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With the economy in turmoil, many mid-career executives face a variety of challenges: new careers, relocation, revised job descriptions and/or self-employment. Most of them will view the waning months of 2009 as dead time. So they will put career transition on the back burner until January. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the key traits of a successful business owner is the ability to get things done. But many people are procrastinators. They say to themselves “why do it today when there is always tomorrow”. But eventually tomorrow has come and gone and still the job isn’t done. In business this means that the tasks that need to be accomplished have only multiplied. And the funny thing about it all is that most people don’t necessarily realize that they are procrastinators in the first place. Read the rest of this entry »
“There are no new truths, but only truths that have not been recognized by those who have perceived them without noticing. A truth is something that everybody can be shown to know and to have known, as people say, all along.” - Mary McCarthy, author and critic
I write these words as I sit in the office/study of my “electronic cottage.” One of the reasons I love our home is because it straddles the past and the future. The front of our house looks out upon a typical suburban street with a mixture of split-levels, bungalows, and two story homes. The city bus roars by periodically in a cloud of diesel smoke. Read the rest of this entry »
Business Networking - it’s a buzz word for today, but who wins? If two people network, do they both win? If both of them win, does the customer lose? Ideally, business networking should result in a win-win-win situation. And in most cases, that is what does happen. Individuals or businesses can network to provide enhanced services, faster services, and better talent to clients than either would have working alone. The client can belong to either business, or be shared by both. Clients can be an existing client, or new, or one that both individuals or businesses pitched together to obtain. Read the rest of this entry »
At first glance, big picture thinking and customer focus would seem to be mutually exclusive terms. After all, the first phrase connotes a farsighted, panoramic view of business, while the second implies an intense, laser-beam-like concentration on the customer. Yet as revealed in Magnifying Customer Focus: A Study of Current Trends and Future Possibilities 2006-2016, a global study commissioned by American Management Association and conducted by The Human Resource Institute, the terms are not only compatible, they are inseparable. Read the rest of this entry »
Corporate Culture Defined
A basic definition of organizational culture is the collective way we do things around here. It involves a learned set of behaviors that is common knowledge to all the participants. These behaviors are based on a shared system of meanings which guide our perceptions, understanding of events, and what we pay attention to. As Sun Tzu, a Chinese military general from 3000 BC, indicated in his explanation of strategy, culture forms an integral part of any organizational strategy. Read the rest of this entry »
When we go to work each day, each of us participates in a unique workplace community where we share common values with others while accomplishing certain goals. So why is it some people insist on criticizing others when those people are trying to uphold community standards? Read the rest of this entry »
What’s your rule for meetings?
At a retreat aimed at building relationships across research groups, the scientists got right to work. And work they did, creating action steps by the dozens. They were relentless. Everyone acknowledged it was far too many items to actually do and felt frustrated because of it. The group had made a rule for themselves: never meet without developing an action plan. They clearly had good intentions, but perhaps were overcompensating for too many meetings that never led to action. Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve all felt this way: There’s always someone else who seems completely in control and seems to manage every aspect of life with such skill. You ask yourself “Why can’t I be like that?” There were days when I would find myself late at night and have absolutely no idea what I had done that day.
Everything just seemed like a blur and I went to bed feeling as though I had accomplished nothing. The very concept of time management just seems like another thing you don’t have time for, right? Why buy another day planner to gather dust on a table or a PDA that has no calendar entries and an endless to do list? Read the rest of this entry »
Have you ever heard the old saying If you want something done, ask a busy person? Ever wondered why?
Ever felt stressed out because you never seem to get through all the chores so you can get to the fun stuff?
Or maybe you just do the fun stuff, and try not to remember the chores piling up while you’re supposed to be having fun? Read the rest of this entry »
Call Center Cafe'
