Yes, it is New Year’s Eve. It’s time to reflect back on the past year and learn from your experiences. No blaming or negative stuff – just a reflection time for what you have accomplished, what needs to get more focus in the coming year, and what lessons has life presented to us?

Take time to reflect – before the football bowl games and the New Year’s Eve parties. Life is more important than the personal entertainment moments. Life is serious and requires some serious thought (disclaimer: without taking yourself too serious!).

At this time your journal or log or blog or FaceBook can assist you in looking back over the year. What have you accomplished? Did you complete the goals you set at the beginning of the year? What were the high points of the year? What was a low point of the year? What could you have done differently to achieve more of your goals?

One additional thought as you prepare for the new year. How will you make a difference? This can be about yourself, your family, your company, your community, your church or religion, your friends, your clients or customers, and the world in general? Cover the point that has the most impact in your life and MAKE A CHOICE!

Life is about the choices you take. Make purposeful action a commitment for the future. Know that your choices are what create your persona and your results.

Have a Happy New Year, be safe and successful. From the team at InnerActive Consulting Group.

This is the question that separates the winners from the losers. Do YOU have a clear vision of the future? This question applies to companies, departments, teams and people. The best take creating their future very seriously and will take the time to create and design their future.

The Losers of the world live by the Law of Accident – which means they have no plan or vision for the future – they just wait for others to tell them what to do or worst, just take things as the occur no matter what the consequences! Unfortunately, this is where the vast majority of people hang their hats. They live to execute others’ plans and vision. What amazes me is that they have the time to complain about how they lack of success and how dull their lives have become.

What can you do to create your future? Continue reading ‘Do You Have a Clear Vision of the Future?’ »

In today’s economy, every business executive, owner, CEO and president should be asking themselves one important question:

“Do I have the talent to take this business to the next level?”

If the answer is no, you probably want to begin looking, but if the answer is yes, then employee retention should be at the top of your list. With employee retention statistics that prove your best employees may be sitting on your payroll while patiently waiting for the “right” job, you need to be sure that you are managing employee retention with specific individuals in mind and long-term goals in place.

Employees Are Not All A Like. A good manager knows the strengths and weaknesses of their employees, but do they know what motivates them? In employee retention studies, TTI has found that money is NOT the reason most employees leave a job, which seems contrary to popular belief. In our latest study of over 19,000 job seekers, only 19% said money was the reason they were looking for a new job. Instead, more popular reasons included stress, mismanagement, lack of room for advancement and lack of employee development. Continue reading ‘Retaining the Right Talent to Reach the Next Level’ »

Yes it’s that time again with a major twist. We need a new road map for ourself and our company. Why a new map? Because the old one doesn’t work in this economy. In fact, I would suggest that very few people really understand the ramifications of the new economy.

Let me explain this using an analogy. I’m a pretty good map reader and can find my way around with a good map. This year I made a trip to an area that I had never been to before. I got a map at the car rental place and had printed off a couple of other maps from the Internet. However, major details were left off of all the maps that I got. But I was confident that I would find my way because of my past success. Continue reading ‘It’s Time for a New Road Map – the Old One Doesn’t Work!’ »

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy holidays!

This is a time to reflect upon the important things in life – family and relationships with others. Enjoy this time with others.

Those of you who read my blog on a regular basis – thank you.

I will be addressing more sales related issues during January as the need to grow revenues seems to be one of the most important issues with this recession upon us. We need to develop more confidence in the future and the current for that matter. Confidence will lead us back to growth – until confidence is the primary emotional capacity we may have to focus our energies.

Enjoy the holidays. Rest and Relax. Re-energize and refresh. Share with others and show your human side as much as possible.

Yes, it is time for reason and fairness in our world of business. No, I’m not a socialist as I have owned my own business since 1983 and profits are a good thing. However, as a business person, I am getting tired of all the unnecessary fees and add-ons that come my way. I really call this being tricky or just plain old greedy. Others call it creative revenue streams! Well, unless there is a value added reason – I still call it greed.

As our leaders begin to think of ways to stimulate the economy, I believe that one of the fastest ways to get us back on track is for revenues generated equal effort placed in getting this revenue. The more effort (and that includes thinking and creativity) the more one can rightfully charge.

This is just one man’s personal opinion about correcting the unnecessary greed that has taking place in the USA. I recently spent some time in Tokyo, Japan and learned a few things about the 2nd largest economy in the world.

First, there is no tipping in Japan. The price is the price. In the US, after you get your food bill – you are “expected” to add another 20% after tax! Interesting. No matter what the level of service was during your visit. The other thing that I was amazed to find – the Japanese retail environment was noteworthy. When you entered the store, you were greeted by smartly dressed men and women – who were smiling and excited you chose their store. Service was off the charts, as clerks were available to answer your questions, guide you to the right locations, as well as show you how things worked. Again, with real smiles! And, they were not pushy, they truly understood what service was all about – helping the customer.

We need to take inventory of current practices and determine if they are fair to the customer. All to often we can say this is true. Put the customer back at the top of the pyramid and the economy will again click into gear – big time. Take a moment and assess your companies pricing and customer practices. Are they fair and benefit the customer’s experience? Be honest to yourself and make a difference.

