How to be an Effective Manager

Effectively managing people, processes, or both is in many ways a balancing act. Some would even describe it as an art form. There are many variables in play simultaneously which determine if somebody will ultimately be successful in a leadership role. Before a manager begins to understand all of these nuances they must learn one […]

How Sales, Marketing and Social Can Facilitate the Decision Path

Sales, marketing, and social marketing attempt to place solutions and create relationships by supplying great content, discovering likely prospects, and creating trust. Unfortunately sellers end up closing a small fraction – less than 5 percent – of those they reach, and marketers and social end up wasting a lot of time and don’t often meet […]

Business Performance Assessment Program Warning Flag 7 – Content Without Context

Because all things are relative, context is important. All too often, individuals react to a given set of circumstances or facts without considering the context within which those circumstances or facts exist. Consequently, the importance assigned to the circumstances or facts may exceed that which is warranted.

Communication Skills Can Increase Your Leadership Credibility

In today’s global marketplace, leaders must possess strong communication skills. The sound of someone’s voice matters twice as much as the content of his or her message, according to recent findings as reported in the Wall Street Journal. Studies have shown that a person’s speech patterns, including the quality of their voice, strongly influences how […]

‘Barrier Breakers’ for Women in Corporate America

In taking on a more dominant role in Corporate America as more women confidently climb their career ladders and step into important roles and leadership positions, the experience in Corporate America is shifting and tilting the power balance in their direction. With more women in the U.S. workforce than men, this provides an opportunity to […]

The Advisor’s Corner – Can I Afford a Bad Hire?

Question: Can I Afford a Bad Hire? StrategyDriven Response: (by Roxi Hewertson, StrategyDriven Principal Contributor) Fact 1: No one can afford a bad hire! Fact 2: Nationally, about 50 percent of hires, fail. Of those that succeed only about 20 percent are top performers. Fact 3: 90 percent of failures are UNRELATED to brains and […]

Business Performance Assessment Program Best Practice 12 – Define Issue Materiality

Business performance assessments seek to identify meaningful improvement opportunities for an organization, typically in the areas of safety, performance reliability, and operational efficiency. Meaningful or material opportunities are those representing a performance improvement that satisfies a regulatory requirement, exceeds the organization’s financial return on investment threshold, and/or provides a not easily replicable advantage over competitors. As such, assessors should evaluate potential performance improvement opportunities for their materiality; focusing on those offering the organization meaningful gains.

Finding the elusive decision maker. Then what?

Question from a reader: Jeffrey, I speak with many people in organizations that want you to think they are the decision maker when in fact they are not. I have wasted too many emails and follow up on people that can’t help. How do you ask without hurting the relationship you may have built? How […]

Where your company is headquartered makes a big difference to your bottom line

Where a business is headquartered can make a huge difference in the skill level of your employees, raising capital and attracting customers. This time of a year is an important reminder that where your company is headquartered also can have a significant impact on your bottom line. For startups deciding where to establish roots or […]

Three Strategies to Synchronize, Backup and Protect Your Business Data

Virtually every type of company generates valuable data that must be updated, retained and safeguarded, including ‘secret sauce’ information on company products, employee data and sensitive customer information. As a company leader, it’s your responsibility to create and implement a strategy to make sure your information is synced to enable collaboration, backed up to ensure […]