I recently visited the Zen Garden at the Chicago Botanic Gardens, and found it a profoundly calming experience. Like many of us, I find myself bouncing around from activity to activity during the day; and my mind is usually even more frantic as it works on what I need to do in the future, what […]
Why Was That Brilliant?
Some of the most useful (and entertaining) professional development classes I’ve ever taken have been improv-comedy classes. Besides making me a little less unfunny at parties, I’ve learned some powerful and practical communication skills in these classes. One of them came from a brilliant teacher, Tim Whetham. (He was the teacher who pointed out on the first day […]
Small “v” Victories
Do you want 2 million people to show up and celebrate your victories? Unless you are a major league sports team like the Chicago Blawhawks and you just won the Stanley Cup, you might be waiting a while. And for most of us, that’s a problem, because we keep waiting for the huge wins in […]
Business Lessons I Learned from B.A. Baracus
I’ve read a lot of business books on team-building, delegation, and leadership. But some of the best lessons on teamwork are the ones I learned at my grandparent’s house on Saturday afternoons when I was growing up. And I’m not talking about the wonderful things I learned by helping my grandma set the table or […]
Act a Little Happier than You Feel
A quick tip you won’t find in most business books: Act a little happier than you feel. Whether you are talking to a client or prospect, sending an email to your boss, or attending a networking event, make your disposition a little cheerier than you normally would. Smile a little more, be a little more […]
Technology Doesn’t Solve Anything
Today, as you go through your work day, your goal is to solve as many problems as you can. For most of us, that is what our work consists of: solving challenges that pop up consistently through the day. Luckily, since our society has advanced a bit, the problems that we face aren’t the dire […]
The Quick and Dirty Way to Plan Effective Meetings
In the modern business world, meetings are a necessary (and ubiquitous) evil. There are sales meetings, planning meetings, marketing meetings, debriefing meetings, quarterly meetings, project meetings, committee meetings, meetings to set up other meetings… you got the idea. For all of the meetings that you go to, you’ve probably found that many are ineffective; or […]
Non-Linear Growth for Entrepreneurs
What causes entrepreneurs to fail? It’s a question that comes up a lot when working with clients who are struggling to build their businesses. Even new business owners who are doing well often feel that they are close to the edge of insolvency and are frustrated by how quickly (or rather, how slowly) their businesses are growing. Obviously, starting and growing a new enterprise is […]
The 7-Minute Personal Business Plan for 2013
With the end of the year here, everyone is putting the finishing touches on (or scrambling to start) their plans for 2013. Whether it’s for yourself, your family, or your company, putting some thought into what you want to accomplish in the new year is an incredibly useful exercise. Most of us, though, struggle to […]
Leaving a Business Voicemail the Right Way
With our headlong rush into social media and email, it seems that it’s become rarer and rarer for us to actually speak to others on the phone. This has definitely led to a decrease in phone skills, and unfortunately for many professionals it’s destroyed their ability to leave a good voicemail message. This problem is […]