3 Behaviors that Help with Business Success
In Jim Collins’ newest stroke of literary genius, Great by Choice, he and his co-author Morten T. Hansen present the results of a research project that identified the characteristics that help businesses succeed in and all economic conditions. The result is a fascinating look at leadership styles and insightful conclusions that really can be applied…
What Are Your Leadership Training Plans in 2012?
I don’t necessarily mean what classes HR is going to mandate for your employees. What are you working towards? How will you improve in 2012? In my experience, successful leaders are always antsy. They are always looking forward, constantly working towards something, training to become better, more advanced. As a leader, your training is just…
Effective Sales Management Starts with Hiring
At Activate Group, we have helped hundreds of companies with sales force management and sales candidate screening and hiring. The goal is always to bring the right people into the right positions. Having an effective process is important for all areas of the company, but none more important than the sales team. After all, it’s…
How do you find your “Blue Ocean”?
More importantly, what is a Blue Ocean? That is the main focus of our upcoming strategic planning workshop called Keys to Forming an Awesome Strategy Workshop on Feb. 2. In it, we examine some of the principles from the book Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. In order to teach students…
How to Set SMART Goals
The first step in successfully executing a goal is to state it properly. A well-stated goal clearly explains what you are trying to achieve and in what time frame. A well-stated goal is the foundation of an effective business action plan. An acronym that is commonly used to define a properly stated goal is SMART:…
How 15 Minutes Can Change Your Business
A truly effective executive keeps his/her time commitments. Regardless of your industry, position, function, or company size, it’s critical of your reputation to be on time. In addition, I believe that if you don’t get to meetings 15 minutes early, you’re losing big opportunities. While being on time and keeping your meetings is necessary, being…
10 Questions to Ask Yourself Regularly
After spending time with many business leaders, I’ve learned that knowing your industry, finding investment capital, and hiring good people is not enough to succeed. There are many keys to success, but one in intelligent introspection—asking the right questions. Asking and answering the right questions on a regular basis optimizes your business by ensuring that…
Setting Examples Helps Employees Care About the Bottom Line?
As a leader in your company you are the foundation of the company culture. Like many business leaders, you may be struggling with how to build a sense of fiscal responsibility within your team. It’s a challenging thing to try to get entry-level employees to care as much about the bottom line as you do.…
4 Elements of Successful Meetings
Holding regular meetings can be a game-changing habit or a gigantic waste of time. I hear a lot of people complain about how they wish they could attend fewer meetings. They fear that most meetings waste time that could be spent working on new business, servicing customers or some other more worthwhile task. That line…
3 Tools for Effective Employee Recruitment
The entire recruitment process is a sometimes long and arduous one but should not be rushed.
