Coaching

The Impact of Observation

by

Having signed 52 baseball prospects who would later become major league players, Tony Lucadello is known as baseball’s greatest scout. His discoveries included Hall of Famers Ferguson Jenkins and Mike Schmidt.  The number of his signees making it to the big leagues is far greater than any other scout. And he accomplished this with a territory that included Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, rather than the good weather states of Florida, Texas or California where more opportunities to …

Read more

3 Steps to Defeat the Initiative Dilemma

by

When organizations promote “initiative” as a core value, they often encounter the “initiative dilemma.” How can you encourage initiative and avoid the typical pitfalls that prevent action? Encouraging initiative energizes employees to make improvements, solve problems, deal with change, and provide customers with exceptional service.  When executives were recently polled about the most productive way for employees to advance, 82% responded with: “Ask for more work and responsibility.” When employees are asked why they are …

Read more

3 Keys to Coaching Change

by

Leaders are change agents. The most effective leaders drive change through coaching that inspires action. It’s almost impossible to overstate the role that coaching plays in transforming behavior. You could be a sales leader seeking to change your company’s selling process. Or, perhaps you are an Operations leader trying to improve a production process. Or, maybe you are a senior leader striving to elevate initiative and employee engagement to improve company performance. You will not …

Read more

Customers Are In Charge

by

The vast amount of information available via the web has radically altered the selling process.  Potential customers can reference websites, blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other web-based tools to gather volumes of data before they ever reach out to a salesperson. If you are not careful, when that inquiry arrives, your response will convince them that your product or service is just like the other commodities they see all over the web and they …

Read more

The “Can’t See It” Excuse

by

In a recent posting, Seth Godin offered an illustrator’s analogy about visualizing goals. “If you can’t see it (in your mind, not with your eyes), then you can’t draw it.” (Drawing an owl – 1/7/14) Leadership is about communicating purpose, vision and direction. But it is also about helping your people engage so they can contribute to the big picture. As Seth mentions, there are thousands of concepts about how to lead people, how to …

Read more