What About “Big Names”? Many Board members believe that adding a very prominent person to the Board will bring great prestige and credibility to the Board. They believe that funders and other organizations will take those Boards much more seriously. Often, that’s a big mistake. Rarely do those famous people ever show up to the …

Peter Block, in his book, Flawless Consulting, suggests that certain goals and assumptions always be primary for consultants, that is, for individuals working to help people, but not having authority over those people. He suggests the following goals and assumptions. Primary Working Goals of Consultants 1. Establish a collaborative relationship with your clients As a …

1. Be clear on your objective: Most coaches have an area of expertise such as: career, entrepreneurs, life, executives, financial, or branding. Match your goal with the coach’s expertise. Ask the coach about their limitations –do they coach clients with your needs? 2. What are the coach’s qualifications? Is the coach certified and by what …

Is the learning process is valued in our organization? What constitutes a learning environment? How do we know whether or not our efforts to learn are valued in our company? Some corporations such as Steel Case in Grand Rapids, Michigan make the value on learning obvious, they have a large learning department at their headquarters …

If I think about “Leader” as a job description I get confused. How can anyone “Lead” all the time? How exhausting! A sure recipe for failure! An invitation to the dread-disease BURNOUT. Don’t you at least need to “manage” your own schedule? What about “Management” as the complete and total sum of what you do …

Crises can be divided into three categories: 1. Creeping Crises 211; foreshadowed by a series of events that decision makers don’t view as part of a pattern. 2. Slow-Burn Crises 211; some advance warning, before the situation has caused any actual damage. 3. Sudden Crises 211; damage has already occurred and will get worse the …

How one smart business doubled sales through a comprehensive rebranding effort using social media consulting In this economy, business managers are finding that what worked before no longer works. Declining sales are often the first harsh blow that draws attention to a serious underlying a problem – one that they may not have even known …

Acknowledgement is a coaching skill used to give recognition to the client. It points out the inner traits or characteristics that the client demonstrated in order to accomplish an action. Acknowledgement is important because it can articulate attributes of the client that they may not be aware of. When you acknowledge you empower the client. …

When evaluation occurs during training a few have the right idea but evaluation is such a critical area, we have to be sure what we are training is sinking in. When starting a training program make sure that there are plenty of pop quizzes to accompany the training program. These can be brief quizzes relevant …

Let’s be clear: if you’re not measuring any part of your service delivery, you are missing a huge opportunity to improve, grow or even save your business during these scrutinizing, tight economic times. The challenge with specifying key indicators is that not all businesses will use the top customer service metrics. For example, a retail …