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Hello, my friends. Today, I want to talk to you about some incredible wisdom I learned from an 8-year-old neighbor - a delightful young man in my neighborhood named Tony. He comes over to throw the ball with our dog. He's just a sweetheart of a kid and very bright. He was asking me how to get rid of moles in his family’s yard. I know a little about it, but I'm no expert. All the things I know about getting rid of moles involve killing the moles. Well, Tony doesn't want to kill the moles. He loves all animals and wants the moles to live a happy life…just not in his yard. So each time I t … [Read more...]

Get Off Your Assumptions

This week’s subject is going to be a fun one. It is called “The Secret to Success is in the Can.” You may have heard me speak before about the three intelligences of selling, and they are vital. IQ – Intelligence Quotient - our intellectual ability. EQ – Emotional Quotient - our ability to control our emotions and deal effectively with others CQ - Conative Intelligence Quotient – our ability to take action based on IQ and EQ. The key factor is conative intelligence (CQ). CQ is the ability that some people have more than others to take action based on their IQ and their EQ. It … [Read more...]

Which is More Important, Culture or Strategy?

Culture vs. Strategy: which one is more important? It's the age-old business question. Of course, they are both important. But as Peter Drucker said years ago, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." He was saying that culture is more important than strategy. I am not taking anything away from the importance of developing a competitive strategy, but with regard to culture, ask yourself a few questions. Are you externally focused on customers? Are you internally focused on employees Do you have a hierarchal culture, where it is all about rules and regulations and compliance … [Read more...]

A Quick Litmus Test for Teams

Hello, my friends, This week I’m going to talk about Goals, Roles, and Rules. You know the words, but what am I really talking about? For a long, long time, I've been either part of a team, part of many teams, or the leader of teams. Since my corporate career, I have done a lot of coaching and leading of teams from the outside, and facilitating teams through issues and challenges. While there are as many problems and challenges in teamwork and team effectiveness as there are teams, “Goals, Roles and Rules” is a quick litmus test that I do to help me diagnose exactly what is going on or … [Read more...]

Plan Your Work – Work Your Plan

I want to talk to you today about the most important lesson I teach. I get asked this all the time. “Ed, you have so many messages, so many blog posts, and so many videos. If you had to boil down your teaching to just one thing, what's the one that is your signature?” The one I love the most, the one I think is the most fundamental to effectiveness, is quite simply, “Plan your work, and work your plan.” Plan your work, and work your plan. They go together. There are just three little words: plan your work. And then put them in reverse: work your plan. Now where did I get this? I didn't … [Read more...]