The boutique was packed, perhaps more than usual for even a Saturday afternoon due to the gray drizzle keeping everyone from the beach. My shopping companion, Julia, had found a pair of earrings she liked in a locked case. She asked whether someone could help her take a closer look. The reply was instantaneous. “We’re very busy helping some other people right now so it … [Read more...]
Channel Your Inner Donut: Be Consistently Good
Writing in a last week’s issue of New York Magazine about the surprising quality renaissance of the just ended television season Michael Hirschorn leads off with the punch line-- “When all else fails, try being good.” Our relentless quest for perfection can distract us from the power of being consistently good. But if you’re consistently good over time you’re probably … [Read more...]
The Most Effective Way to Improve Your Marketing
We are just past the midpoint of the second quarter of 2010. Are you on track? Is your business showing the returns and growth that you want to see? If not, consider changing your relationship with your marketing plan. Work With A Written Marketing Plan I’m assuming you have a marketing plan and that it is current. In other words that your marketing plan is in … [Read more...]
The Power of Persistence
Is there some connection you’ve been nursing along for quite a while? For so long, in fact, that the original professional objective, perhaps a long shot to begin with, is starting to look like more fantasy than reality? As a coach specializing in goal setting I’m called on daily to encourage optimism. The notion that stating your goal and going for it puts you on the … [Read more...]
Learned Anything Recently?
Are you one of those people who “knows” you should keep up with reading a certain periodical but has a tall pile of unread copies on your bedside table or office floor? The benefit continuous learning brings is summed up in one old-fashioned phrase “You don’t know what you don’t know.” What we do know takes us only so far. New information opens up new methods, strategies, … [Read more...]
Attacking and Beating Sales Reluctance With the Right Mindset
“I don’t like selling. But I’m the best salesperson we’ve got . . .” Have you heard someone saying this recently? Or, worse, have you caught yourself making this comment or something similar? Many professionals suffer from sales embarrassment – the notion that selling their services is somehow unseemly or demeaning. They know they need sales to generate … [Read more...]
Are You Aligned For Success?
What if multi-tasking was the enemy? Not the root cause of world war, poverty, and hunger, perhaps. But still a huge contributor to the myriad problems we experience on the job and in our personal lives every day. How can that be, you ask? Multi-tasking is the solution. It lets us get more done in less time so that we can actually juggle all the different things on … [Read more...]
Your Results File Is Central To Your Results
Are you collaborative or competitive? It can be tempting to think of these as mutually exclusive traits, to describe oneself as one or the other and understand that description to apply generally to your approach to a variety of situations. In fact, success in many situations requires strategic, flexible application of both. Career advancement is one such category. No … [Read more...]
Power Up Your Networking With 3 Key Strategies
By now you’ve gotten the message that networking is a crucial element of career success. If you’re going to make it you’ve got to connect. And you’ve read the rules – dress well, be sincere, be interested in the other person, follow-up to develop and build relationships, and so on. Does it still sound intimidating? So much so that you’re still holding back? Or maybe … [Read more...]
Got Goals?
Have you set job-related goals? Are strategic goals included among the goals you’ve set? These questions came to mind after a recent coaching session with a long-standing client, Jen H. (not her real name). We were discussing goals. It wasn’t our first conversation on the topic. As soon as she accepted the new position, a lateral move after nearly 15 years in a similar post … [Read more...]