Bonanzino, Jack Canfield, William Draper III, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, Mark Victor Hansen, Monzer Hourani, U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye, J...

Leaders do not develop overnight. Sure, some are born with more natural talent than others, but all leadership skills are learnable and all must be practiced on a daily basis. John Maxwell, in his book entitled "The 21 laws of Irrefutable Leadership," says that becoming a leader is a process, as opposed to an event. For example, just because you are appointed to a high position, does not make you a leader. Anyone can steer a ship, but it takes a leader to set the course. Here are the five phases (as outlined by Maxwell) you will need to go through as you develop into a leader. Phase 1: I Don't Know What I Don't Know This is the beginning phase when you must recognize that you have a lot of learning...

Most leaders lead in the here and now. Depending on your level of leadership, you may be looking at the immediate future of today, this week, or this month. Senior leaders may look out twelve to eighteen months. Executive leaders may even look twenty four to thirty six months down the road. However, the ever changing business landscape of tomorrow requires leaders who are strategic forward thinkers looking at trends three to five years down the road. However, in order to be able to do this, you need to have exceptional skills for the here and now. A military commander understands the importance of knowing the landscape of the battle field. Your battle field will require you to lead people to engage...

If you have ever had the feeling that you did not know where to look, yet you were searching for something, then you have come to the right place. There have been a lot of times I have not known where to look. I knew that I was searching for something, just not sure what. In Leadership, we are constantly searching for ways to improve. Was that what you were looking for? And, if you are looking for ways to improve you Leadership, there are so many people and organizations to emulate; it can be daunting even deciding what or who to study. So let us take a minute and bring a little process into it. (Life is a process, get used to it) Begin by deciding who in your life is A. Important to you, B. Has...

"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who in the land is the best Leader of them all?" Although Snow White never asked "who in the land is the best Leader of them all", this famous line is really a snapshot of our conscious mind searching for answers. Leaders are always asking the "mirror" what can I do better? When we ask the mirror for answers, we are really asking our inner self to take a look and tell us what we see. This picture reflected back to us is a version of ourselves as we see it in that place and time, in others words, in the context of the situation, and can be fogged with emotion or events in our lives. Sometimes what we see is what we believe others think of us. And, if the person has...

The great debate for the last century has been over whether "leaders are born, or leaders are made." There have been are biographies, books and articles, and more recently movies and television coverage about good and bad leadership. The media has provided insights into the lives of leaders, how they led, what their successes and failure were, and how some overcame obstacles or dealt with adversity. These early influences laid the foundation for the admiration of those who succeeded despite having to overcome obstacles, tragedy, or adversity. A combination of externice senior leadership experience and strong business background all led me to write this article on the topic, are Leaders Made or Born...

Alice: "Oh no, no. I was just wondering if you could help me find my way." Cheshire Cat: "Well that depends on where you want to get to." Alice: "Oh it doesn't really matter, as long as....." Cheshire Cat: "Then it really doesn't matter which way you go." Is your Year starting off this way? Not really sure which way to go? Those famous words from Lewis Carroll's classic still ring true. It doesn't really matter which way you go if you don't know where you want to go. So, what's next for you in '09? Let's see if we can smooth out the launch a little. 1st, pick 3 things you want to do in 2009. Any 3. It can be related to work, life, spiritual, whatever, as long as it is important to you. Next, look...

It has been said that "the world is divided into haters and creators." In the world of Leadership, we must practice the role of creator, because we find ourselves besieged by haters. So, how do we become creators? Creators decide a direction, path, plan, vision, road or trail (however you call it) and take the first step. This is where the wheat is separated from the chaff. Leaders are different than others. They take the first step. They may not always have the right plan, vision, path, direction or whatever, but they always take the first step. They move their feet and that causes them to get off their seat. Creator use this, this is act of ....faith. Faith in themselves and the tools (read...

Leadership has many aspects to it and if you desire to lead a team towards a successful outcome and to make money from online business, it is necessary to understand what leadership is about. You need to create a way for others to contribute to a task and make something extraordinary happen. You need to display your expertise to encourage participation at all levels of decision-making. You need to be adept at establishing processes and transparency in all decision-making. You need to clearly articulate your values and visions but be careful not to impose them. You must identify problems and have the courage to initiate changes that result in improvement. And you must understand and practice the...

Face to face communication is more than just words these days and is extremely important. When meeting in person you are able to pick up on all those non verbals and emotions we otherwise would not if we were always communicating via computer, pda or telephone. It is getting tougher everyday to meet face to face but it is something we as people are going to have to get back into if we are to continue to move forward. As leaders we have to make it a habit to consistently meet with our peers and staff in person. Thus we are able to get a true picture of what we are communicating and if there's a specific item that needs to get worked out you will feel a whole lot better having done so in person. There...