I've read a lot of business books on team-building, delegation, and leadership. But some of the best lessons on teamwork are the ones I learned at my grandparent's house on Saturday afternoons when I was growing up. And I'm not talking about the wonderful things I learned by helping my grandma set the table or by playing cards with my grandpa (although they were pretty awesome). I'm talking about the A-Team. Every Saturday afternoon my cousins and I gathered around to watch the reruns of Hannibal and his crew while they protected some poor soul from the villain of the week and then jetted off just before the MPs got there. MBAs Could … [Read more...]
Technology Can’t Solve Any Business Problems Alone
Today, as you go through your work day, your goal is to solve as many problems as you can. For most of us, that is actually what our work consists of: solving challenges that pop up consistently through the day. Luckily, since our society has advanced a bit, the problems that we face aren't the dire ones that faced our ancestors, like mystery blights destroying our crops or hordes of marauding barbarians. For us, it might be finding prospective clients, balancing the books, or managing different personalities on a project. Technology is Just a Tool Just like our ancestors, we consistently look to technology to solve our problems. They … [Read more...]
The Quick and Dirty Way to Plan Effective Meetings
In the modern business world, meetings are a necessary (and ubiquitous) evil. There are sales meetings, planning meetings, marketing meetings, debriefing meetings, quarterly meetings, project meetings, committee meetings, meetings to set up other meetings... you got the idea. For all of the meetings that you go to, you've probably found that many are ineffective. Or to put it bluntly, a waste of time. It's why meetings have a bad rep. They often devolve into unfocused conversations about topics that aren't important that finally end without anything being solved or a clear course of action. How to Plan a Great Meeting I can't save … [Read more...]
The 7-Minute Personal Business Plan for Next Year
With the end of the year here, everyone is putting the finishing touches on (or scrambling to start) their plans for 2013. Whether it's for yourself, your family, or your company, putting some thought into what you want to accomplish in the new year is an incredibly useful exercise. Most of us, though, struggle to find the time to take a time-out and plan. It can be especially difficult to find time for our personal goals (because, let's face it, if no one is expecting it from us, it's easy to push it off). So here's a way to create a useful business plan to help guide your career next year. It ill only take you 7 minutes to complete … [Read more...]
Leaving a Business Voicemail the Right Way
With our headlong rush into social media and email, it seems that it's become rarer and rarer for us to actually speak to others on the phone. This has definitely led to a decrease in phone skills, and unfortunately for many professionals it's destroyed their ability to leave a good voicemail message. This problem is compounded by the fact that, since we're leaving less voicemail messages, when we do find ourselves needing to leave a voicemail it's important and we get performance anxiety. Create Clear Communication By the way, I'm not talking about creating a perfectly-crafted sales message to get a cold call victim to call you back. … [Read more...]