A lion is fully capable of capturing, killing, and eating a field mouse. But it turns out that the energy required to do so exceeds the caloric content of the mouse itself. So a lion that spent its day hunting and eating field mice would slowly starve to death. A lion can’t live on field…
Tag: leadership
Draft to Publish
Today is Leap Day 2024. What ideas do you have saved for a future date to put them into action? What emails do you have sitting in your Drafts folder to send? Why are you sitting on the sidelines when you know you’re prepared for the game? Are you waiting for someone’s permission, approval, or…
Effective Corporate Training
In Carol S. Dweck’s ground breaking book, Mindset The New Psychology of Success How We Can Learn To Fulfill Our Potential, she shares how to make corporate training programs effective. She mentions: Look for talented managers who also embody a growth mindset. Train leaders, managers, and employees to believe in growth, in addition to training…
Attitude and Skill
Attitude and Skill were found to be the two key differences between great competitors and good ones in swimming in a study done by Daniel F. Chambliss and shared through his paper “The Mundanity of Excellence: An Ethnographic Report on Stratification and Olympic Swimmers.” Daniel reviewed the habits, backgrounds, and performance of competitive swimmers and…
Customer experience ownership
On a recent weekend, we were shopping at a local Marshalls store and picked up few items to purchase. One of the items was on sale and another similar item was not on sale. When we were checking out the products from the store, the cashier suggested that the other similar item might be on…
Creative is a choice
In The Practice: Shipping Creative Work, Seth Godin describes that creativity is an Action, Not a feeling. Taking action on the ideas we have (writing a blog, composing a piece, contributing something new to a conversation or in a meeting etc) is very important. We should not wait for the “right moments” when we feel…
Relationship equity
What’s your relationship equity like? Have you invested time and energy into building the personal and professional relationships in your life? If there’s not been much investment in the important relationships, should we be surprised by the current status of those relationships? Relationship equity is about putting in the time, energy, care, generosity, and empathy…
the art of excellent customer service
Erica and Tony both aspired a career in hospitality after college. They wanted to be working for a multinational hospitality group that operated hotels all over the world. Both start an internship at a national hotel chain. When the internship comes to an end, Tony decides to go back to college to finish his final…
From Entrepreneur to Empowerer
How can entrepreneurs grow their startup? The qualities that help entrepreneurs start their businesses might not be the same that will help take the startup to the next level. There will still be challenges that entrepreneurs will face when they have hired all the “right people” for the different roles of the company. If the…
Delivering exceptional value to clients
In service focused businesses, meeting and exceeding clients’ expectations is everything. Providing excellent client service is both an art and a science. You can learn a lot from others’ experiences, read book(s) and blogs and watch relevant content to understand what client servicing is. Then there’s the exciting part of actually managing clients yourselves. That’s…
Will you have the audacity to wave ’em off?
Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks waved off his teammates to take the game winning shot in Toronto against the Toronto Raptors on February 14, 2012. Why is this a big deal? It’s a big deal because we witnessed an Asian man in the NBA have the confidence to say that I’ve got this…
Who’s the most valuable member of the company?
Since it was the founder/co-founders’ idea that led to the company’s start, is she/he/them the Most Valuable Member (MVM)? Sales team brings in clients and revenue. Are they more valuable then? How about the technology team that made the software which the sales team sold? And the human resource team who found and hired the…
What’s your dominant question?
Jim Kwik, author of Limitless says a dominant question is the thing we keep asking ourselves, over and over throughout our day. It’s what drives our decisions in the moment and focuses our obsessions when we’re alone. He says the dominant question feels permanent but it is not. “The questions you ask yourself will shape…
Useful resources on curiosity and questions
Articles/blogs: The DNA of the World’s Most Innovative Companies Curiosity is a Must-have Skill The Business Case for Curiosity Forget Brainstorming. Try Questionstorming Why must businesses step back in order to move forward? Videos: How to Ask Better Questions | Tim Ferriss The Truth about Being the “Stupidest” in the Room | Simon Sinek Podcasts:…
Asking questions to understand better
Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why and other books says that “asking questions doesn’t mean you’re the stupidest person in the room; it usually means you’re the only one brave enough to speak up.” Some of the reasons why we aren’t asking enough questions even when we don’t understand the topic of discussion are…
Organizations that grow
In Carol S. Dweck’s groundbreaking book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, she talks about the research that Jim Collins and his team did on what made companies move from being good to being great. The five-year study showed that there were several factors that distinguished the thriving companies from the others. In Jim Collins’…
Take care of your employees.
We’ve heard the phrase many times “Employees are a company’s greatest asset.” Do you think most companies actually believe that phrase in their core and behave accordingly? That’s a profound statement that companies have to visit and revisit all the time. Some well established companies tout all the benefits they provide to their employees but…
The foundation
A lot of projects get started. Some big and some small. Yet, I believe the right team can make all the difference and the project’s foundation is very important. I have been part of many projects including planning company events. Most recently, I was part of a team that organized our company’s annual gala. Our…
The Next Right Thing
Leadership has to evolve. To constantly take on newer challenges and lead the pack. To drive the culture forward. People are looking for ways to make an impact in the world. They are searching for the next big thing to attach their name to. They want to contribute and they want to matter. At times,…