Ever had one of those days where you question whether you've made wise business choices lately? Today has been one of those days, but I'm afraid the answers I uncover over the next few weeks aren't going to be to my liking. I know I violated my own gut instincts with one decision in particular, and I'm kicking myself for it pretty hard right now.

If you're in a business venture with others, is it clear to everyone involved whether the business could succeed without you or not? If the business could succeed without you, why do you continue to hang around in a decision making capacity? Why should your partners listen to you if the organization could survive without you?

If you bring nothing unique to the mix, and someone else is primarily responsible for the success of the organization, why not do the right thing and get out of the way by taking on a diminished role? It doesn't mean you have to leave completely, but move aside to let the others grow the business. Chances are you're not helping; you're in the way! I'm just sayin'.

Is the generation gap between Boomers and Generation X THAT wide?

Is new media good for business or bad?

How much do you engage in social media for your business? How's it working out for you?

Are there any business "secrets" anymore? What about new ideas?

Why is there such reluctance from the older generations to embrace new media and accept the fact that the new rules of journalism are vastly different from the good old days? There are newspapers and television outlets that struggle with this mightily, and my suspicion is those outlets are run by elder statesmen. Time to wake up, people! Or get out of the way to let the younger generation take the organization to the next level. I'm just pointing out the elephant in the room that everyone wants to ignore. Don't shoot the messenger!

If you could start any new business today, what would it be? What would be your first step?

Am I crazy to think $1 million isn't that much money and shouldn't be that hard for a business to generate?

Do you know of a sharp Internet marketer that is looking to be a part of a startup? How about a copywriter? If you do, please send them my way.

When starting a new venture, what's the first hire you make?

Enough ramblings and ponderings for now . . . would love to get your take on any or all of this.

I'm curious if any of you have ever experienced what I just went through over the past 45 days with a client that things didn't end well, but my gut sensed things wouldn't go well on day one. Is that the "law of attraction" playing itself out or basic instinct? What's the polite way to avoid entering that type of relationship from the beginning?

I'm going to share more of this "bad egg" story in the coming days because it has taught me a lot, and I won't ignore my gut the next time it says "no."

After a lengthy bike ride last Saturday, I had some serious neck/upper back pain. It's somewhat common for me after longer rides (3+ hours), but I somehow aggravated the injury while I was (of all things) taking a shower the next morning. I figured it was muscle fatigue or a mild strain that would disappear after a couple of days. Didn't happen. After three days, it was time to bite the bullet and visit a professional.

There's a new chiropractor/massage/rehab facility that opened less than a mile from my home so I figured I'd pop in on them to see if they could help me. There was even a sign in the front window stating "now accepting new clients." Excellent! Not only are they convenient, they're actively seeking people like me right now. Or so I thought. I entered and told the girl behind the desk that I thought I needed a massage to work the kink out of my neck. She said "great, let me see who is available and if we can get you in today." Mind you, NO one else was even in the place from everything I could tell, and I saw three doctor/therapist types walking around as if they had some free time on their hands. After the girl looked at the computer schedule, she sheepishly looked up to tell me they could fit me in two weeks later, but they had nothing open until then. Another girl walked over as if she found that bit of information a little erroneous and suggested they might be able to fit me in the next Tuesday (today). The other girl said "no, that's not right because he's on vacation (meaning the therapist) so that wouldn't work either." They both agreed then looked at me like "sorry about your luck pal."

If I had agreed to go through testing with a doctor and undergo x-rays, an hour questionnaire, poking and prodding, I could have seen someone the next day, but I couldn't get anyone to help me with my immediate problem--the damn kink in my neck that was making it difficult to move my head around to see. If I had agreed to sign up for a treatment "program" (read: more expense), they might have magically found a massage therapist available. I left the joint a tad amused and a lot put off.

