Procrastination is NOT for everyone! “Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today.” (My Mother – ever since I can remember). Procrastination is like a virus. It creeps up on you slowly, drains you of energy, and is…
(760) 603-8110
Category: Uncategorized
Customer Service is Good Medicine
When a medical practice gets customer service right, it is worthy of examining and applauding. Unfortunately, I found myself having this positive service experience at Resurgeons Orthopaedics of Atlanta. I say “unfortunately” due to a nasty break and injury to…
What if the Internet were a Person?
I was reading an article the other day and someone posed a question much like the title of this post, and of course it sent my mind off into a catastrophe of ideas. In the Matrix movies the Internet became…
What Motivates Your Employees?
“I just can’t seem to motivate these people.” I often hear that from corporate leaders. I tell them: “Stop trying. You’ll never be able to motivate them.” The advice of a quitter? Not at all, because the next thing I…
Make Stress Work for You
I had gone to bed at midnight. It was now two in the morning. I was still awake, stressed thinking about my book, which — ironically — is about happiness. Trying to unwind, I opened my laptop and started watching…
Lisa Ford’s Tips for Stellar Customer Service on the Phone
When customers call a company, they deserve the best treatment. However, many organizations continue to abuse their customers with poorly thought out phone handling. The guilty companies range for the largest to the smallest. The reality is, most companies do…
Do You Take Risks?
Unreasonable risk-takers are individuals who tend to over-emphasize the resources they have available or can acquire to accomplish their objectives. Or, they’re people who under-emphasize the barriers that are likely to get in their way. There’s been a lot of…
Is Innovation Part of Your Culture?
Innovation will move unemcumbered throughout an organization if the concept is imbedded in the culture. The culture has to suppport the business and vision and be people-positive. Innovation encourages risks. It supports failure. It rewards creativity. It is an ongoing process that…
Tagged with: Culture
Is Your Team Ready for a Peer Advisory Group?
As you gear up for 2012, you may be thinking that you or one of your team members could benefit from collaboration with top-level professionals. However, just because someone needs help or would benefit from collaboration with top-level professionals doesn’t…
Use the 5 Bs In 2012 – Be What Your Customers Want
Customers are impatient, picky, demanding and savvy. They are also THE reason a business exists – to serve and sell the customer. To make 2012 a profitable year, here are the 5 Bs of what customers want: 1. Be Fast.…
Podcast: Peter Vidmar on Risk, Originality, Virtuosity & Success!
Recently, Peter Vidmar, the highest scoring American gymnast in Olympic history, was interviewed on “Brainstormin’ with Billy the Brain” on KKZZ Radio. Using his Olympic preparation and experiences, Peter explained the principles of Risk, Originality and Virtuosity (ROV), and how…
Is Happiness Impossible?
In difficult times is happiness out of reach? On a cold, wet morning in Boston, I was peering out the subway windows over the recently thawed Charles River, dreaming longingly of the sailboats that dot the water in summer, when…
Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?
One of the foundational aspects of social technologies I talk about is the ability for a person,or an organization to use new tools to harvest huge amounts of information from the Websphere and pack it into our brains. I often…
Tagged with: Scott Klososky
Leaders: What’s your freakout point?
Howard Putnam
Posted in Howard Putnam, Leadership/Management, Stress Management/Life Balance, Uncategorized
What is your freakout point? USA Today posed that question to several CEO’s and former CEO’s. I replied that years ago when I was under a lot of stress taking Braniff International Airlines through chapter 11 in Texas, I was…
Tagged with: leaders
5 Ways to Make Your Customer Service a Game Changer
All companies would love to be able to say they are a game changer. Whether it iswith their service, brand or innovation, few companies really can claim such a grand statement. Some of the few can, include Ritz Carlton, Southwest…
The Role of Virtual Tools in Executive Development
Take in information, and you’ll grow, right? Nah, it doesn’t really happen that way. As speaker Les Brown recently said, “If information changed lives, then everyone would be rich, skinny, and popular.” Digital media has an endless flow of data…
The Happiness Dividend
Nearly every company in the world gives lip service to the idea that “our people are our greatest asset.” Yet when the Conference Board Survey came out earlier this year, employees were the unhappiest they have been in their 22…
Tagged with: job satisfaction, Professional Development, Shawn Achor, Success, the happiness advantage
Creating Your Future
Some people wait for the future to happen. Others create their futures. The former depend on the luck of the draw. The latter cut their own deal. How do you create your own future? By forming a vision and expressing…
5 Crippling Mistakes People Make with Technology
I often comment that technology is just a tool. It’s not magic, nor mysterious, it is just a tool. I do admit that some aspects can be complicated, and if one adds together all the technology we face in life,…
Tagged with: Scott Klososky
I am a Great Manager – Just Ask Me
When I was 19 years of age, I was promoted to Passenger Service Manager at Midway Airport in Chicago for Capital Airlines. I had no college, I had no supervisory or managerial training and there I was in charge of…
Tagged with: Howard Putnam leadership management