relationships

Nonsense At Work

James McIntosh — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 06:44:43 -0400

Don’t fire the relationship:

Did you know that customers have relationships with people, not with organizations? Well, that’s something many businesses have forgotten in their rush to fire employees.

Managers glibly talk of their business having a relationship with its customers, but that is an impossibility. One can only have a meaningful relationship with another person. As a customer you may develop a relationship with a representative, but not with the organization itself.

Nonsense At Work

James McIntosh — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:34:52 -0400

Want my business? Call me Mister

While you're out there fighting for my business, it might help to remember one of my pet hates. Complete strangers who call me James instead of Mr McIntosh.

This shallow familiarity that some businesses foist on me in the name of customer service really annoys me.

No, I am not talking about tele-marketers. The fools who write those swarmy scripts with my first name scatter throughout are not worthy of my contempt.

I’m talking about real people who should know better.

How to Enhance Relationships, Increase Fulfillment & Empower Yourself by Being Authentic

Mike Robbins — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:49:06 -0400

How often do you not say or do something because you're worried about how it'll be perceived? For most of us, myself included, this happens more often then we'd like to admit.

How to Build Trust & Develop Relationships with Clients and Employees That Last a Lifetime

Dr. Alan Zimmerman — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:26:59 -0400

When it comes to customer loyalty, nothing is more important than the trust you develop with your customers. Research from Texas A & M University says if customers see you as being trustworthy and reliable ... and if customers see you fulfilling your promises … then they will become enthusiastic customers for life.

How to Achieve Your Goals with 100% Success Every Time

Dr. Alan Zimmerman — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:23:02 -0400

In the movie, "A League of Their Own," the baseball coach talked to his dispirited team, saying, "Of course it's hard. If it wasn't hard, everybody would do it!"

That's the way it is with success. It can be hard. But there are four sure-fire ways to achieve success at almost anything every time without failure.

4 Ways to Achieve Your Goals & Succeed Every Time Without Failure

1. Work hard.

Must Have Resolutions for 2009

Dayna Steele — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 09:18:27 -0500

There are currently a bazillion blogs and articles on what any business or entrepreneur can be doing right now to weather the economic crisis and job lay-offs. Rean them all you want, but if you don’t get back to your bascis first, it will all be for naught.

Here is a list of the five most important business resolutions you should make, and stick to, for 2009:

Be Sure to Tip the Sound Guy

Dayna Steele — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:55:17 -0500

Last weekend I moderated an author event at the Texas Book Festival. The author I presented, Travis Nichols, is also a musician and said something that caught my attention. A simple phrase that went un-noticed until I brought it up at the end as some of his best advice of the session.

Take a Hike Ike and Get to Work

Dayna Steele — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:50:38 -0400

Interviewers and entrepreneurs often ask me the same question. What’s the most common trait between successful rock stars and successful entrepreneurs? I know they all wish I had a silver bullet, a magic fix and some enlightening words of wisdom. But I don’t. It’s simply hard work. That’s it. Hard work, a good work ethic. It’s not waiting for someone else to take care of things.

Leadership Lessons from... LEGO

Michael Waddell — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:45:56 -0400

What would make a corporate lawyer give up his six-figure salary to make $13 an hour? One word: LEGO. It all started on Christmas 1978 in Colville, Washington, when five-year-old Nathan Sawaya
unwrapped his first set of LEGO bricks. As an adult, Nathan’s LEGO
interest was merely a hobby until 2004 when he entered a contest,

Bloggers Influence And Shape Opinion

Kelly Jad'on — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 18:58:20 -0400

October 15th is a day recognized around the world as Blog Action
Day. An annual nonprofit event, this year's 2008 theme is Poverty.
The event's goal is to unite the world's bloggers, podcasters and
videocasters, by posting about the same issue on the same day.
Thousands of blogs post and millions of readers are reached. By

The Cost of New Year's Resolutions

Kelly Jad'on — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 12:20:37 -0500

Cancer can save your life!

Charlie Badenhop — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 05:03:08 -0500

"Whoever... sees in illness a vital expression of the organism, will no longer see it as an enemy. In the moment I realize that the disease is a creation of the patient, it becomes for me the same sort of thing as his manner of walking, his mode of speech, his facial expression, the movements of his hands, the drawings he has made, the house he has built, the business he has settled, or the way his thoughts go: a significant symbol of the powers that rule him, and that I try to influence when I deem it right." _Georg Groddeck; MD

The Rules of Engagement

Linda Tischler — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:05:01 -0500

Be clear about role definition.
Which things are each partner going to handle, and which parts are shared? The Spades have that down pat: "Andy has the sweeping view," says Kate. "I tend to enjoy dotting the i's and crossing the t's." Still, both are involved in the big decisions.
Figure out how to maintain boundaries in your personal life.
read more

Power Couple

Linda Tischler — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:04:49 -0500

Kate and Andy Spade are that rare thing: a great husband-and-wife business team. What makes their collaboration so unusually powerful? It's all about their differences.