This incident was a further reminder that if you're going to open the doors and welcome in "new" business, be prepared to take it in whatever way it comes to you. Suggesting that you welcome new clients is suggesting you're not booked solid. Judging by the parking lot (I was the only car) and the doctors shuffling around as I stood there waiting to see if someone would be able to help me was further evidence that they definitely had room to take on more paying clients. They just don't have room to take on new clients that don't do things THEIR way (setting up an appointment weeks in advance, PLANNING for nagging injuries or aches, going through an insurance carrier, etc.) I was a walk-in customer that was prepared to turn over my credit card to receive immediate attention. I essentially had an open "budget" when I walked in there because the pain was strong enough, and I wasn't in a mood to haggle over pricing or fee schedules. To me, immediate attention (time constraint) was more important than what it might cost (budget constraint). I had no idea what quality might come from being a walk-in, but I was willing to roll the dice to get rid of the kink so I wasn't a difficult customer to please at that moment. They couldn't even mildly accommodate me though.

Having read all of this, what are the odds I'll return? They weren't prepared to do business on my terms--take my credit card, some information, and administer a damn massage. They wanted me to jump through their hoops at their pace JUST to do business. I wasn't a complicated case--just a simple massage today, please. Tomorrow I may decide I need x-rays and doctor assistance, but let me make that decision. Your policies and procedures shouldn't prevent you from taking someone's money and giving them what they want (within the broadest objectives of your overall business) as quickly as reasonably possible.

I worked in outside sales for two technology companies that I frequently challenged during sales meetings with this question:
"If a customer walked through that door RIGHT NOW and offered us cash to buy something we have in stock, could we sell it to them in less than 20 minutes?" You'd be shocked at the answer each time--it was "no, we're not setup like a retail outlet like that. They'd have to fill out customer information, a credit application, references, etc." What?!? To pay cash, they'd have to do all of that? Asinine and utterly amazing yet extremely true. That's how some businesses set themselves up though. Don't be one of those--be prepared to make it easy for someone to do business with you. Complicating things just to have a process or system in place is one of the dumbest things you can do if it doesn't make it easy for someone new to do business with you. That's common sense, but it's amazing how uncommon that is anymore.

The season finale of the Apprentice just now finished airing, and The Donald selected Stefani over James. I'm a bit surprised by that, but I believe it's a good choice. James has been a strong performer, but he had some close calls in the boardroom, and that seemed to be the deciding factor as both candidates had very few holes in their credentials.

Frank and Nicole had a pretty poor video in my opinion, and that got them booted before Trump focused in on Stefani and James. Both individuals should be highly successful moving forward. This group had a couple of super-stars in the making including Stefani, James, and Heidi although Heidi flamed out pretty bad so maybe she wasn't as much of a star as I would like to believe--she just has that "it" factor though that it makes it hard not to WANT her to do well. Time will tell I suppose.

Anyway, the finale wasn't a complete shock as the two predicted to be the favorites ended up that way, but it's a little surprising James wasn't chosen. Best of luck to Stefani in her new role with the Trump Organization.

If Heidi, Aimee, or Nicole would like a job working for a consulting firm, I might have a spot for one of them. ;)

By Chris Roush on Wired Magazine

March saw an increase almost across the board for mainstream business magazines in terms of ad revenue and ad pages, but decreases for the personal finance glossy titles, according to data from the Magazine Publishers of America.

Leading the way was Inc. magazine, which saw a 39.3 percent increase in ad revenue to $7.5 million and a 34.5 percent jump in ad pages. Right behind it were Barron’s and The Economist, which saw increases in ad revenue of 29.7 percent and 25.4 percent, respectively. Barron’s ad revenue jumped to nearly $6 million, while the Economist was at $10.9 million. Barron’s ad pages rose 19 percent, while the Economist’s ad pages rose 12 percent.

Among other business magazines:

– BusinessWeek saw a 2.3 percent increase in ad revenue to $24.9 million for March, but a 4.5 percent decrease in ad pages;

– Fast Company saw a 6.7 percent increase in ad revenue and a 2.7 percent increase in ad pages;

– Forbes saw an 18.3 percent increase in ad revenue to $31.7 million, but only a 1.7 percent rise in ad pages;

– Fortune saw a 2.5 percent increase in ad revenue to $24.3 million, but a 5.3 percent decline in ad pages.

