February, 2023

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Leadership Trust Killers: 4 Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make

Organizational Talent Consulting

I inherently trust most people. I also can quickly distrust people. Why? For the same reasons as everyone else, to avoid something bad. Deciding whether to trust or not is always important. Putting faith in the wrong someone or something can lead to big life and career mistakes. Increasingly leaders face overcoming inherent distrust and a rise in workforce polarization.

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5 Unexpected Books Every Consultant Should Read

David A Fields

You see a lot of book lists floating around the interwebs. Many contain great recommendations of useful books for consulting firm leaders. However, the books on the list are largely not unexpected or trajectory shifting. (I say that despite many lists highlighting one of my books, which is flattering, of course.) Some of the most … Continued The post 5 Unexpected Books Every Consultant Should Read appeared first on David A.

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Behavioral Economics For Consultants: Use Psychology To Grow Your Business With Melina Palmer: Podcast #277

Consulting Success

In the consulting space, your world revolves around human interaction. So when growing your business, we must also look at human behavior, what motivates them, and how we can leverage that. In today’s episode, Melina Palmer, CEO of The Brainy Business, explains how behavioral economics for consultants helps grow the business. She explains how presenting.

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High Performing Teams Vs High Functioning Teams: What's the difference?

Strategic Planning and Management Insights

SME Strategy is a strategy consulting firm that specializes in helping organizations align their teams and operations around a shared vision, mission, values, goals, and action plans. Our strategic planning services offer guidance on how a strategic planning facilitator can provide support in constructing an effective strategic plan that ensures your strategy is communicated and implemented across your entire organization.

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PowerPoint Best Practices for Creating Stellar Presentations

Mastering data visualization in PowerPoint will help accelerate your career because it positions you as someone who can present data that drives business decisions forward. think-cell's PowerPoint Best Practices eBook was created specifically for professionals aiming to master the art and science of data-driven storytelling. What’s inside: Practical Insights: Uncover valuable tips for crafting engaging and persuasive presentations.

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Applied Behavioral Economics Rule of Thumb #7: Attention is Limited, So Maximize the Behavioral Impact Ratio

Steve Shu Consulting

My level of awareness was heightened this week by correspondence with the brilliant Mac Hodell (former Principal at BCG). We were exchanging ideas about definitive references for management consultants related to the visual aspect of presentations. To cut a long story short, he brought up the powerful idea of maximizing the Insight:Ink ratio on slides.

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How to Create Partnerships Instead of Using Stakeholders

Johanna Rothman

Strategy and Product Feedback Loops About 20 years ago, I taught a project management workshop to IT people. Their products and services did not ship outside the building—their products and services enabled the organization to make money. During that workshop, the participants all had the same question, “How do we engage our stakeholders?

How To 129
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3 Mindsets + 2 Plans to Relieve Your Consulting Firm’s Growth Obstruction

David A Fields

Breaking News: The challenge blocking your firm from the next stage of growth is… You. Growing your consulting practice requires you to surrender more and more responsibilities. Unfortunately, handing off parts of your consulting practice proves increasingly difficult as you graduate from administrative tasks and low-level analytical exercises to high-value work that fits your personal … Continued The post 3 Mindsets + 2 Plans to Relieve Your Consulting Firm’s Growth Obstructio

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The Principles Of The Consulting Craft With Martin Reeves: Podcast #278

Consulting Success

Business is a war between problems and solutions. As a business owner, imagination is the best weapon to bring in this war. Imagination is the most crucial ingredient to success. In this episode, Martin Reeves, the co-author of The Imagination Machine: How to Spark New Ideas and Create Your Company’s Future, shares his insights on.

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How To Find And Convert The Invisible Sales Prospect

Henry DeVries

Award-winning ad agency executive Tom Martin says the approach to business development, especially for a company or individual selling professional services based on intellectual capabilities, has to change. Martin tells us why and offers advice as to where our business development focus should be.

Sales 105
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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

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Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Leadership Planning with Liz Weber CMC

When you read the title for this article, you may have heard the 1981 song from The Clash in your head. It’s a great song. Like that song, this article is about deciding to stay or leave a relationship. However, in this case, I’m talking about leaving the relationship with your current role or employer. […] The post Should I Stay or Should I Go?

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The Art of Figuring Things Out with Michelle Massman

Consulting Matters

I’m super excited to have my treasured client and colleague Michelle Massman on the show. During our conversation, we explore the power of taking action and openness to figure things out and its impact on long-term success as an entrepreneur. Michelle is a seasoned entrepreneur with a ton of experience navigating the ups and downs of running her own business.

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Recognize the Problems That Prevent Effective Meetings (Collocated, Remote, Hybrid)

Johanna Rothman

Meetings. We all have them. Most of us hate them. When I ask why, here are some of the responses I hear: They take too much time away from our “real work.” It's too hard to find time to meet. Our calendars are too full. We can't find a place to meet. If we're back in the office, we have no meeting rooms. Or, we have some remote people, so we need several “places” to meet and the technology to support all those places.

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The CORRECT Response to “How is Your Firm Better?”

David A Fields

Jeff Boyardi, CSO (Chief Sauce Officer) at a Stuphinacan Co. contacts your consulting firm to explore a potential project. You engage in a friendly discovery conversation (a.k.a. Context Discussion) and agree to a follow-up date to discuss next steps. Alas, Jeff isn’t alone at the next call. He’s joined by his colleague Cam Bell, the … Continued The post The CORRECT Response to “How is Your Firm Better?

