“What are we supposed to do here?” is a question I use to gauge a team’s thinking as we tackle problems together. It is important to remember that problem-solving is a skill that can be applied to various situations in life, including those we encounter in business. Sometimes, we may experience a never-ending and frustrating […]
Critical Thinking
What will you NOT compromise influences your decisions
Compromise boils down to being respected and feeling understood. Yet, most of the time, we experience a reaction in our memory or body that is negative when we hear the word. The negative reaction stems from us – when we didn’t really know what we wanted.
7 Ways to Lead When you Don’t have the Answers
Leading is much more than picking up the slack, motivating or team building. It’s also about keeping the mission (of your role, your team, your department … your company) front and center. The thing is, there are no concrete steps to take that are the same for every situation. Ambiguity is a phenomenon all company […]
Three Skills To Leverage in Team Building
For the last several years, businesses have spent tremendous energy and resources on efficiency. Tightening up processes, removing actions lacking returns, and even combining responsibilities into fewer roles. The big question is what to do in an always-changing market where we are overloaded, and often have more than our job – specifically, the people looking […]
Elephants in the (Conference) Room
Elephants have strength and gentleness. They act with power and grace. They have pride and love. Just like elephants, humans also possess contrasting attributes – which can sometimes happen concurrently in an individual or a team. When opposing, interdependent emotions occur simultaneously, the path becomes clouded; momentum slows (even stops), missed deadlines crop up and […]
Growing Small Business — Factoring in Experience
Room & Board is an American modern furniture and home furnishings retailer whose inventory is 90 percent American-made. Nice, right? Well, the company goes one better: they actually come out and FIX furniture in the customer’s own home. Skeptical? Don’t be – I’ve personally made use of this in-home furniture repair service.
Growing Small Business — Establishing the Cost of a Product or Service
If your small business – and by extension, YOU – are potentially available 24/7, how do you determine what is an equitable, livable fee to charge for your product and/or service? Determining what to charge is a challenge for any business, at the beginning or in product evaluation. There are real-world consequences in charging too much […]