In addition, Wired was up 3.1 percent in ad revenue but down 6.4 percent in ad pages. Business 2.0 was down 1.5 percent in ad revenue and off 7.5 percent in ad pages compared to March 2006.

The personal finance magazines fared the worst. Kiplinger’s saw an 18.2 percent drop in ad revenue and a 19.8 percent drop in ad pages compared to March 2006, while Money magazine was down 14.1 percent in ad revenue and 22.8 percent in ad pages. Smart Money was off 17.2 percent in ad revenue and 20.8 percent in ad pages.

All of these numbers take on greater significance starting Monday with the first issue of new business magazine Conde Nast Portfolio hitting New York newsstands. How it fares in the market — and who it takes ad revenue away from — will be closely watched in the business of business magazines.

See the numbers here.

I came across this in Fast Company which may interest some of our real estate clients and contingent:

Shvo Motion

One man's real-estate vision quest, and the $15 billion portfolio he's building along the way.

By Seth Godin

by Michael Wade:

There are certain lines that signal impending doom. Common ones are:

Let's run it by Finance.

The CEO's spouse has a special interest in this topic and just wants to see the plan.

We tried something sorta like that seven years ago but the analyst is no longer with us.

The sales people made a few promises to seal the deal.

The lawyers just want to insert some language.

It's simply a "get acquainted" meeting and should last no longer than ten minutes.

As you may know, I'm a people person.

And then you have ten minutes to switch planes in Atlanta.

All of the documentation was on Gloria's computer.

The CEO read a fascinating management book the other day. It's written by a goat-herder in Tanzania.

It's a new rental car company but they gave us a smoking deal.

We put Ed in charge of the PowerPoint. He's prepared 50 slides.

This will be really simple. Trust me.

By Anita Campbell on Startup Trends

Professor Cornwall, Director of the Belmont University Center for Entrepreneurship , profiles today’s young entrepreneurs — those 30 years old and younger. Quoting remarks from a speech he made at the Forbes Enterprise Awards:

One group with high rates of entrepreneurial activity is my generation — the Baby Boomers. These Entre-boomers, as they are sometimes called, are certainly important for our economy. But they are not the group who will be leading this Entrepreneurial Economic Revolution. The true foot soldiers who will lead us to economic victory in this Economic Revolution are those in the Entrepreneurial Generation.

So who is this Entrepreneurial Generation?

- They are those born between 1977 and 2002 — they range from the young people who are just now graduating from college, to those who are just entering primary education.

- Studies show that about 50% of today’s college students have business ownership as a primary career goal.

- They are more financially savvy — 37% of today’s college students already thinking and planning for retirement.

- They are independent thinkers

- They embrace change — and they view entrepreneurship as a career path that will allow them to use the changes that are occurring in our current world to their advantage.

What does the Entrepreneurial Generation think about work?

- Work is important

- They seek high levels of achievement — many university Entrepreneurship programs like ours at Belmont now see 40-50% of our students arriving as freshman with profitable businesses already operating.

- They want their work to make a difference and have meaning.

- But, they do not want it to become all consuming — They see entrepreneurship as a career path that will give them more control in their lives and the ability to create balance.

Good profile. If you are looking for some younger entrepreneurs, check out Mind Petals: Young Entrepreneurs Network, featuring younger entrepreneurs who blog.

By Anita Campbell on Startup Trends

Three more businesses are now featured in the Spotlight section of the JumpUp.com community website.

I want to point them out to you, because each overcame a business challenge similar to one you may be facing: how do you attract new customers?

Read their stories:

• Integra Global Solutions, an outsourced bookkeeping service, is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with offices in the U.K. and India. Ganesh Ranganathan, the owner, faced a challenge that millions of small business owners face: how to improve in the search rankings and get traffic to his website. His solution? He taught himself about search engine optimization and search engine marketing, and put that knowledge to work. “Ganesh started by taking a class and attending SEO forums to learn the vocabulary of SEO terms and understand the methods for improving his results.” View the Integra Global Solutions Spotlight.

