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2017Truth Matters. Your Two Target Markets…
During the 25 years I ran my advertising agency we often spoke of an advertiser’s “target markets.” By this we referred the age, income levels, genders, etc. of the people we hoped to reach with our message. Saying with our advertising metaphor, you need to understand that each of us has two target markets. We should determine to be a ferocious truth teller with both:…
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2017The Great Divide in Today’s Workforce…and How to Deal With It.
There is a great chasm in our culture. This is the reason fifty-five-year-old bosses are clueless when it comes to motivating and dispatching their younger workforce. This is why parents feel adrift when communicating with their pre-teen and teenage children. This is why we don’t get along. What causes this? It is the cultural divide between Modernists and Post-Modernists. In case these are terms with…
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2017Four Tips for Handling Change
Following are four tips that have helped me deal with change. You may want to consider using some of them the next time you are faced with a “change moment.” 1) Don’t wait for all the details. Good leaders want lots of details before they make a decision. That’s great…up to a point. Despite one’s best efforts, in most situations it’s impossible to get all…
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2017Fast-Forward Leadership Means Not Being Swayed By Herd-Think
Most of the failed people whom I’ve known have been herd thinkers. So, one of the things I warn audiences about is this phenomenon where people all do the same thing. A prime example is people buying the same investment that lots of other people are buying…not because it makes logical sense, but because everyone else is buying it. At the base of this behavior…
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2017The “3 D’s of Conflict Avoidance”
I want to tell you about a call from a young person that I’ll call Greg. I’ve known Greg all of his life. He is well educated and has extremely good people skills. However, this call wasn’t a pleasant one. Greg told me that he was depressed and discouraged. As a matter of fact, he was ready to rethink his chosen career path. “What,” I…
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2017Got a Plan? Here are Some Time-Tested Strategies
Life is a to do list and in this post I’m going to show you how to make a to do list for both business and life! I grew up in the 1960s…the era of rebellion and non-conformity. Sadly, we still have some warmed-over hippies left from that time. Their attitude is, “Don’t complicate my life with your strategies…let me do my own thing.” On…
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20173 Traits of Successful Conflict Resolvers
No one needs to tell you that we live in a restless and tightly wound society. The culture has become coarse and strained. From workplace shooting to road rage on the highway, we see conflict all around us. But, there are some very effective ways to approach, and resolve, conflicts. Through the years, I’ve listened and learned from some very wise people. I’ve also had…
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2017Don’t Ignore the Obvious
The 1950s was a good time for America. We had won the big war. The baby boom was in full swing. America liked Ike. We were feeling our collective oats. But not everything was as it seemed. In fact, we didn’t know that several decades later we’d look back on the 1950s as the Happy Days era. In reality, there was a lot of tension…
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2017Conflict Resolution Specialists: 4 Tricks of the Trade
For anyone who aspires to succeed in a field, it’s always best to study what other successful people are already doing. Through the years I’ve dealt with conflict resolution on various levels. Here are 4 tricks the greats all use: 1. They listen. Effective conflict resolvers are good listeners. They make it a point to hear what is being said. Much of the conflict I…
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2017Fast-Forward Leaders Learn to Thrive On Change
As a professional speaker, I’m a huge fan of other professional speakers. When one of my peers gets a standing O…I find myself enjoying a standing O vicariously. When a fellow speaker presents the audience with an “Aha” moment…my heart is smiling. And when I see another speaker in an embarrassing moment…I am blushing, too. Let me tell you about one of those blushing moments….