Category Archives: Monday Morning Mentor
Let me Tell you What’s Going On…
Comments Off on Let me Tell you What’s Going On…A lot of changes! I’m up north at the cottage on the beautiful pristine lower French River delta, in the middle of summer, and I have a big sweater on and all the windows shut at seven in the morning. (A polar vortex, whatever that is… A lot of big business changes are just as weird to grasp.) I thought I would summarize the biggest trends I see. This comes from two years of research, ...
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This Could Be Your Ticket to Success
Comments Off on This Could Be Your Ticket to SuccessLately I’ve been thinking again about what it takes to be successful. This topic has taken up my thoughts since 1964 when I was one of those who picked up the ball to keep Dale Carnegie’s vision alive in Canada after his death. Dale created a vision for me and millions of others that I could succeed in life despite any perceived drawbacks. He actually proved to us that we could feel ...
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Why is Change so Difficult?
Comments Off on Why is Change so Difficult?I’ve worked with a handful of companies to improve their sales results. I wish it was as simple as teaching new sales techniques. It’s a structural issue. According to one of my brilliant old mentors, Robert Fritz, everything has a structure and design that causes the behaviours we get. For example, if our commitments, systems and processes, actions and conversations with customers, ...
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This is What a Work Environment Should Look Like…
Comments Off on This is What a Work Environment Should Look Like…I just talked to a retired, former employee of mine who told me that I always cared about my team, as much as I wanted business results. I thought about that. Yes, I feel that’s correct but from my perspective, it wasn’t always easy to do. When I was 21 and new in the Dale Carnegie business, I dreamed of creating a culture that modelled the Dale Carnegie Course, where everyone is ...
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Are your Employees Acting for the Business or Themselves?
Comments Off on Are your Employees Acting for the Business or Themselves?Improving a business sometimes feels like an impossible task. Why don’t some groups take the actions necessary that will improve the business? I remember working with a team that was trying to increase their revenues and it became clear that the management and individuals involved had designed the business to fit their personal lives. No matter how I tried to get them to understand their ...
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Tips for Growing a Professional Firm
Comments Off on Tips for Growing a Professional FirmDo you have a seller/doer model at your firm? There are about 50,000 small firms in Canada that do. After investing five to seven years educating to become an engineer, CA, or lawyer and depending on math, the numbers and equations, the majority of new hires go through many transitions before they are responsible for growing their business. From designing or doing technical work, client manager, ...
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Don’t Miss the Important Messages
Comments Off on Don’t Miss the Important MessagesI just watched a series of episodes done by medical doctors on the truth about cancer. My wife emailed it to me from Florida. She was so excited about what she learned about our health from watching it, that she tried to get me to promise to watch. I really didn’t want to. I’ve watched other stuff from American doctors trying to sell me stuff (reports, medications, etc.). So I ...
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How to Unlock your Mental Side of Success
Comments Off on How to Unlock your Mental Side of SuccessAs a Canadian, it’s hard not to compare (to some degree) success in hockey, with success in business and life, even though it’s different. So, let’s look at what so many said about “Sid the Kid Crosby”, after he won the Conn Smythe award for being the best player in the recent playoffs. His teammates are just in awe of number 87’s determination to win again ...
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Here are the Eight Most Important Entrepreneurial Skills
Comments Off on Here are the Eight Most Important Entrepreneurial SkillsWhether you’re a business owner, a future one, or work for one, what are the skills you need to constantly develop to succeed? I mean constantly succeed, because for some reason, we tend to stop growing at the things that got us there. Our motives change (usually money or ego), we get satisfied, or just get lazy. I don’t know why it continually happens but it does. These skills apply ...
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Your Customers Voice is Where you Test your Direction
Comments Off on Your Customers Voice is Where you Test your DirectionFor many years, I conducted listening meetings at a terrific organization that wanted to grow despite their changing and competitive marketplace. Who did we listen to? First, it was the executive team who had to see the reality about what was going on. As I found out years ago in doing this work, reality is an acquired taste. They listened to each other, examined some research, and, in the end, ...
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Are You Going to Keep Up?
Comments Off on Are You Going to Keep Up?Political turmoil in the world? Yup. Brexit, Trump, Le Pen…. Where did all that come from? What pushed people to go for dramatic change? Business turmoil? Yup. Globalization , acceleration in technology and its addition to practically every product, the innovation and dominance of data management which is driving marketing and business decisions. And, if you think machines are smart, just ...
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Why is it we live with problems?
Comments Off on Why is it we live with problems?It sure is easier to diagnose a life or business problem when it isn’t yours. Why? Well, when you’re in the middle of it, all your emotions and sometimes the ‘can’t win no matter what you do worries’ take over. It’s hard being objective. There are always consequences to every action or the lack of action. The fear of the downside wins too often. Or, we ...
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