• Construction Deal, Inc., a matchmaker for contractors and construction projects based in Sherman Oaks, California, also faced the challenge of getting traffic to its website. The approach of Tim Clark, the owner, focused on building strategic partnerships and link relationships with partners serving a similar target audience. “… [H]is big win was recognizing the value of building links to and from his site with adjacent businesses also focusing on remodel and repair opportunities.” Take a look at the Construction Deal Spotlight.

• Gina’s Tax Service, of Bullard, Texas, faced a similar challenge: getting new customers. Gina Gwozdz, CPA turned to the Web, set up a free Blogger blog, and managed to draw on new clients from outside her small town. “Gina’s blog now attracts readers from all over the country which has translated into a 30 percent increase in clients.” View the Gina’s Tax Service Spotlight. And visit Gina’s Tax Blog, too.

Back in October and November 2006, the JumpUp.com site put out a call for entries to tell your story and be profiled in a New Business Spotlight. Ganesh, Tim and Gina all applied via Small Business Trends, and I assisted Intuit in judging the entries.

I was struck by the fact that each of these business owners faced challenges that were not exotic or all that unusual. Rather, they boil down to a single issue that I know business owners everywhere have to deal with all the time: how do you attract more customers? For that reason, I felt the experiences of Ganesh, Tim and Gina would be inspiring.

While you are over at the JumpUp.com site, take a look at the HUGE amount of Web real estate each of the Spotlighted businesses gets — each Spotlight must take up half of the JumpUp.com home page. That’s the way to do it, Intuit.

From The Instigator Blog:

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Your business is great. You’ve invented something better than sliced bread. You offer such an amazing service at such a great price that people should be knocking your door down.

And they might be. But they’re all asking for a proposal.

Proposals are a fact of life. We all do them, and we’re all trying to blow our prospects away.

But most proposals are bad. Here are 10 reasons why proposals fail:

1. They’re too long. Proposals aren’t meant for “shock and awe” - don’t try and overwhelm the prospect into submission. Edit and cut. Cut and edit. There’s no perfect length for a proposal, but how many of your prospects really read the whole thing? They scan and skim till they get to the price and timeline. Keep it short.
2. They don’t reference the prospect’s pain. Why did the prospect ask you for a proposal? You better have a crystal clear answer to that question. Too many proposals don’t reiterate the pain properly. Skipping that makes the prospect feel like you don’t get it.
3. They’re too technical. I know you’re the expert in your field, that’s why I asked for a proposal. You don’t need to inundate your proposal with buzzwords and industry-hooey. A prospect only knows a smidge of what you know about your business, and they don’t really want to know more. Your proposal fails when it sells industry mastery using language I won’t understand.
4. They’re not selling benefits. Proposals that miss out on #2 and focus too much on #3 invariably aren’t selling benefits. If you’re not selling benefits you’re sunk. And for the love of everything that is holy, spell these out as clearly as possible.
5. They’re not well structured. Proposals are stories. And every story has a beginning, middle and end. Think of your proposal as a story and write it accordingly.
6. They’ve got spelling and grammatical problems. A proposal with spelling errors is unacceptable, it’s as simple as that. Grammatical problems may be harder to catch. Three tips: Read it out loud. Write short sentences. Have someone else read it.
7. They’re poorly formatted and packaged. Style counts! On top of that, your proposal isn’t the only game in town. You want to stand out right? Take some time to format things nicely. Add some pictures. Use bigger headers, smaller paragraphs, and color where appropriate. Think jazzy. If you’ve got substance, sell it with nice packaging.
8. They’re missing testimonials and client references. I’ve rarely seen a proposal with testimonials or client references. It makes no sense. Pepper in a few testimonials to spice it up and add a feeling of success. Add in some client references with contact information to give your prospect a clear message, “you know what you’re doing and you can prove it.”
9. They’re missing a thank you. Proposals are personal. You’re not writing installation instructions for IKEA furniture are you? Unless you’re sending a proposal unsolicited (which makes little sense) someone’s given you that opportunity. Thank them for it.
10. There’s no call to action. You submit the proposal. Now what? Um…um…um…oops. Put in a crystal clear call to action. It could be a follow-up meeting, contract signature, or something else — it almost doesn’t matter. What’s important is that there is a next step and you’ve explicitly told the prospect what it is.

