Matching your skills and passions with market needs if the best way to ensure longevity, relevancy and revenue. On that quest, at times, you will come across those you should part with at the earliest opportunity. Strangely enough, sometimes those folks include some of your your current and prospective clients. Being paid for a product or service is the name …
Solutions first, rewards later
Focus on solutions for others, not benefits for yourself. This statement is based on a simple fact that if you provide solutions to others, benefits and rewards will come on their own in due time. Be proactive, step up and fill that void and focus on the opportunity of providing value to your coworkers, clients, partners and your success is …
Be a leader, not a decision maker
Leadership is earned, not given and as such you need to justify your privilege to lead others. Your title alone is not enough to make you a leader. Your position as a CEO, CIO, CFO, CMO, President, Vice President…gives you an opportunity to make decisions, not necessarily lead people forward. To lead others you must win their hearts and minds, …
Resources follow vision
Complaining about the lack of resources is utterly useless and here’s why. I am yet to meet an organization that has too many amazing people, too much money or too many great ideas, knowledge, technology…and so on. That doesn’t exist, accept it, internalize it and move forward. Instead of complaining, act on delivering value to the entire organization and making …
A taste of your own medicine
A taste of your own medicine is just what one may need at times. I say this with respect to the experience your clients go through with your services or products. Use your services, call your IT Service Desk (aka. Help Desk) and use your products in your daily life as that will clearly show you what your customers are …
Document what you do and communicate often
Documentation is crucial in knowledge sharing, knowledge transfer, management and the operations as a whole. Additionally, any and all procedural or project changes must be documented and shared with everyone who is or may be impacted by this change. Document, verify and communicate frequently what you do, why you are doing it and how it impacts the mission and vision …
Overwhelmed? Breathe and move one step at a time
24 hours in a day don’t seem like enough for most folks nowadays. We have families, friends, businesses, schools, hobbies, sports…to attend to and they are all competing for our time and attention. At times, this can be stress inducing and result in feeling overwhelmed, feeling like you can’t get anything done. Well, when you feel this way (ideally BEFORE …
Customer service: How to answer a phone
How should one answer the phone? Besides saying “hello” and being polite, it is essential to embody to quality you want your customers to experience in everything you do, even when answering calls. Once you have answered the phone, focus all of your attention on that client, don’t do other things and don’t put them on hold (unless you really …
Leaders protect people and make them feel safe
One of many responsibilities of leaders is to protect their staff and make them feel safe, comfortable and welcome at work. Besides being the right thing to do, you want your employees to be productive and to come back tomorrow and as such it is on you to provide a welcoming and supportive environment.
Build a great team, they are your reflection
The quality of your team, their performance and contributions are directly related to you as a leader. In a sense, they are a reflection of you. You set standards, expectations and instill values across your team and as such you need to use caution in the initial selection process. Furthermore, you need to provide them resources they need to be …