The competencies and character traits that make one an effective leader are too many and too varied to compile on a single list. While there are as many ways to be an ineffective leader, this list of ten missing ingredients is a good start to what…

It isn't easy to create or maintain a culture of accountability, one where people are responsible for their results. Most organizations have too little accountability and struggle to create an environment where it can take hold. Autocratic leaders…

An exhaustive list of all the reasons your sales results aren’t what you want them to be would require a vast number of posts. The menu here is what I see right now with some ideas about what you might do to eliminate them. None of these are easy…

Andy Grove and Gordon Moore of Intel were struggling with a severe challenge to their business. As foreign competition grew, their memory chip business was becoming unsustainable, and their margins were eroding. Grove suggested that the Board of…

There are ideas a sales leader must refuse. Allowing these ideas to take hold can decelerate growth, distract the sales force from their real work, and result in a poor sales performance. They can also start a vicious cycle, a downward trend that…

Your company is not always going to execute as well as you want, or as well as your clients expect. Some salespeople feel embarrassed by the challenges of execution, using those challenges as an excuse to not continue selling. More successful…

It’s easy to fall into the trap of leading and managing by the numbers. The objective numbers are real, concrete, unassailable. If goal was $1,000,000 and only $825,000 was achieved, there is a measurable gap of $175,000. Similarly, if the goal is…

Recently, I had a conversation with a person who told me that one of the leaders in her company led “with the stick.” His view was that a leader leads with something negative instead of positive. It would go too far to suggest that he was…

Software programs generate reports that provide leaders and managers with the metrics they need to run their business. Customer Relationship Management software tracks activity, opportunity funnels, client interactions, and sales.

These tools are…

I watched an interview with Jamie Dimon, famed CEO of Chase. The interviewer had heard about a list Dimon carried with him in his pocket. It was handwritten, and he carries it with him at all times. The list is pages long, and it is a record of…