Category: Blog

Top Five Communication Skills for IT Professionals

Being a great IT professional isn't enough to be successful these days. Because clients are more demanding, communication more confusing and modes of communication more numerous, to really excel you...

Customer Effort Destroys Good Will-Don't Make Your Customer Work Hard

Every time I speak with a business owner, a general manager or president of a company, they say with great pride "If a problem gets to me, I make sure that it is taken care of." They believe that the...

Become a Good Listener

Being a good listener has never been harder. You are constantly barraged with information: notifications, reminders, ringing phones, binging emails—and people expect answers immediately. What can you...

Planning For a Better Meeting

Depending on your position within the company where you work, you could be spending anywhere from 35-50% of your time in meetings. Often those meetings are non-productive and ultimately a waste of your...

The Super Power I Really Don't Want

When I was a kid, my best friend Eileen and I spent hours discussing what superpower we wanted. Eileen wanted to be able to fly so she could soar over the rooftops and see our neighborhood below her....

The Selling Power of a Blank Sheet of Paper

The Selling Power of a Blank Sheet of Paper Sitting across from the marketing department as they unveiled their new sales brochure, Ed proclaimed, "literature is for losers." The blood drained from...

When Good Customer Service Rules Go Bad

Updated January 2021 Tony did exactly as he was trained. He sent a hand-written thank you note to his customer. However, when his customer received it she was furious and tore it up into little pieces...

Provide great service by turning over a new LEAF

After waiting an hour for my food to be delivered to my hotel room—late by 30 minutes according to the delivery time promised in their email confirmation—I called the company. Then I had to wait another...

How to Wreck Your Credibility in Three Simple Steps

As a SME (subject matter expert), you have spent a great deal of time creating content that will effectively express your ideas and address the interests of your audience. You begin presenting to your...

Speaker Mistakes that Even Professional Speakers Make

Learning from the best is always a good idea, especially when it means learning from their mistakes. Let's look at speaker mistakes that even professional speakers make. Good news they all can be easily...