Leadership
Mary Beth Bryant: A Passion for Helping Others
The mission of business is helping others—plain and simple. A successful, sustainable mission must provide value to its customers, and make their lives better. For Mary Beth Bryant, of CelloLessonsWithMaryBeth.com, her business is about helping others learn how to communicate. The cello teaches discipline, emotion, and responsibility, she says. She teaches her students how to…
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Exploit Your Employees’ Unique Talents
I continue to be impressed by the Kimpton Hotel Chain. The staff was nothing short of amazing during my recent stay at their Alexis Hotel in Seattle. For this article, I imagined myself as a “mystery shopper” and engaged with several employees to find out more about their culture. I talked to the front desk…
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Best of Mentoring: TJ Muehleman on a Culture of Empowerment
TJ Muehleman’s mentoring series shares his story of entrepreneurship, starting one business and then another, and gradually shifting focus from one to the other. In this session, he talks about the kind of culture he wants to build in his business: a culture of empowerment where everyone has both the resources and the ability to…
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How Well Do You Treat Your Internal Customers?
If your company’s goal is to deliver an excellent customer experience, you must first embrace the concept of internal customer service. What is happening on the inside of the organization will define the type of customer experience that is presented to the outside. The company culture must form a firm foundation for customer service. Here’s…
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The Harder I Work, The Luckier I Get
One of the original owners of the Minnesota Vikings was H.P. Skoglund, who grew up in northern Minnesota—humble origins in a tough, cold place—started an insurance company, and built it into a huge success. Bemidji is a Minnesota town famous for three things: giant statues of mythical lumberjack Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe,…
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Midweek Reading: Character, Philanthropy, and Values
Employers develop the ability to identify people with the skills needed for a job, but often struggle at judging character, finding trustworthy, reliable employees above and beyond skill and experience. A family-owned restaurant in Augusta, Maine, has given more than $2 million to charity, and has made dedication to philanthropy a key part of its…
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Best of Mentoring: Santo Stephens on Winning Teams
Santo Stephens’ mentoring series is all about building relationships and putting together teams and organizations. Based on his experiences in football and business, Santo and Fran discuss what it takes to build and nurture business relationships, the mentality of a championship organization, and how we can learn to listen. In this session, Santo and Fran…
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Best of Mentoring: Judith Glaser on Conversational Intelligence
Judith Glaser’s mentoring series looks at different forms of intelligence, focusing on communication, leadership, culture, relationships, and learning. In this session, Judith and Fran discuss the concept of conversational intelligence, and its connection to leadership, relationships, and neuroscience. After spending more than 10 years working on her book investigating conversational intelligence, Judith shares not only…
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Success Strategy: Whatever it Takes
Your product and the need for that product in the marketplace are obviously extremely important, but equally important is your philosophy about how to handle changes and unforeseen circumstances, because they will come up as you do business. What is your philosophy about reacting to adversity? There is enough information out there that can help…
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5 Key Hiring Tips to Build a Winning Team
The fantasy football draft is an entrepreneur’s dream. Who wouldn’t want to hand-select their all-star team to form an impressive roster? But no one has perfected every trait you need, so adopting the fantasy sports mindset isn’t a sustainable approach to building your business. For most of us, at least, your lineup can’t change every…
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