I came across this paragraph in a blog post by sales professional Grant Cardone. “No one buys a $57,000 watch to tell time. People buy things to solve problems. The cost of the item isn’t what matters. Once the buyer is able to see the problem the product solves, their decision becomes much easier to … Read more
#InspiringMondays My entrepreneurial friend David Tomas has a mission. He calls it #InspiringMondays. His mission is to build a company culture that has people as excited arriving to work on a Monday morning, as most people generally feel when they about to leave work on a Friday afternoon. On this (potentially) inspiring Monday, I have … Read more
This, or a version of it, arrives a few times a week: “Dear Conor I need to talk to you. Can I have some time? X” By the way, its not from my girlfriend, or my daughter. They get a yes. My mum, dad, brothers, sister – they get a yes. However, generally these emails … Read more
6 Keys to Get Email Read Here are 6 keys to engage the reader when you ask for some help via email: Indicate the social connection between sender and reader – where did you meet? who put you in contact? “We met at the Foundum Unplugged conference 2 weeks ago” Understand the readers perspective – what context (background information) … Read more
If someone asked you, “What is your job?”, what would your response be? Go ahead, take a minute to think about your answer. I asked a similar question a few weeks ago in my post Become Indispensable: Solve Interesting Problems) Professor Fred Kofman tells a story about a question that changed his outlook on this … Read more
I was teaching a seminar recently and a young film producer told me “I am not a good manager”. I asked him why he believed this. He described a recent series of disasters that he had overseen with his team. I asked him “who are the people on your team?”. He said his cousin helped … Read more
When does the switch from aiming to succeed to aiming not to fail occur? Has any company ever avoided it? NASA, Microsoft… and next up? Apple? Dan Ariely asks this question on his blog. Why did NASA go from the ambitious 1960’s to 1980’s era moon missions to the conservative, blame-finding, cover-your-arse culture of the … Read more
70% of organisation change efforts fail. John Kotter has an 8 step process that can reduce the likelihood that your project of organisational change (and all leadership projects mean some form of change the the existing status quo). A big source of failure is starting action before you have put together a solid base of … Read more
I was watching the UK version of the TV show “The Apprentice” a few months ago. This particular week’s challenge was to sell caravan and camping equipment at a trade show. Early on, there was a key decision to make: Which model of caravan would the team try to sell? Now, this was a trade … Read more
A person can have the great idea, but if that person cannot convince a number of people: the idea dies. Good ideas do die. Good ideas must have good advocates. Good advocacy and good idea makes an idea live. Ideas need advocates like humans need oxygen. The Leader as Communicator The Leader’s #1 job as … Read more