It seems to get harder and harder to find great Customer Service these days. Corporations are taking people out of the equation, pushing us to automation. I can’t do a foreign currency transaction via teller or online; When I pick up my currency, I wait in long lines because of staffing reductions, because I am
When you have the experience of a few turn-arounds under your belt, you pick up a few habits that serve you well in running your business, no matter what. I look at the businesses I run along the bell curve of profitability.: The left side of the curve contains my EBIT Killers. These are the
In speaking to an Executive MBA class, I chose to do a career walk for them. I walked them through my career from first job out of college to today, highlighting not the jobs and positions I held, but the lessons I learned, the perspective I gained, the decisions I made and didn’t make, the
When I ran DHL in the US, I often visited the courier stations as the couriers were loading the vans to start their delivery and pickup routes. I soon came to realize that one of the traits of the super salespeople is that they would visit the stations, bring donuts and coffee, or the like,
I have written about Don Miguel Ruiz’s book, The Four Agreements, and how those ancient principles are as applicable to business as they are to our lives in general. This is, in my experience, the case for all solid advice. As leaders, our values, norms and what we stand for, does not change as we
I was talking to a colleague and he was explaining how he had pursued various entrepreneurial startup ideas. For various reasons, there have been stumbling blocks, issues, problems – He told me that he wouldn’t trade the experience for he world, because he has come out of it all with a “mental resilience” that
Organization Streamlining your organization – you can get that really right or really wrong! It is not because the motivations are wrong, but more so because there are multiple imperatives that drive the organizational change and we have to assure that we stay true to them all, balance them all. Often, one of the key
Turns out that making the decision is not the hardest part. Once it is clear what the course of action is, it is all about execution, taking the steps to get it done. Sounds easy, but often this is the sticking point for leaders … freeing up resources, making the time, coordinating the team …
I like to surround myself with positive, fun, challenging, energetic people. And I want to be that way too. Conversely, I make an effort not to surround myself with negative people, with people that drain my energy. I like to spend time everyday on self-awareness. I meditate, I write. It is as important as anything
Professor Daniel Rottig recently invited me to speak to his FAU Executive Business School class about Leadership. Rather than the usual presentation, I took a different approach. I ran the class through my “career walk” from my first job as a management trainee to my career as CEO of several multinationals and finally starting my