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Savings Consultants Are Needed in Today's Market More Than Ever

Savings Consultants are needed in today’s market more than ever. With an increase in expenses, businesses are looking for opportunities to save. Often unknown to businesses are savings in expense reduction, specialized tax savings, specialized savings including medical underpayments, health benefits cost reduction, zero cost processing, and more. Blue Coast Savings, with over 20 years in business, assists Savings Consultants in helping these companies move toward more profitable businesses.

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Tech To Consulting: Getting Started in Consulting For Tech Employees

Consulting Success

Are you thinking about taking the tech skills you’ve learned as a full-time employee and going out on your own as a consultant? Maybe you were caught in the recent wave of tech industry layoffs and aren’t so sure you want to start over as a new employee at another company. Or maybe you saw.

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A Simple Decision to Improve Your Life

CaseInterview.com

Sometimes very smart people overcomplicate their lives by overthinking things. Here’s one simple decision you can make every day that will dramatically improve your life. Does doing “X” improve the quality of my life (e.g., make me feel good or move me towards my goals)? If yes, do more. If no, do less. Does working in this job improve the quality of my life?

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22 Powerful Quotes for Entrepreneurs and Leaders

Rick Conlow

The number 22 signifies one of the most powerful of all numbers. It signifies leaders, doers, and visionaries. These are the people who turn the wildest dreams into amazing accomplishments. They possess a strong sense of purpose about what they do. Read these twenty-two quotes about entrepreneurship. If you want to build and lead a superb business absorb the wisdom from the following successful businesspeople. 11 Timeless Quotes for Entrepreneurs and Leaders “You do not learn to walk by followin

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Acing the Fit Interview — Effective Storytelling

Tom Spencer

Acing the Fit Interview: Strategy and Approach Motivation Questions Effective Storytelling Finessing Negative Stories In the third article of this series, you will learn about personal experience questions that demand a different approach from motivation questions. The START Framework Many interviewing guides out there espouse the STAR framework (Situation, Task, Action, Result) that purportedly outlines the components of an effective story.

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TOOLS and METHODOLOGIES for developing DECISION SUPPORT PACKAGES

This White Paper targets opportunities for Management to develop proficiency in the Decision Framing and Analyses element of input to Decision, & Risk Analyses for Major Project Funding Decisions.

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Writing Secret 8: Publish on Your Site First

Johanna Rothman

If you, as I, write frequently, you might wonder where is the “best” place to publish your writing. You might think social media, especially Medium or LinkedIn, is the “best” in terms of eyeballs. (That's people to the rest of us.) That's possible the day, or maybe the week, you publish the piece. That's because social media is all about “instant” eyeballs.

Media 101
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Rework is Bad. Wait, It’s GOOD for Your Consulting Firm?! Here’s Why

David A Fields

Remember your first boss, Justin Thyme? (Your first boss may have worked under an assumed name.) Justin taught you, “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you find time to do it again?! Rework is bad.” Justin was right. Justin was also wrong. Rework is your consulting firm’s most important obligation. … Continued The post Rework is Bad.

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Consulting Leadership: How To Lead Your Firm & Clients

Consulting Success

As the owner of a small firm, what consulting leadership style will help you build a successful business? In this article, you’ll learn effective forms of leadership to help you start, grow, and scale a consulting firm in 2023.

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Team Development Training: How to build a Cohesive and High-Performing Team

Strategic Planning and Management Insights

SME Strategy is a strategy consulting firm that specializes in helping organizations align their teams and operations around a shared vision, mission, values, goals, and action plans. Our strategicplanning services offer guidance on how a strategic planning facilitator can provide support in constructing an effective strategicplan that ensures your strategy is communicated and implemented across your entire organization.

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Why You Need to Use Case Studies in Sales and Marketing (and How to Start Now)

Case studies are proof of successful client relations and a verifiable product or service. They persuade buyers by highlighting your customers' experiences with your company and its solution. In sales, case studies are crucial pieces of content that can be tailored to prospects' pain points and used throughout the buyer's journey. In marketing, case studies are versatile assets for generating business, providing reusable elements for ad and social media content, website material, and marketing c

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Leadership is about People-First NOT Profit

Rick Conlow

Leadership is about people-first. Business is about the products, process, paycheck and profit. Isn’t it time leadership understands this? Then employee disengagement and distrust would erode. Aren’t you weary of the steady stream of leadership nonsense you hear from politics, Washington, or the corporate office? I am also dismayed about the never-ending stories of leaders falling from grace because of the lack of integrity.

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Quick Guide to a Career in Product Design

Tom Spencer

Product design is more creative than engineering, more practical than art, and more hands-on than graphic design Product design is a field that involves the creation and development of new products or product improvements. Product designers work with a team of engineers and other professionals to design and create products that are functional , aesthetically pleasing, and meet the needs of customers.

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Consider Persona-Based Stories to Explain Project Status

Johanna Rothman

I thought watermelon status was something “everyone” knew about. But it's not! Read No More Watermelon Status Reports: How to Use Stories to Explain Project State. That's a persona-based approach to help other people understand the project's reality. You also might like Velocity is Not Acceleration to see charts and data I use and recommend.

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A Super Bowl Event That Revealed A Powerful Marketing Secret

Henry DeVries

I had interesting conversations at the pre-Super Bowl LVII Legends and Leaders Celebration in Phoenix on February 10: one on building great business partnerships and another on what's being done to team up to fight the fentanyl crisis.

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The Art of Remote Collaboration: How to Successfully Whiteboard with Remote Teams

Just because we're working with a distributed team doesn't mean we have to abandon time-tested tools and methods like whiteboarding. Digital look-alikes often cramp creativity and all but eliminate the humanity of shared interactions. Hardware solutions are also limiting and, of course, expensive and immobile. In an increasingly digital and remote-first world, it’s important for us to select tools and processes that allow us to mitigate if not eliminate the above problems.