5 Ways Predictive Analytics Make or Break a CRM System

Size doesn’t matter: why predictive analytics prove your customer relationship management methods are likely falling short   For a sales-driven organization, it isn’t the size of your data that matters, it’s what you do with it. No longer a discretionary luxury, predictive analytics are now the name of the game for those who seek to […]

Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy – Don’t Bilge Your Teammates

Effective teamwork demands that each team member value and respect the others with whom they are working. Nothing diminishes this more than when one team member openly attacks or in some way seeks to diminish the value and respect of another.

Collaborative Decision Making for Successful Implementations

I’ve read that there are leaders and project managers who prefer not to collaborate, when engaging in an initiative, because of needs for control. And decision makers who start their information gathering before fully involving those who will implement. What sort of success is possible when one source is driving change and may potentially sabotage […]

Leaders Should Sweat the Small Stuff

Almost every day we read about a CEO ouster, a logo change that backfires, or a product launch that fails to live up to its hype. As a young sailor, I was taught how to salute properly, and how to wear my dress blues and summer whites correctly. Later, as a naval officer I was […]

Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy – Human Connection

From their first days as Plebes (freshman) at the United States Naval Academy, midshipman are taught that all people are social creatures who need to connect with others; to be valued and respected. They learn that unstoppable teams are first created through knowledge, value, and respect for each other.

Four Questions (and Tips) That Will Transform Your Culture

People grow into the conversations you create around them. The best tool great leaders have to strengthen and empower others is powerful questions. Questions evoke curiosity. They force others to think. And, when answered well, allow others to take ownership of the process and responsibility for the outcomes. It has been said that powerful questions […]

The 5 Cultures That Determine Your Company’s Success

How healthy is your company’s culture? Your company has a culture whether you make the effort to shape it or not, and as you might expect, it’s better to make the effort to create the culture that will lead you to success than to simply hope a great corporate culture will organically generate itself. But […]

5 Things Every Modern Entrepreneur Needs

Amid the release of data revealing that the economic outlook among U.S. small business owners had finally stabilized, there’s cause for entrepreneurs to be optimistic. Whether or not that outlook begins to uptick not only depends upon how agile, adaptable, creative and resourceful entrepreneurs can be in planning for, or reacting to, market conditions, revenue […]

Take the Fear Out of Accountability

The word accountability elicits a threat response from most employees, who interpret the word ‘accountability’ to be synonymous with punishment. Let’s face it, any time there’s a disaster, mistake, or misfortune on the news, the first thing out of the mouth of the officials is, “Who is to be held accountable?” The tone is always […]

Can Your Company’s Operations Cause a Black Swan Event?

According to Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Black Swan events are rare, catastrophic events that many retrospectively assert could have been predicted and thus prevented. But can they? Could your company’s operational performance cause the next Black Swan tragedy?