Your Leadership IQ

Lech Walesa told Congress that there is a declining world market for words. He’s right. The only thing the world believes anymore is behavior, because we all see it instantaneously. None of us may preach anymore. We must behave.” Max DePree, Chairman Herman Miller Leaders lead, and leadership by example is the best technique as proven for thousands of years. No great leader has ever been...

Considering Buyer Behavior

Buyers come in many shapes, sizes and behaviors. Ideally, our pricing policies and customer handling reflect this. Customer motivations, flexibility and preconceptions – all of which impact how we can best connect with them – can be all over the map! Zig Ziglar, famous sales expert and Baptist Sunday School teacher, said, “Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no...

Living in Contagious Oneness

What a wonderfully unsearchable gift … Christ in us! John’s gospel provides us with life-changing truth and encouragement regarding the heart and mind of our Creator. We have the incomprehensible privilege to be invited into eternal living unity with the only perfectly holy, unified, and intimate relationship in the universe; the Triune Godhead. Imagine the implications. For most of us, the...

Seeing our Work through Christ’s Eyes

Who are we and why are we here? Paul says “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph 2:10). We, in Christ, have been created by God to work for a purpose, and are empowered by Him as we fulfill this destiny. We’re Jesus’ hands and feet as we live out our calling through family, friends, the Church and those we...

Seizing the Moment (part 2)

Here we are, in the middle of an extended recession, hunkered down and unsure as to when the pressure will let up. Many of us are praying for restored demand and a healthy backlog that will allow us to “breathe easy” again. Is this where you are today? Is your attitude one of simply waiting out the slump and surviving to play the game another day the same way we always did? One of the grand...

I Coulda Been a Contender!

“I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.” Jude v3 Marlon Brando’s pitiful angst in delivering the most famous line in 1954’s“best picture,” On the Waterfront, still resonates with us since it deals with a common condition: being burdened by regret for previous actions and lost opportunities. Brando’s character,...

Loyalty: An Engine For Healthy Growth

We’re quick to overly complicate what’s involved in building a healthy company. Overwhelmed by a continuing barrage of ‘helpful’ input from authors and consultants, we continually seek the latest ‘breakthrough’ ideas and techniques to catapult us past competitors and ‘beat the odds’ in becoming a long-term success story. Sadly, in spite of all the expert advice, just 22% of the...

Ministering from the Overflow

For people committed to such concepts as fairness and justice, God’s grace is beyond “amazing.” As those adopted by God and eternally viewed as righteous solely through our faith in Christ, we must constantly remind ourselves of the indescribable and undeserved nature of this free gift. Our crucified and risen Lord lived perfectly, and died, that we might escape sin’s hold and the law’s...

Integrity – I’ve got it! Or do I?

Practically speaking, integrity means that we live without obvious contradiction between what we say we believe and what we actually do. There’s an observable consistency about them, linking their words to their actions. A common slang expression for people with integrity is that they “walk their talk,” meaning that what they say and do are consistent. A ‘high integrity’ person lives...

Growing Your Business-A Five Point Approach to Branding

A Five-Point Approach to Branding 1. Defining your Dominant Selling Idea (DSI) Our DSI is a unifying, energizing, focusing, trust-building, clutter-removing, lean-value-creating notion – a motivating difference at the moment of the purchase decision – that communicates our #1 position in a ‘desirable specialty’ that’s important to our target customers. That’s a mouthful, but unless...