A fundamental skill in the coach’s toolbox is the ability to ask powerful questions. Powerful questions evoke clarity, introspection, lend to enhanced creativity and help provide solutions. Questions are powerful when they have an impact on the client which causes them to think. These provocative queries spark “epiphanies” or “ah-ha” moments within the client which …

consider using Twitter as a tool for engaging them. TJ McCue, Founder of Sales Rescue Team, offers case studies on web traffic conversion using Twitter. Companies such as Etsy, JetBlue, NakedPizza, Pepsi, and Levi’s are role models for smaller businesses by using Microblogging to actually close sales.

Development is, by definition, the process of creating and enhancing relationships with (potential) donors. It is the introduction of (prospective) donors to a non-profit organization, building their interest in the organization’s mission/services, developing in them a passion for the mission and a commitment to the organization’s future, getting them to make-the-gift, and maintaining the relationship …

A common misconception with employees and managers is that of the “paper trail.” It is believed that in order to make a termination decision, a manager must create this “paper trail” of documentations until they have enough evidence to satisfy the Human Resource (HR) Department. Unfortunately, this very notion typically brings great frustration to everyone …

There’s just no way to avoid it. You might fail with your social enterprise. Lose your shirt. Wish you’d never started it. There’s no safety net for social enterprise, and there never will be. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that half of business startups with employees are gone five years later. Social enterprises probably do …

What’s the difference between a code of conduct and a rulebook? A rulebook certainly sets outer parameters as what is unacceptable behavior. However, since most behavior is within those legal parameters, does (and should) a code of conduct dictate how employees should in fact conduct themselves at work? Imagine if a supervisor asks an employee …

Welcome to Crisis Management in the 21st Century and to Internet: The Ultimate Medium. A cross between tabloid journalism and a gladiator competition, between Pollyanna and Pandora, where minds meet and merge, clash and clamor, and where you can get more of anything you want than was EVER available at Alice’s Restaurant. The Internet has …

In my travels around the country providing workshops on the topic of working spiritually, I’ve found consistently that people are looking for ways to have their work make a difference and to feel energized in a richer way in their work. I want to explore here a few ways that you might examine spirituality in …

Navigating the Different Stages of Crisis What do September 11, Enron, and the news about sexual molestation by Catholic priests have in common? They were all that I’ve previously termed “creeping crises,” vulnerabilities, bombs (literally and figuratively) waiting to explode. There were people — the American intelligence community, some employees of Enron, and Church leaders, …

This Part explains the first 5 practices. Part 2 describes the last 5 strategic partnership practices. Recent and very public “white collar,” stock-fraud crimes have brought much public attention to how governance is supposed to work, but too often doesn’t. The Sarbanes Oxley Act is one example of new regulations intended to strengthen the transparency …