Tag Archives: leader

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How to Make Your Customer a Hero

Everybody wants to be a hero! We all want to be the shining star that our family, friends, peers, industry, and customers look up to!

However, to be that hero, a business leader must take a counterintuitive step backwards and become a supporting character.

Our customers do not want to hire a hero, they want to be the hero!

The best thing we can do for our businesses and careers is to make the customer the hero. In doing so, we will accelerate our business and career and, in a round about way, become heroes ourselves!

What does this supporting character look like? Well, Luke Skywalker would never have succeeded without Yoda by his side to equip and guide him. James Bond would have died in his first movie if Q had not outfitted him with state of the art gear. This theme repeats over and over again in movies, comic books and in real life!

No great leader has ever risen to the top without being supported and guided along the way by a cast of supporting characters. We all have teachers, mentors, coaches, and advocates in our personal and professional journeys that have shaped us into who we are today. This applies to world leaders, business people, innovators, athletes and entrepreneurs. It applies to Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Michael Jordan, and to you, me and our customers!

So, how do you become the supporting character and make your customer the hero?

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How To Build a Powerful Performance Review System That Works

By many accounts, Ray Dalio is a very successful person. He is most well known for being the founder and the driving force of  Bridgewater Associates, which Forbes calls “the fifth most important private company in the United States.”

However, what many people don’t know about Dalio is that he is the creator of some amazing systems that, among other things:

  • Measure performance
  • Spur innovative thinking
  • Motivate people to develop and grow
  • Position businesses for success

He credits much of his personal and business success to the creation and implementation of these systems.

One of these systems is for employee performance management. Although performance reviews are typically the bane of every employee and manager’s existence, Bridgewater has created an engaging system that gets beyond many of the pitfalls of traditional performance assessments.

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What is the Recipe for Powerful and Effective Meetings?

According to a University of North Carolina cross-industry study cited by HBR in their Stop the Meeting Madness article, 71% of senior leaders said that meetings are unproductive and inefficient.

In addition to this, they said that meetings:

  • Keep them from completing their required work (65%)
  • Come at the expense of deep thinking (64%)
  • Miss opportunities to bring the team closer together (62%)

My Poll Results

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How to Focus Your Business and Make More Money

Most of us are totally unaware of how much our lack of focus impacts our lives and our businesses yet the impact is huge!

Among many things, lack of focus:

  • Damages relationships
  • Results in missing sales opportunities
  • Increases our cost of doing business
  • Derails us from our vision
  • Impacts our ability to achieve goals
  • Results in increased work hours and workload

Essentially, lack of focus is, at best, a drag on our business and, at worst, will bring our business to its knees!

I think all of us can recall a time in our lives and/or businesses when our lack of focus cost us something. If not, maybe some of these examples will jog your memories!

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Extreme Ownership

How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

This week’s book review is Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin.

Willink and Babin have earned their leadership stripes in some of the toughest environments known to mankind – as SEAL team leaders under combat conditions in Ramadi, Iraq. These guys definitely have what it takes and know what true leadership is all about. After leaving active service Willink and Babin started their own business consultancy called Echelon Front where they apply their leadership expertise into the business world. Extreme Ownership summarizes their leadership experience and knowledge and how it can be applied to the business world.

My takeaway from this book is the 12 Leadership Principles summarized briefly below: