The following is a guest post by John Warrillow. John writes a regular business column for several publications, including Inc Magazine, The Globe and Mail, and BNET. John is also the author of the book “Built to Sell: Creating A Business That Can Thrive Without You”, which is set to go through it’s second printing this week. Included in this 2nd edition of his book is a new section that provides examples and his own personal experiences with the various steps described in his book on how you can build a business you can sell (you can read my review of the first edition of John’s book here).

Following the release of my book “Built to Sell” last year, I’ve had the opportunity to talk with several business owners about their companies and the challenges they face as their business grows and evolves.

As Tanveer writes about leadership and managing employees, I thought I’d share some of the questions I often get asked by business leaders about managing customer expectations, developing their employees and how to involve your team in the process of selling your business when the time comes to put it on the selling block.

Q: These days, there’s a lot of talk about the importance of customer service and doing whatever it takes to make them happy. How do I balance this against not spreading my company resources too thin?

A: I’m a big believer in leading your customers, not following them. If Steve Jobs had listened to his customers, he would have never developed the iPod. Nobody would have told Jobs in a focus group that they want a thousand songs in their pocket because it’s impossible for most people to imagine something that doesn’t exist, if not knowing what your company is capable of creating.

That’s why I think companies need to focus on Click here to continue reading »”Are You Building A Business Or A Job?”

The following is a guest post by Kevin Eikenberry. Kevin is an author, speaker, trainer, consultant, and the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group.  His latest book, ” From Bud to Boss – Secrets to a Successful Transition to Remarkable Leadership“, was co-authored with Guy Harris and will be available online and in bookstores starting tomorrow.  Recently, his team created the Bud to Boss Community, a free online resource to help people who are new to the role of leadership.

President Mubarak has been the President of Egypt for 30 years. He’s an experienced leader, so you would think he would have known better. It seems he wasn’t listening to what was really happening in his country. He should have known about the issues. By all reports the concerns of the people aren’t new. The experiences of his neighbors in Tunisia should have been a sign. But, apparently not.

Because his inactivity, his lack of awareness and perhaps hubris, he was driven out last Friday from his role as the leader of his country.

You don’t lead a country and the consequences of your actions (or inactions) as a leader likely won’t be as dire or as widespread. But the lesson is right there in front of you. Are you paying attention?

In part, President Mubarak wasn’t paying attention. It is easy to do. It is easy to sit in our offices, thinking about the seemingly urgent matters, pondering our next big project, and thinking big things. When we do these things we may not be focusing on what is happening with our team, department, or organization.

Or maybe we focus on our organization too much – and we don’t see the trends, shifts, new technologies or other outside factors that will be impacting our businesses. What is your Tunisia?

The solution is simple. Click here to continue reading »”Are You Paying Attention?”

The following is a guest post by Dr. Graham Jones.  I was approached recently by McGraw-Hill to review his latest book “Thrive on Pressure: Lead and Succeed When Times Are Tough”, which was published in August 2010.  After reading his book, I welcomed the opportunity to have Graham share his thoughts on leadership and the lessons he’s learned from working with top athletes with my readers.  You can learn more about Graham and his latest book by visiting his website, “Thrive on Pressure“.

The majority of business leaders I have worked with have a ravenous fascination with and curiosity about top-level sports. I have no doubt that most of them have secretly dreamed of being star athletes themselves. Whenever they find out about my involvement in the magical world of such people, they besiege me with questions. How do their heroes cope with sometimes over-intrusive interest in their professional and private lives? What are those people like? How do they motivate themselves to endure the intensity of training and practice they subject themselves to day in and day out? Why does the U.S. Ryder Cup golf team, with the best players in the world, so often struggle to overcome Europe’s team?

Business people are so fascinated with elite sports that companies pay vast fees to listen to inspirational talks by sporting legends. But what do they learn from them? Do their stories provide anything more than an opportunity to rub shoulders with names that will impress friends? How can listening to such stars change what executives do when they return to their desks? Some executives are skeptical that it can at all. They see their world as too different from one with such obvious and extreme motivators as Olympic gold medals and world championships.

Elite sports is a powerful metaphor for business, and there are some striking parallels. Click here to continue reading »”Thriving on Pressure – Lessons From Elite Athletes”

Image courtesy of sicoactiva

Have you ever noticed how discussions on improving business operations or possible solutions to today’s economic challenges rarely consider what the emotional impact will be on employees? In some ways, it’s not too surprising given how many of us have had leaders who taught us to not take things personally at work given that “it’s just business”. However, the findings from a recent report should get many of these leaders to reconsider the role human emotions play in how they lead their teams.

The UK business magazine “Management Today”, along with the Institute of Leadership and Management, carried out a survey of 2,405 managers and 2,595 non-managers to determine how much trust employees have in the CEOs who run their organizations. In what should certainly be an encouraging sign for both leaders and their organizations, 47% of those surveyed felt that leaders had done a good to very good job managing their companies through the current global recession. Where things get interesting, though, is when they compared the trust levels attained by male and female CEOs.

For the second year in a row, female CEOs rated higher trust levels than male CEOs. What’s more, in this year’s survey, they also found that male employees have a greater level of trust in female CEOs than those who work for male CEOs. In fact, the level of trust for female CEOs was especially high among men who work in non-managerial roles within their organization.

So what’s behind this growing divergence in trust levels employees have for female CEOs over male CEOs? After reviewing their data, the report’s authors found it comes down to one word. Click here to continue reading »”A Revealing Look at One of The Dirty Words in Business”