Leadership: Sell the Dream, Make the Reality

As a leader, you set the goals, establish the strategies and tactics to get there (with help from others of course) and sell the dream to all of your stakeholders. And that includes potential customers as well as executives and employees. Sometimes growth happens without a leader envisioning it, living it daily, evangelizing it to…

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Don’t Ignore These 4 Goals in 2016

Now is the perfect time to evaluate your old goals from last year and see what needs to change, in order to bring fresh and new ideas into your business. While it may seem obvious, don’t ignore these four important goals in the coming year. Employees Your employees are one of, if not the most…

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How Do You Measure Your Effectiveness as a Leader?

There are many roads to Rio, so they say. But there is one overwhelming method of appraising the effectiveness of a business leader. Outcomes. We can invent lots of metrics to measure progress for a leader, including revenue, profit, employee satisfaction, cost containment, percentage of available market, and more. But these are all individual roads…

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Akrasia May Be Holding You Back!

First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end. ~Aristotle So many people have trouble reaching their business and personal goals, no matter how much they plan for them. Just consider…

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How to Celebrate Small Gains in Marketing

Do you see the glass half empty with your marketing efforts? Are you struggling to make gains in marketing your business or nonprofit organization? Standing out and generating buzz, leads, brand recognition, and revenue are really challenging goals these days. And, you may feel frustrated with your progress. Well, you’re not alone. The way to…

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Are You Being Persistent Enough?

Successful entrepreneurs and business owners have a certain key quality that gives them the edge over others. Can you define it? Could it be perseverance, problem solving, motivation, or creativity? While these all play an important role in success, persistence is a huge part of building a memorable, quality business. When in the world of…

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7 Indicators of Business Traction You Should Celebrate

Every entrepreneur is quick to tell friends and potential investors about his or her vision of changing the world, about all the customers who have expressed an interest, and about all the other investors who are lining up to get a piece of the action. As an angel investor, I really prefer to hear evidence…

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10 Questions to Assess Your Motivational Skills

Motivated teams are the key to success at every startup, yet I still know entrepreneurs who gave an inspirational speech to kick off the quarter but haven’t been heard from since, or don’t realize that their actions are often more demotivating than inspirational. The result is a huge loss in productivity and morale and potentially…

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5 Essential Steps to Reaching Your Business Goals

You want to reach your business goals, right? Chinese philosopher Lau Tzu said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Unfortunately, that first step is often the hardest. Reaching your business goals can seem overwhelming if you’re not sure how to take that first step. But reaching those goals is possible, it…

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Live and Work Above Your Capacity

In every great time there is some one idea at work which is more powerful than any other, and which shapes the events of the time and determines their ultimate issues. ~Francis Bacon Benjamin Mays, a social activist, said, “The tragedy of life is often not in our failure, but rather in our complacency; not…

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