Business leaders take your cue from fashion models. Lead, then step back and let someone step forward. The natural flow of movement is one of stepping back to allow steps forward, and stepping forward when those we lead step back.
Feb 17 2012
The Dance Sequence of Leadership
Feb 15 2012
Building Your Brand — What Names are Connected With It?
You know those signs on the “Ye Olde Inn” facilities, the one that says “George Washington slept here”? Or “General Patton drank here”. And so on and so forth. That marketing tool of name recognition, connecting your brand with the right people, is not just for cloying historic places. It is relevant for many industries and businesses.
Today I visited Fashion Week, where such is standard modus operandi. Fashion designers and jewelry companies ensure their pieces are seen on the right model or actress. They make sure the right celebrities are there in their line of fashion. It creates that buzz for their brand.
In medicine, it is also true. There are the “in” doctors, the ones who celebrities use for their sculpting, which catapult their trajectory of popularity with the masses.
As you plan your marketing campaign, don’t overlook connecting your brand with the right people. Figure out how to work in a few influential people into your marketing mix.
For an in-depth understanding of what creates trends and popularity for a brand, I recommend you pick up a copy of The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell.
Are the right people spotted using your products and services?
Feb 14 2012
Ramp Up Business – Corporate Expansions
In a tunnel under the border of France and Switzerland, protons are being smashed head on in a huge contraption called the Large Hadron Collider. The point of the operation is to find the origins of creation, the Higgs Boson which, according to the theories of physicists, is the stuff from which all is built.
You can imagine the planning that went into building the Collider, the protocol put into place to ensure safety (after all, collision of the atom gave us Hiroshima!). And now, it has been reported that more careful planning is leading to the ramping up of operations. BBC today reported that now the scientists will “increase the energies of the bunches of subatomic particles called protons that it smashes together.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17025708.
The ramp up will be a 14% increase, making a sum total “collision energy of 8 trillion electron volts.”
You planned for your business, created your business vision, the operations manual, all the protocol. You are in business already, but you want to ramp it up a few notches. What do you do? Many business owners believe you just ramp up the energy. However, many case studies will point out that just ramping up operations without solid planning can cause a business to fold.
Just as physicists must ramp up the pace in their Collider, a business owner must do careful, prudent planning before going for an expansion.
Your business plan has to be overhauled and updated. New job descriptions and protocol must be drafted, employees trained and policies and procedures put into place that will encompass all the added responsibilities and activities.
Answer these questions before ramping up operations: what resources will you need to increase operations, what additional staff and consultants, how will added workflow impact current successful outcomes and how do you keep your current success in place, even as you expand.
Explode profits, without imploding your business.
Feb 08 2012
How to Visualize it Done
The best emails I get in my business consulting company are those with one word-DONE. How many times have you waited painfully for someone to complete a task for you?
Next time you ask someone to perform a task, visualize getting an email the next day saying done. Now that you are dreaming of having it done, make sure that vision comes to fruition.
How? State your expectations and train those around you to just get it done by being unambiguous about it. It is always good to be clear about what you expect, in what shape and form and by when you want it done.
Enjoy seeing results now.
And return the courtesy — when you’ve completed something, email back “done” .
Feb 07 2012
How to Empower your Team to Make Positive Change
As an NYC business consultant, I am asked to help align the team toward the CEOs vision. Here is how to can rally the troops behind your leadership:
1. Be crystal clear where you want to lead the team
2. Communicate your vision to the team – carefully choose the environment to show you are serious about your decision and optimistic about the future
3. Take action – quickly show your team you are serious about the change and make things happen
4. Track the change to demonstrate the amount of change after each month, quarter and year. Progress breeds progress
5. Celebrate those changes
Feb 01 2012
3 Keys to Create Business Order out of Chaos
1-Know what order looks like.
2-Accept where your business is today and become more and more consciously aware of what needs to change.
3- Create a strategy to move one small step closer to order and voraciously implement it daily.
Jan 24 2012
4 Things a Business Consultant Can See
1-Perception of your business, just by walking in the door.
2-Your value system, just by how she is greeted and how people interact.
3-The heiracherial structure based on where people are seated.
4-CEOs purpose based on what they speak mostly about.
Jan 20 2012
5 Goals of an Energetic Business Presentation
Have you ever been to a business presentation that put you to sleep? Where the presenter read from the slides? Here are the 5 steps to give an energetic presentation that keeps your audience’s attention and interest and leads to a next step:
1. A story to engage your audience
2. An overview of what you intend to share with them with 3 key points
3. Visual slides to support and dramatize your speech
4. Gifts you are giving the audience for listening to you
5. A call to action – the next step you want your audience to take
Jan 18 2012
4 Keys To Making Good Business Decisions
CEOs and executives have a lot of responsibilities. Knowing how these responsibilities fit in the big picture is crucial to make business decisions and prioritize your time.
Therefore the 4 table of contents for any task are these:
1. Purpose – Why is this important?
2. Vision – Where do I want this business decision to lead me>
3. Strategy – How am I going to get to my vision?
4. Commitment – Am I committed to work and empower my team to get there?
Jan 16 2012
4 Steps to Actualize Your Vision
How is it that some great leaders have visions that outlast even them?! Think of the great visionary Martin Luther King. He had a dream that has put our President into office. Think Ghandi. He had a vision of a place he never saw — modern day India. Now, as for you, if you have a vision, here are the four components that actualize visions and can have that vision become even greater than its dreamer.
Here is how to achieve great results:
1. Know why you want to achieve that vision.
2. Know what it looks like when it is all done. Be crystal clear how it looks and feels with a painted picture in your mind.
3. Think through the steps to get you there
4. Be 100% committed to achieving your vision.
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