Listen more. Be positive. Celebrate success. Give people bacon. You’ve heard all the standard ways to motivate your employees before, and you’re tired of reading the same advice. Luckily for you, I’m tired of writing it, too. Don’t get me wrong. I still want to help you become a better manager. I still want you…
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Recently a good friend of mine (which means I have at least two good friends, or else I would have said ‘recently the good friend I have’) chose not to run for a leadership position in an association she belongs to. She decided not to run because there were two other candidates interested in the…
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So you’re stuck working with a bunch of old people. It was probably too much to hope for that they would hire you and then immediately retire en masse, but having that dream fail to materialize is nevertheless disappointing. It’s not that you have a problem with old people, far from it – you…
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Marketing has always been important. Without it, we wouldn’t know what 15 minutes can save you, or (for my older readers, including myself) where the beef is. (Side note: they never really answered that question, did they? They just said, “Where’s the beef?” and apparently we were all supposed to find it on our own.)…
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So now you’ve read my companion article on the importance of marketing, and you found it revelatory. Or you thought it wasn’t complete garbage – I’m fine with either. The point is, you now appreciate the need to market your company/idea/self more aggressively than you have in the past, and you’re ready to get started.…
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We’ve just released our newest video series on Financial Services Business Skills and as usual we messed up A LOT while filming. We hope you get a laugh at our expense! Make sure you check out our member section to get access to the full 7-episode series along with 10 other video series on various…
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In November 2015, in a bid to make myself seem smart and important, I delivered my very first TED talk. It was filmed in a dark room with theater-style seating (a TED requirement), and I wore the blue-jeans-with-sport-jacket combo that is one of the only two acceptable outfits for a man to wear. (The other,…
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Guest post by Jason Lauritsen We love to blame managers when things go wrong. Employee turnover goes up—it’s because they are leaving their manager. Performance goes down—it’s probably because the manager isn’t providing feedback. The survey says employees are disengaged—we look to the manager as the cause. And while there is some truth in all…
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I’ve been making my living as a keynote speaker for the past eleven years. I like my job. It’s allowed me to visit dozens of cities and countries I might otherwise never have seen. It affords more flexibility than almost any other career I can imagine. (Careers with more flexibility include ‘part-time sock collector,’ which…
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So, today is Administrative Professionals Day, and bosses the world over are asking their administrative assistants to pick out presents for themselves that their bosses can then pretend to give them. If I were an administrative assistant, I would probably buy myself a helicopter and then write my boss the nicest thank-you note ever. Better to…
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