Managing Up in the Moment

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Tony Deblauwe

Sometimes, no matter what you do or how prepared you are, there are times on the job when you will need to respond on the spot and in the moment. Such instances require you to be ready and focused, especially when the person asking questions is your boss.

The skill of “managing up in the moment” is a core requirement for success in modern organizations. Not only do you have to perform in the moment, but you also are held accountable for decisions and taking action. Developing the savvy of moment-to-moment mental preparedness isn’t easy. If you can learn to master how to turn a situation around from being caught off guard to being seen as on task and on point, your personal success and credibility will skyrocket.

To be successful in managing up in the moment, you need to follow two concrete courses of action: managing yourself better and learning how to communicate and connect successfully from a point of view different than your own. For the former, we turn to the Navy Seals for help, and for the latter, we turn to the work from two books – Dan Pink’s To Sell is Human, and Theory U by Otto Scharmer. Continue reading →

The Importance of Corporate Governance

Posted on March 21, 2013 by admin

George Washington once described government as a force—a force that has the power to shape the organization on which it presides or crush it under the weight of mismanagement and negligence.

It’s a sentiment that easily applies to the corporate setting, and a value that resounds firmly throughout Brad Beckstead’s THiNKaha book, #CORPORATE GOVERNANCE tweet Book01: How Corporate Governance Adds Value to Your Business.

Corporate Governance as an Ethos and Not Just a Guide
A company, not unlike a country, requires corporate governance (CG) in the form of strong leadership and even stronger guidelines. It’s the system in which all company stakeholders, from shareholders to managers, abide by. And while most people see corporate governance as an arbitrary rulebook of sorts, it is fundamentally more of an ethos; the very foundation on which the company is built.

“CG is not a professional standard like a doctor’s code of ethics,” Brad writes in aha #9. “Rather, it is specific to corporate structure.” Continue reading →

Don’t Ask a Hunter to Farm and Don’t Ask a Farmer to Hunt

Posted on February 1, 2013 by dianevo

This post is on an “aha” from one of our recently published THiNKaha books, #DEMAND GENERATION tweet Book01: 140 Insights on Powering Your Sales Pipeline by Gaurav Kumar. Allow us to elaborate on aha #12: Don’t ask a hunter to farm and don’t ask a farmer to hunt.

Sales executives will no doubt be familiar with the idea of hunters and farmers in the sales arena. It’s a distinction that has governed business practices since the late 20th century.

The idea is that sales people are divided into one of two categories. While hunters are tasked with generating sales from new clients, farmers are responsible for growing sales from already existing ones.

But the questions remain, why can’t sales people do both? And why can’t one do the other? Continue reading →

Managing Up: Stepping Into Your Boss’s Shoes

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Tony Deblauwe

By Patrick Reilly and Tony Deblauwe

Organizations continue to face challenges with internal communications. One of the most potentially challenging is the one between manager and employee. Different perspectives can emerge due to hierarchy, accountability, and unclear expectations. Sometimes the key to finding common ground between you and your manager is to change your perspective, or, put another way, to step in your boss’s shoes.

Imagine for a moment what being in your boss’s shoes would feel like:

What insights would you gain in terms of process, responsibility, and getting things done?
What might you do differently if you had the whole team in mind?
If you needed to think about the budget more carefully?
If you had to think about managing your boss’s boss?
How would you feel being the person who takes the hit if things go wrong, but makes the call for decisions?
What would you do differently as an employee in how you manage up with this new point of view?

Continue reading →

How to Prepare for a Radio Interview

Posted on November 8, 2012 by dianevo

by Mitchell Levy, CEO & Author, THiNKaha, Chief Evangelist, Gurus4Media

It is not uncommon for authors and business leaders to be asked to do radio interviews. Authors will often conduct interviews when a new book is being published. Business leaders, including small local business owners, will often do radio interviews when there are news to be announced about their businesses or their products and services. In both cases, it is always best to be prepared. This is not as challenging as some might believe.

Before the interview (whether it is in person or on the phone), spend some time considering what the main message is you want to convey. One of the most common mistakes people make is when they start to “wander” about in the conversation with the host(s). Know in advance what it is you want to say about the main issue or topic and have that information secured in your mind. If the interview focuses on a specific topic, have the facts ready. Have notes to refer to during the interview if needed. Continue reading →

Managing the Management in Your Organization

Posted on September 20, 2012 by dianevo

by Mitchell Levy, CEO & Author, THiNKaha, Chief Evangelist, Gurus4Media

Effectively managing your relationship with your boss can be difficult, and requires certain sacrifices by both you and your boss in order to develop a healthy working relationship. This is a subject that has been written on extensively, but two recent THiNKaha releases, #MANAGING UP tweet, authored by Tony Deblauwe and Patrick Reilly, and #MANAGING YOUR VIRTUAL BOSS tweet by Carmela Southers explore this topic in depth, for two very different situations.

Although both books approach the employee-boss relationship from different angles, combining both of them can help you create a healthy, long lasting relationship with your boss in an effort to increase the chances of upward movement, and to make your work more enjoyable. #MANAGING UP tweet deals mostly with physical, in-person dealings that you have with your boss. It provides you with 140 tips from organizational experts Tony Deblauwe and Patrick Reilly that can help you to build a better relationship with your boss, meanwhile delivering the results that they are looking for, to the mutual benefit of both parties. Continue reading →

A blog post can be short

Posted on August 26, 2011 by admin

Blogging is important, but what happens if you haven’t blogged in a while. You lose your following. Bummer. Well here I am typing in a small blog to show that it’s easy put content together that’s relevant, but short. It would be great if you could blog a couple times a week. So, mark it down as something that’s important to do. I’m marking my calender now!

How to write a book to build your personal brand

Posted on January 1, 2011 by rogerparker

The easiest way to get started writing a book to build your personal brand during 2011 is answer the following 5 simple questions.

Your answers, and the lists you create based on your answers, will provide a road map to help you get started writing a book to drive your success and build your personal brand. Continue reading →

Writing a book helps you select the best clients

Posted on November 9, 2010 by rogerparker

Many coaches, consultants, and professional service providers agree that writing and publishing a book can attract more prospective clients. But, there’s more to this “attraction factor” than just attracting more new prospects. The big benefit is the ability you can be more selective in choosing the clients you agree to work with.

The power that published books give authors to be more selective was driven home to me recently, when I interviewed author Carmine Gallo for Published & Profitable. Continue reading →

Leveraging your book to greater profits & visibility – Part 2

Posted on November 1, 2010 by rogerparker

In Part 1 of this series, I described some of the ways you can use published books as the starting points for new online and offline marketing efforts.

In Part 2, I’d like to provide a few more marketing suggestions, plus, add some additional marketing and profit-generating ideas

8. Articles. One of the easiest ways to create content for marketing your book is to condense each chapter into a short article, and submit them as a series of articles at online article distribution sites like www.ezinearticles.com or www.suite101.com. Not only will these articles attract favorable search engine traffic, but they may be picked-up and reprinted as blog posts or newsletter articles by others writing about your topic.

9. Case studies. After your book appears, encourage readers to share their experiences applying your ides. You can invite readers to submit their experiences as blog posts, comments on your blog, or a form added to your website. You can also use social media like www.haro.com (Help a Reporter Out) or Twitter to solicit case studies for learning more about how your market solves overcomes problems–or fails to adequately address them.

Continue reading →