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in·no·vate
.... to introduce something new; make changes in anything established Fast Company has named its 2013 50 Most Innovative Companies. The Top 20 companies (see the list below) include the names of some you know and some you may have never heard of before. In reading...
Pull Up a Chair
"Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com has accomplished a great deal in his forty-eight years. He's reshaped the retail business. He's become one of the thirty wealthiest people on the planet. And with far less fanfare, he's devised one of the best attunement...
What Do You Carry With You Every Day?
Take a minute before you start your week to think about what you carry with you every day. This visual came with the article, 5 Tools you Shouldn't Start your Work Day Without, and I have to say it made me stop and think what I must have with me each day as I venture...
Finding and Speaking YOUR Truth in the Workplace
It’s a magical and powerful thing to share your truth. In the following poem, poet, David Whyte, speaks to us about our voice in business. Please read it and consider how you use your voice in the workplace. Every day we encourage both leaders and employees to say...
The Enneagram in Business in the News!
It was 17 years ago that someone told us we could never bring the Enneagram into business and 17 years later not only do we have scores of clients and professionals who can attest that it does work in business but CNN's recent article has made public what we have...
Avoid Regret by De-Escalating Conflict
Marketers want commitment. They want the big finish, the closed sale, the new customer. Buy Now! The goal then is to create tension, to escalate need, to amplify conflict until action is taken. Escalation causes us to commit to our original need, by reinforcing it. It...
Competition: Do You Know When to Hold and When to Fold?
Today I read an intriguing headline on the cover of a past Harvard Business Review, "Do You Play to Win, or To Not Lose." When I read the article, it wasn't what I was expecting, but it's a great title and sparked with something I've been thinking about - competition....
Emotional Bonding: A Necessary Ingredient in Leadership
"Leaders bring out the best in others, but successful visionaries go even farther: they form lasting emotional bonds. They are the kinds of leaders we hold in our hearts. Deep motivation then develops. When people are emotionally bonded to you, they want to have...
The Secret Ingredient to Getting the Most out of One-On-One Coaching
Coaching business leaders isn't always a straight and narrow journey. We know that a successful coaching relationship is defined by the tangible results or changes that have occurred. It is important to set specific outcomes for working together at the start of the...
Culture and the “Value Gap”
A company’s culture is often defined as the “way we do things around here.” A more formal definition is that a company’s culture is “a blend of the values, beliefs, norms, taboos, symbols, rituals and myths that develop over time” and describes and governs the ways a...
The Ikea Effect
This just in from NPR… Building your own stuff boosts your feelings of pride and competence, and also signals to others that you are competent. Have you ever spent a couple of hours working on a craft project — or a presentation for work — and then fallen in love with...
Turning a “No” into a “Yes”
I had about five things I needed to complete this week and I found myself diverting my attention to everything but the things I needed to get done. I noticed that, at first, my inner critic was saying "you teach this stuff, you shouldn't have trouble getting...
A New Twist in Decision Making: Options and Regrets
For the past many months I've been pondering how people make decisions. For years in our sales training I've taught, based on my belief, that coming to a decision is a very individual process. To be effective as salespeople we need to discover how each individual, or...
Becoming Ourselves
"When I reflect on the life and witness of Martin Luther King, Jr., one thing that strikes me is obvious: he didn't start out to be who he ended up being. He didn't set out to be a visionary leader, intent on making an impact on the country and culture of his day. He...
YOUR BODY LANGUAGE SHAPES WHO YOU ARE
"Fake it till you become it." Amy J. C. Cuddy There is a great TED Talk (but a little long) by Amy J. C. Cuddy that offers some great insights into how to feel more powerful and confident in any situation. It only takes two minutes and you'll be surprised how simple...
OUTRAGEOUS
Happy New Year to all! As I, Mary Anne, contemplate 2013, intuitively, I feel good. I feel this year is going to be a year of plenty, a year of reaping the rewards for all the hard work we've put into our efforts. If you ask me why I feel this way, I can't give you a...
How Should a Leader Handle This?
What is the appropriate response by organizations and leaders when a tragedy like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School occurs? As leaders, what can or should we do? Some might say "do nothing; keep everyone focused on their work;" others might say "let us take a...
Build Your Network When You Don’t Need It
"Work on building your network when you don't need it." Grace Killelea I (Theresa) was recently talking to my son, Bryan, a senior at Towson University, about writing an email to the CEO at the company where he has worked part-time for the last four years. He, like...
ENERGY IS CONTAGIOUS
Start this Monday off with a smile and some fun energy. Share it with your employees. colleagues, friends and family and watch the energy that is generated from this short video. Sometimes taking a short pause from our lives and having a few moments of fun can shift...
Memorable Experiences are Built One Encounter at a Time
Every interaction counts and if you are not tracking every interaction your company has with your clients, you are missing huge opportunities to turn interactions into exceptional, memorable experiences. What's the difference between being greeted in the lobby and...
What Type of Sales Leader Are You?
There are an abundance of Sales and Sales Manager assessments on the market but we've just come across a Sales Leadership Assessment that measures key competencies rarely measured until now. In the article, New Directions in Sales Leadership Research, in the Journal...
Your Personal Best Matters!
Luckily, we have electricity, water, heat, our homes are intact, and our families are safe. Our work goes on today. But, that's not the case for many on the East coast as another Monday morning arrives. It is with great gratitude that we welcome this day. It is with...
Bracing for Superstorm Sandy
Bracking for Sandy and hoping everyone stays safe!
Focus and Right Action
What are you focused on these days? What is it that is driving your behavior? What results are you getting or not getting these days? David Whyte in his book, Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity, talks about work as a “journey and a...
Do You Love Your Work Like Mike Does?
This over-the-top, short video is one to get you going this Monday morning. Take a minute to view it and then answer the questions below as you start this week. If Mike's a 10*, how would you have rated how you woke up this morning? (*Using a scale of 0-10) What's one...
If It’s Your Show … What Lessons Would We Learn?
The Business Section of The Washington Post had a very interesting article on Sunday. The article by Neil Irwin is titled, "Management Lessons from Jack Donaghy," who is the CEO on the show, 30 Rock. We're not regular viewers of the show but the article piqued our...
The Wishing/Doing Gap
Who hasn't wished to win the lottery or for someone or something to make it all better? As usual, Seth Godin has something short but valuable to say about the Wishing/Doing Gap. "It would be great to be picked, to win the random lottery, to have a dream come true....
Avoid Death by Meetings
Who, in the last few weeks, hasn't complained about being in meetings and the amount of time they spend in meetings? That's often one of the biggest complaints we get from managers and employees when working in companies. So what can you do about it? Author, Patrick...
Life is a Series of Hero’s Journeys
One evening I, Theresa, was watching the movie, Finding Joe, with a friend. We were thoroughly engrossed in the movie when my 22 year old son, Pat, arrived back from work. He asked what we were watching and after telling him, he asked that I give him the DVD when we...
Active Listening is just that … Active!
Active Listening requires a disciplined effort to silence all that internal conversation while we are attempting to listen to another human being. (The Servant: A Simple Story about the True Essence of Leadership, by James C. Hunter) The skill of active listening...
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What is the Enneagram?
The Enneagram is the most effective tool we’ve found for catalyzing personal and professional success. Transform has been using this powerful, transformational tool for more than 20 years to redefine organizational cultures and to create highly functional and effective leaders, work teams and employees.
wake up and sell
Are you tired of feeling stuck in your sales career? Wake Up and Sell by Theresa Gale and Mary Anne Wampler, will help you overcome your motivational and behavioral blind spots to get you unstuck and on the road to sales success.
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