Just a reminder that LinkedIn is one of the “new” social networks for marketing and credibility. I have found that people seem to be in one of three camps. The first camp is “I don’t want my information on the internet!” And the second camp is “I’ve my toe in the water – but what am I getting for this effort!” And finally the third camp – “wow! Look at all the contacts I can make!”

Okay, I know some people that feel that joining the LinkedIn world will expose them to Internet thieves, and more email spam. Well, best I can tell is no one is spamming me for being on LinkedIn. It appears that email addresses are blocked unless you have joined someones network. Then you can contact others – like old clients that disappeared but are happy that you found them through someones network. Again, if you don’t know someone or don’t like them – you can decline their joining your network. Cool!

The second group is the most interesting group. They know that it might be important to be on a network site – but don’t know how to use it. Therefore, they just get their toe in the water, fill out the bare minimum and wait to see what happens. Later they say that they joined but they aren’t getting any results from their effort. My take on this attitude is “no effort – no gain.” Oh, did I mention that I was a member of this group for about a year? Well, no wonder very little happened!

Now for the third group – the home of the networking champions – which is a group that I’m working to get into a quick as I can. It is amazing how easy it is to ask people to help you. I have gained some invaluable quotes (recommendations) that are outstanding. The great thing is the people recommending me actually wrote the quotes! No help on my part (like the sales 101 guru’s tell you to write testimonials for the customer) – no, these are real live testimonials and I love them!

There are so many things to do with the LinkedIn service. If you have a blog you can post your latest RSS feeds on your profile. You can create links to your websites (which the search engines love to see high volume sites having links to your sites!). You can place slideshow presentations on the profile to explain what you do or your areas of excellence. Another cool thing is the ability to find old classmates and business alumni. Networkers do rule the cyberspace.

Finally, in business relationships prospects can verify who you are, get some background on you, find your websites to do more research – and suddenly – you have gained credibility with a prospect because they feel that they now know you! WOW! It doesn’t get much better than this.

Well, if you want to learn more about who I am go to my personal profile and check me out! Based upon my recommendations – I would want to do business with me! Happy Holidays and Surfing the Net.

So you want to be the next great communicator? What signals are you sending to others? Does your body language agree with your message? Does your Body Language reinforce the power of the message or does it distract the listener?

Okay, you get the message – there needs to be coordination between your body language and your voice or message. How does this work – this coordination of body and message?

Let’s start with a really simple element – eye contact. Yes, making eye contact is the first step to improving your delivery of communication messages. Making eye contact shows confidence in what you are talking about and most importantly is it makes it person even in group settings.

Too often we see people speaking to the ceiling, the wall in the back of a room or worst – looking down at a paper or notes. Not making eye contact is the kiss of death regarding believe in the quality of the message. People want trust and they want information that they can relate to or commit to action.

A couple of other keys is to have good posture. Again, this is a sign of strength that others can relate to or want to relate to strength and confidence. Poor posture includes bending over at the waist, slumping shoulders, or looking down at the floor. Shoulders back and standing tall are signs of strength – use them accordingly.

Use natural jestures especially open palms facing the person or persons you are talking with as it shows a openness to actions. It also shows that you have nothing to hide. Use moderate jestures with your hands and arms. When overused or extreme, others can be distracted from the message and actually miss a critical point.

When doing major presentations to a group of people, stand like an oak tree when you make your major points during the presentation. Moving too fast again is distracting and takes away from the power of your presentation. However, standing firm behind a podium – like a marble statute – takes away from your energy level and likewise the emotional bonding with the group. Movement is good in moderation.

Tone of voice is another form that improves communication. I will discuss this factor in a later post. If you need assistance in your communication skills with others, call me at 901-757-4434. We offer monthly workshops on Effective Communication for Results or personal coaching in several areas. Check out our speaker site for the ECR guy.

Now this is an interesting question. Just what are asking about with this question? Actually, from a strategic point of view, it is a basic and very important question. What is driving your Company is all about understanding what is your Major Driving Force.

Every company has a unique major driving force. This major driving force determines the major strategic issue to focus upon and the at least two areas of excellence you must have to be successful. Your entire business concept gravitates from the major driving force.

There are ten possible driving forces that cover a range of alternatives. A company’s executive team then have the ability to choose the one that will give them a competitive advantage in the marketplace. What happens to a company when  the major driving force is unknown? Usually bad things – like poor performance and results, low marketshare in the marketplace, wasted resources, poor investments and poor hiring practices. Everything about the future is tied to the major driving force. Continue reading ‘What is Driving Your Company?’ »

Your ability to create, maintain and keep relationships with others is your key to success. In all areas of life, it is the strength of relationships has a direct bearing on your success – however you define success. There are different types of relationships – business, professional, social, family, customer, peer and boss. How good are your relationships in all these categories?

Make a list of the different types of relationships and rank them on a scale of one to five. One being the weakest and five being the ultimate relationship. After you have scored each category then look for patterns. What areas do you excel in? Which areas are you weak? Continue reading ‘Your Key to Success is about Relationships’ »