Brenda's Back. Others Won't Be So Lucky.

Linda Tischler — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 07:54:31 -0500

The Corporate Shrink

Dr. Kerry J. Sulkowicz — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 07:46:30 -0500

I'm a recent college grad, just starting at my first job. Someday I'd like to run a company -- maybe this one. But I wonder, do I have what it takes? How would I know?

The fact that you're even asking the question -- and expressing your goal of running a company while on your first job -- is a good sign. Now is the time to start testing your leadership mettle. But you're also inquiring about the nature of leadership: Where does it come from, and how do you spot it?

"It's a matter of will."

Carleen Hawn — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:49:31 -0500

Every two weeks, Jane Lin-Baden shelves her day job as a software entrepreneur and flies to San Francisco to attend Wharton's prestigious executive MBA program. But the life she leaves behind is 16 time zones away--in Shanghai, China.

Never, Ever Quit

Christine Canabou — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:44:16 -0500

Bob Basten swept into the meeting just moments before it was scheduled to begin. Ordinarily, he would have showed up early for some sociable small talk. But this was no ordinary gathering. It was August 8, 2002, and it was Basten's last day as CEO. The board members, outside investors, and senior executives had gathered in a large, windowless conference room in Washington, DC. Basten, a 6-foot-5-inch former football player with intense blue eyes, looked down the table at the line of faces staring back at him.

Home for the Holidays

Christine Canabou — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:44:07 -0500

What happens when the notion of home for the holidays becomes something less than comforting? What if one partner in a two-income household is out of work? We all know couples who have been there, facing the stress of joblessness amid the usual chaos of the season. How do you stay up when one of you is down?

Diversity without the excuses

Chuck Salter — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:36:37 -0500

Mark Warner was on the campaign trail, running for governor of Virginia, when he met with a group of African-American business leaders. He was looking for their support. Warner gave a good accounting of all that he'd done as a venture capitalist to generate more opportunities for minorities in the state, including the creation of a high-tech internship program for students at predominantly black colleges. The one area where there hadn't been much progress, Warner said, was in venture capital. The problem was a familiar one: There weren't enough blacks with the necessary background.

3 Cities, 2 Careers, 1 Marriage

Alison Overholt — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:24:14 -0500

Who: Mike Kilgore, VP of sales and marketing at OmniSpace Technologies Inc., and Stacie Kilgore, senior analyst at Forrester Research

Email: mkilgore@omnispace.com, skilgore@forrester.com

Sign of the Times: "With AOL Instant Messenger on my phone, I can IM Stacie from the plane while it's on the runway just to say, 'I'll be home in time for dinner.' " -- Mike Kilgore

Pencil in Your Partner

Christine Canabou — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:24:13 -0500

Who

Jason Hancock (jqh@h-s.com), 31, managing partner at the Seattle office of Heidrick & Struggles International Inc., an executive-search firm

Enough's Enough

How do you make time for your spouse when you're consumed by work? "I've always managed expectations at work, but I wasn't giving similar care and focus to my marriage. I regularly canceled personal plans to squeeze in another meeting."

Family Values

Keith H. Hammonds — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:21:17 -0500

Bryan Levey and Lisa D'Annolfo Levey, 39 & 36, Woburn, Massachusetts
After the birth of Skylar, software engineer Bryan Levey decided to downshift his career and only work four days a week. His wife, Lisa, now pregnant with the couple's second child, cut back on her work as well. They may have fewer possessions as a result, but they have abundance in their lives -- an abundance of time, security, and flexibility.

Have You Got the Right Stuff?

Michael Warshaw — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:57:26 -0500

It's eight o'clock on a sun-splashed morning in Kissimmee, Florida. In just a few hours, ace venture capitalist Terry Garnett will strap himself into a single-prop Marchetti SF-260 fighter plane, soar into a great blue dome of sky, and do battle with a fearsome opponent at 5,000 feet. His adversary knows him - knows his every quirk and habit - and will try to best him in a winner-take-all dogfight over the flatlands of Florida.

Working on Borrowed Time

Candice Carpenter — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:46:20 -0500

From the moment it appeared as a New York Times Magazine cover story this spring, Arlie Hochschild's "The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home & Home Becomes Work" (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Co., 1997), was more than a new book. It was the new conversation.

Hochschild's argument was shattering in its simplicity: "Work has become a form of 'home' and home has become 'work'." Our intense dedication to work is turning home and family into a rush job. The real losers are children who don't get what they need most -- time with a fully engaged (and fully awake) parent.