Your business rocks. You work hard. You deserve more business.

Don’t let proposals get in the way. Do them right and you’ll win a lot more business.

From Guy's Blog:
______________

By GuyKawasaki

Bob Sutton and the mavens at Electric Pulp have created the ARSE (Asshole Rating Self Exam) to help people to determine if they are assholes. This is an offshoot from Bob’s book, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t, which I reviewed at the end of October.

I’m sure that none of you need to take this test, but you might know someone who does. :-)

On a related topic, Bob told me about a company called SuccessFactors. It makes performance and talent management software to automate performance reviews across global organizations and create visibility into performance data across the organization. This helps its customers determine how to find, promote, and pay people as well as how to manage succession planning.

The company is a no-asshole zone. It requires employees to agree to sign this document:

---

Rules of Engagement

1. I will be passionate—about SuccessFactors’ mission, about my work. I will love what we do for companies and employees everywhere.

2. I will demonstrate respect for the individual; I will be nice and listen to others, and respect myself. I will act with integrity and professionalism.

3. I will do what it takes to get the job done, no matter what it takes, but within legal and ethical boundaries.

4. I know that this is a company, not a charity. I will not waste money—I will question every cost.

5. I will present an exhaustive list of solutions to problems—and suggest actionable recommendations.

6. I will help my colleagues and recognize the team when we win. I will never leave them behind when we lose.

7. I will constantly improve Kaizen! I will approach every day as an opportunity to do a better job, admitting to and learning from my mistakes.

8. I will selflessly pursue customer success.

9. I will support the culture of meritocracy and pay for performance.

10. I will focus on results and winning—scoring points, not just gaining yardage.

11. I will be transparent. I will communicate clearly and be brutally honest, even when it’s difficult, because I trust my colleagues.

12. I will always be in sales and drive customer satisfaction.

13. I will have fun at work and approach my work with enthusiasm.

14. I will be a good person to work with—I will not be an asshole.

I agree to live these values. If my colleagues fail to live up to any of these rules, I will speak up and will help them correct; in turn, I will be open to constructive criticism from my colleagues should I fail to live by these values. I understand that my performance will be judged in part by how well I demonstrate these values in my daily work.

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I hope you pass the ’hole-in-oscopy! If you don’t, be sure to get the book.

Good stuff via Duct Tape Marketing:

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The trap of the small business owner is, that in many cases, to grow a business to some level of success means putting your head down and working real hard doing the making it, fixing it, shipping it of the business.

Problem is, that also eventually stops you from growing. Delegation is an art, but a necessary one. Until you can unload the technical work and focus on the strategic work you will find that your business will fall into cycles of expansion and contraction eventually settling on some sort of entrepreneurial homeostasis that neither pays well nor satisfies.

I don't mean to paint such a somber picture, and after all this is a marketing blog, so what's the point of a discussion of management strategies. One of the best things you can do in your business if you can free yourself from the technical work is to finally spend more time on strategic marketing work - in my mind some of the most productive work you can do.

In order to break free you might want to compute your strategic minimum wage - this is an hourly rate computed by taking what you would like to make in a year and dividing it by 2080 (that's 40 hours a week x 52 weeks.) If you want to make $200,000 this year then you need to do work that is producing profit of $96 every hour. Are you?

Let go of doing everything yourself, let your business grow up a bit and get others doing for you. Can you contract for services for some work for less than $96 per hour? The tough part is that transition period. It's harder to teach someone how to do something than it is to do it yourself. Invest the time now and it will pay dividends later - just make sure you document the procedures while you train.

I can't find time to blog? Who has time to build relationships with journalists? I can't seem to find time to develop referral partnerships and line up speaking engagements. Ever said any of these? All of the above are worth far more than $96 an hour. Why then can you always find time to unjam the copier and check your email.

