StrategyDriven Expert Contributors' Blog

Leadership Inspirations – Personal Limitations

October 5, 2009/in Leadership Inspirations/by StrategyDriven

“At this very moment you are who you are and where you are because of what you’ve allowed to inhabit your goal-box”

Richard Gaylord Briley
Author

StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 22 – An Interview with Michael Bender, author of A Manager’s Guide to Project Management

October 1, 2009/in Portfolio Management, Project Management, StrategyDriven Podcast/by StrategyDriven

StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 22 – An Interview with Michael Bender, author of A Manager’s Guide to Project Management explores how executives should approach project management in order to enhance alignment and accountability to their organization’s vision, mission, goals, and values. During our discussion, Michael Bender, Founder and CEO of Ally Business Developers and author of A Manager’s Guide to Project Management: Learn How to Apply Best Practices shares his insights regarding:

a process for aligning projects with the organization’s vission, mission, goals, and values
frequency for rebalancing the corporate project portfolio
criteria and method for evaluating whether or not to discontinue a project
importance of accounting for unbudgeted activities when evaulating a project’s cost

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable insights Mike shares in A Manager’s Guide to Project Management and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from his Ally Business Developers website (www.AllyBusiness.com). Mike’s book, A Manager’s Guide to Project Management, published by FT Press can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Michael Bender, author of A Manager’s Guide to Project Management, is Founder and CEO of Ally Business Developers, a consortium of world-class business, organizational, and professional development experts. Michael’s leadership and project and program management experience contributed to projects including the Hubble Space Telescope, NEXRAD – the Next Generation Weather Radar, and air traffic control systems for the United States, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan. He is an American Management Association speaker and guest speaker at DePaul University and the Project Management Institute. To read Mike’s full biography, click here.

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Whacked-Out Workplaces: How Dysfunctional is Yours?

September 30, 2009/in Management & Leadership/by Roxanne Emmerich

We’ve all been there. You walk into a bank, restaurant or store and suddenly feel it, that vague sensation that all is not well. It drips from the ceilings and sits in puddles on the floor. The employees are lost in thought, unable to decide whether they’d rather be somewhere else or stay and kill each other. And you’re the lucky one bathing in all the poison they can ladle up.

Yeesh.

I hope you’ve experienced the other side, too. You walk in the door and are gobsmacked by a sense of well-being. This isn’t just a place where people work, it’s a place that WORKS. The employees want to be there and they want YOU to be there. You feel your brow relax, and the corners of your mouth head ever-so-slightly north. You don’t wanna leave.

So which of these do YOU work in?

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About the Author

Roxanne Emmerich’s Thank God It’s Monday!: How to Create a Workplace You and Your Customers Love is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and #1 Amazon bestseller. Roxanne is renowned for her ability to transform “ho-hum” workplaces into dynamic, results-oriented, “bring-it-on” cultures in a day. Listen to the free 60-second audio with teammates each Monday to clean up the craziness in your workplace and focus on getting massive results. Sign up today at www.ThankGoditsMonday.com.

StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 21a – An Interview with Duane Sparks, author of Action Selling

September 29, 2009/in Marketing & Sales, StrategyDriven Podcast/by StrategyDriven

StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 21a – An Interview with Duane Sparks, author of Action Selling explores the Action Selling process, a method for establishing and building business relationships; enabling sales professionals to better engage and understand their client’s needs in order to provide greater value and increase sales. During our discussion, Duane Sparks, author of Action Selling: How to sell like a professional, even if you think you are one and Chairman and Founder of The Sales Board, shares with us his insights and illustrative examples regarding:

why selling is a profession and not simply an activity
five fundamental decisions individuals go through before making the final purchase decision and how the Action Selling process addresses each
the most important skills for effectiveness in selling
how a salesperson sells him or herself
how salespeople can help their client overcome ‘buyers remorse‘ once a purchase commitment is received

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable selling skills insight Duane shares in Action Selling and this special edition podcast, please visit his company’s Sales Training or Sales Management site. To discover why this selling skill is so effective at maximizing sales productivity, purchase Duane’s book: Action Selling.

Complimenting Action Selling, are Duane’s four other books on the consultative sales process including:

Read a Summary of the above Sales Books.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Duane Sparks, author of Action Selling, is Chairman and Founder of The Sales Board, a Minneapolis-based strategic sales training company that has trained and certified more than 350,000 salespeople in more than 3,000 groups in the system and skills of Action Selling. He has written five sales books, personally facilitated more than 300 Action Selling training sessions and continues to engage in the business and art of the strategic sales process. Read Duane’s full biography and the history of Action Selling Sales Management Training.