Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, part 4 of 6

Leadership Role #3: Making Alliances

In today’s fractured, highly competitive, information-driven business world, collaboration is the name of the game. Therefore, an important competency leaders must possess is the ability to make smart, strategic alliances. Alliances open up new possibilities, creating new conditions and resources that allow us to play games we could not play before.

An alliance is made when two players agree to support each other while also retaining their autonomy for independent action. Mergers do not count as alliances, because in a true alliance players must keep their autonomy while working toward common goals.


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About the Author

Chris Majer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Human Potential ProjectChris Majer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Human Potential Project, is the author of The Power to Transform: Passion, Power, and Purpose in Daily Life (Rodale), which teaches the strategies corporate, military, and sports leaders have used to positively transform themselves and their organizations in a way readers can adept to their own lives and professions. He may be reached at www.humanpotentialproject.com.

7 Tips for Social Media Marketing

7 Tips for Social Media Marketing
Photo credits: Cheryl Lawson

If you have a business or project going in this modern era, you need to include social media marketing in your long-term plan. Social media is here to stay and you need to participate, like it or not. If you approach this with enthusiasm as a planned part of your mission, you can make great use of these seven tips for social media marketing!


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About the Author

Adam likes social media books online because these books provide huge information compared to junky information available online.

Human Performance Management Best Practice 11 – Color Coding

StrategyDriven Human Performance Management Best Practice ArticleToday’s industrial complexes and office spaces employ vast numbers of redundant systems so to ensure continued operations in the event of equipment failure. Consequently, those who operate and maintain these systems are constantly challenged to perform their work on the appropriate equipment train. In order to avoid wrong-train accidents, operators and maintainers should employ error reduction tools that help them identify the appropriate system train on which to conduct their work.


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About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Post words. Achieve big. Build success. Day-by-Day.

Last year I posted four words on my bathroom mirror: FINISH, WRITE, SHAPE, and YES.

My results?

  • I finished the 21.5 Unbreakable Laws of Selling.
  • I wrote 1,000 words a week and documented hundreds of ideas.
  • My shape is still plus 20 pounds, so that word will remain this year.
  • I maintained my YES! Attitude, but seeing the word every morning and evening in my bathroom mirror helped.

Not bad achievement results – but still being 20 pounds overweight shows a flaw in my self-discipline. Not good.

Based on last year’s success, this year I decided to create two four-word categories. One for achievement and one for improvement. Not ‘goals’ in the sense that you may be thinking about. Rather, intentions that I consciously and subconsciously work on every day to build success all year long.

By posting the words on my bathroom mirror, I consciously see them each day, and subconsciously think about them and act on them regularly. Because they’re right in front of me every morning and every evening, they are inescapable mental confrontations. Oh, and the process works!

After I explain each word I have selected for this year, I’ll provide a lesson you can incorporate as you select your word(s). The lesson is the motive behind the word so you can use the same principle as you generate your words.

On the achievement side of life, my four words are:
ADVISOR – DIGITAL – POWER – TIME

ADVISOR – I launched the Gitomer Certified Advisor program in the fall of 2013. Instant success. I’ve certified more than 100 advisors. They’re independent businesspeople who are now marketing their sales and personal development services using my intellectual property, both online and in the classroom. In 2014 I will intensify the program and the process until there are 500 certified advisors globally.

LESSON: Once you have a successful idea, program, game plan, or process – strengthen it. Pick an achievement target, and figure out what you have to do weekly to make it a reality. What’s one word that describes your biggest achievement target?

DIGITAL – Convert all paper, CD, and DVD to digital. Create financial and distribution opportunities ONLY available to digital information dissemination. The world is not quite ready for all digital, but I will be.

LESSON: Don’t stay attached to old technology or products even though they have brought success and profit in the past. Companies like Yellow Pages, Blackberry, and AOL have buried themselves by not advancing soon enough. Companies like Amazon, Zappos, and Apple have marched to the head of the class by innovating BEFORE the market did, and they set the standard for others to follow. When someone says, “It’s just like an iPad” – what they’re really saying is, “iPad set the standard.” I want someone to say, “I’m just like Gitomer.” What’s one word that describes the standard you are trying to set?

POWER – This year I intend to capitalize on the convergent power of reputation, brand, intellectual property, and online distribution. Content is more than king. It is desired and bought by those in need. And with online, on-demand video, concentration on marketing and distribution are on the top of my list.

LESSON: Your experience has given you both success and expertise. What expertise and success can you combine that will give you a market-dominant opportunity? What’s one word that describes what you’re trying to capitalize on?

TIME – My most precious resource – and yours! This year I intend to take control of it and make it my own. Not manage it, rather allocate it to things I WANT to do, rather than things I HAVE to do. I want to write, speak, travel, learn, read, and have meaningful family time. It’s the subtle difference between ‘spending’ time and ‘investing’ time. I have written about time allocation before, now it’s a matter of taking ownership of it.

LESSON: Wasted time is at the top of lost resources for most people. Don’t let that be you. In 1889, Orison Swett Marden wrote, “Do not realize the immense value of utilizing spare minutes.” What’s a word that offers you greater investment in your most precious, non-recoverable resource?

Hopefully the words I have chosen and the lessons I have provided will inspire you to write and define your words for the year. Interestingly, you most likely know in your mind what they are, but have yet to bring them to the visual surface as Post-it Notes on your bathroom mirror.

On the improvement side of life, my four words are:
INSTAGRAM – BLOG – SHAPE – BEST

Next week!

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.


About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Moving on from ROI to ROE, a Return on Empathy

Business has always concentrated on Return on Investment (ROI) as the primary metric to calculate success. However, innovations in the neurosciences to developments in social media have revealed that profitability should no longer be relegated to sales figures and profit margins alone. Increasingly, to create sustainable customer relationships, businesses must attend to innovations in psychology, and invest in the emotional needs of their customers. Those making this shift will gain a significant ROE – Return on Empathy.

Investing in Empathy

A business that invests in empathy devotes itself to understanding the emotional needs and motivations of its customers, and aligns itself to meet them. Companies have increasingly embraced the role of emotion in selling products and services, but often merely pay lip service to its importance, without understanding how to harness it.

We know human motivation is extremely complex – typically people don’t say what they think, or even think what they report. As a result significant business resources are wasted buy an over-reliance on market research that poses only rational questions but neglects to probe customers’ emotional reactions that lie hidden within their answers. When businesses look beyond the rational data, and into the meaning behind their customers’ feelings, and behaviors, they will recognize the human needs that drive decision making.


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About the Author

Mark Ingwer PhD is a consumer psychologist and the managing partner of Insight Consulting Group, a global marketing and strategy consultancy specializing in market research and consumer insights. He has over 25 years of experience applying his unique blend of psychology, marketing, and business acumen to helping companies optimize their brand and marketing strategy based on an in-depth understanding of their customers. He is the author of the book, Empathetic Marketing published by Palgrave.