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Roger's NOTE: it's somewhat ironic John mentions how he can't find referral partners--I've tried to connect with him a time or two about potentially working together on a future project or two or connecting via LinkedIn with zero response thus far. Maybe he'll respond to me one of these days--I have some good ideas that might help both of us prosper. :-)

Michael Wade from Execupundit.com shares another great post with us today:
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1. Dust off that ancient job description and use it to craft the recruitment announcement. [Just be sure to substitute PC for Commodore.]

2. Don't bother consulting with the people who actually perform the job. That's why the phrase "Other duties as assigned" was invented.

3. Always state a degree requirement. If you need someone who can write well, rather than asking for that skill, require a diploma in English. Better yet, ask for a Master's.

4. If you decide to ask for experience, pick a convenient number out of the air and use that for the number of years of experience that candidates must have.

5. Hold the oral board in a setting resembling a prisoner of war interrogation. That will permit you ask questions while measuring the candidate's ability to handle stress.

6. Let the oral board members ask whatever questions that happen to come to mind regardless of whether they relate to the performance of the job. It will spur creativity.

7. Start the interview by signaling the type of skills you seek so the candidates can easily repeat your words in response to the board's questions.

8. Score all questions as if they are of equal importance. Why bother with weighting?

9. Ask plenty of close-ended questions so the answers will be short. This will restrain the long-winded.

10. The final step is crucial: Ignore the declared job standards and the interviews and select whichever candidate you personally like.

Something that may be of interest if you're considering starting up your own business--visit StartupNation.com and check out their class on 10 Steps to Open for Business Coaching Program. Classes begin 1/31/2007. 18 spots left as of this posting.

Full Disclosure: I am neither affiliated with this program in any way nor do I receive any compensation should you sign up for the classes. I'm simply sharing information you may find useful.

Ram Charan, a noted expert on business strategy and coauthor of Execution and the author of What the CEO Wants You to Know and many other books, has a new book out titled, Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform From Those Who Don't. In a section of the book, "Judgment and Strength of a Leader, Charan says:

"The greatest psychological challenge in setting and acting on priorities has to do with resource allocation. Whether in a group meeting or through conventional budgeting and capital approval processes, you have to demonstrate judgment and courage in making resource allocation decisions that reflect your business priorities and in following through to ensure that the things that should be happening in fact are. You have to do the analytic work to separate out the facts and assess the opportunities and risks, but you also need to call upon your inner strength and judgment."

View Fast Company's slideshow, "8 Skills Of People Who Perform," and learn what skills good leaders possess.

Here are the 8 Skills:

1. Position Yourself
2. Find Patterns
3. Shape the Culture
4. Seek Leaders
5. Create Leading Teams
6. Develop Goals
7. Set Priorities
8. Deal with Public Opinion

Found over on TechCrunch: Keep an Eye on Shelfari



Talks about an interesting social networking service that allows you to setup a visual virtual bookshelf to share with others and include your Amazon affiliate ID to generate a little passive income. Worth a look in my opinion.

Not everyone has the leadership abilities of Jack Welch or Steve Jobs, but there are some things everyone in a leadership position can do to improve their relationship with their team. Mutual respect is vital to a leader’s ultimate success so it is important that these six tips are followed by all leaders.

Coach Behind Closed Doors; Praise in Public
Good leaders realize a lot of their success is achieved through the help of others. Instinctively, they seem to understand that their accomplishments are due to their support group so they are careful not to publicly humiliate their valued contributors. Praising in public goes a long way toward instilling confidence in subordinates while coaching behind closed doors maintains the two-way respect built in the relationship. Mistakes are bound to be made but if a leader handles them professionally and appropriately, subordinates will continue to grow and prosper under the leader’s leadership. Remember the phrase “it may be a bad dog, but it’s my dog.”

Remember You Don’t Know it All
Leaders by nature have an undying belief they know more than others or those within their peer group. While this reality may be true in many instances, it’s not true across the board. Each person, regardless of their position within an organization, has something unique to add and has expertise in areas others do not, or they wouldn’t be a member of the team. You’ll win more people over by encouraging others to contribute to your team’s success than you will assuming you know it all and making every decision autonomously. Seek others’ input and consider multiple points of view prior to making a decision.

Prioritize Priorities
Every project or task cannot be a top priority project or task. There can only be one number one. You owe it to your supporting cast to define which projects take precedence over others so they can effectively do their jobs. If you consistently flip-flop priorities each week, you are sending mixed signals that will result in skittish outcomes. To achieve success, a team needs a vision and a plan. Part of that includes setting priorities and sticking to them. Your subordinates will thank you in the long run even if you become a stickler every now and again.

Get a Life
Just because you enjoy your job so much that you regularly put in fourteen hour days plus weekends, it’s not acceptable for that to become an expectation for others. Most employees enjoy having a life outside of work, and it’s ridiculous for a leader or a company to expect those working under their guidance to suggest otherwise. Just because an employee is on salary doesn’t mean free reign over their life. When the expectation is set that employees work 8-5 Monday through Friday, and employees meet those stipulations, all bets are off for your “mandatory” 10 AM meetings on Saturday morning. In other words, get a life and allow your employees to live theirs as they wish once the workday and week is completed.

Walk in Others’ Shoes
Let’s say you have a very good employee that has been falling off performance wise the past few weeks and doesn’t seem to be herself of late. Most leaders’ gut reaction is to have a “coaching” session with the employee. Why not have a heartfelt conversation with the employee to find out what is going on instead? If the employee will open up and share what they are experiencing, give her the benefit of the doubt by attempting to put yourself in her place before taking corrective action. She will appreciate the empathy, and you might just gain a new perspective on things that will benefit both of you throughout the professional relationship. Everything isn’t always black and white in spite of our wishes.

Be Fair Above All Else
No one appreciates discrimination. At the same time, employees resent a leader that has favorites which receive preferential treatment. In short, don’t go there! As a leader, it is your job to be objective and treat everyone with equality above all. Naturally, you’re going to like certain people more than others because that is human nature, but don’t let that blur your judgment of their work performance. If one of your more likeable employees makes a mistake, discipline them just as you would the gruff of the team and vice versa. It’s only fair, and it will maintain respect amongst the group.

In conclusion, by following these six tips, you can improve your leadership skills while also gaining additional respect and admiration from your team. Isn’t that what every leader wants?

Lately, I've been harsh on a few companies for their lack of service or, far worse, uncommitted executive leadership. Today, I experienced the flip side of that and wanted to share the experience to demonstrate equality.

I just returned from a visit to the local Big-O Tire Center around the corner from me because my Cherokee driver's side front tire had been losing air the past few days and was affecting the drive-ability of the vehicle. I figured I must have run over a nail, glass or whatever and was prepared to have to shell out for at least one new tire if it was glass which meant two new tires (to me) to balance everything out. I felt guilty for not visiting the Goodyear store a friend of mine happens to work, but the tire was awfully low (i.e. flat) so I didn't want to push it. The Goodyear is at least 15 miles away so that eliminated that from consideration rather quickly today. Not many gas stations offer tire repair these days so the choices are rather limited.

To my surprise, according to the technician, there was nothing wrong with the tire other than the lip had slightly bubbled under the rim just enough to allow air to slowly escape. He said SUVs and trucks have that happen every now and again. Ok, great! The beauty of it all--they didn't charge me a dime to fix it! Even though I have that friend that works at a tire shop some 15 miles away that would undoubtedly give me a good deal should I need tires or work done on my vehicle, I'll likely go to Big-O the next time I need tires for two reasons: 1) this act of uncommon kindness and 2) it's within walking distance of my home so it's extremely convenient.

Big-O has at least earned my business the next time I need tires without even doing anything to market to me or hook me to come in. They showed me they might actually care about their customers and doing the right thing even if it doesn't translate into immediate revenue or profits. I've already told three people (friend, girlfriend, and dad) about this without prompting from the folks at Big-O--I'm happy to share this kind of news because it's so rare. It beats the hell out of griping about something, too.

What's the last uncommonly good encounter you've had with a business lately? Hopefully some folks find working with my consulting company worthy of frequent unprompted praise at some point along the way.