Office Feng Shui

Communication between two or more people is always a flow of energy and the best way to keep it flowing is face-to-face, says Darrin Zeer in Office Feng Shui (Chronicle Books): “Stir the chi in the office by going for a walk and delivering messages to your colleagues in person,” Zeer says. “It’s a nice break and gives you a chance to get away from your desk. Miscommunications are less likely to happen.”
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Women vs. Men

Caliper, a Princeton, N.J.-based management-consulting company with a worldwide roster of corporate clients interviewed 60 women leaders from some of the top companies in the United Kingdom and the United States and compared the results with findings about men. Caliper determined women are more likely to take risks and learn from mistakes.
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Dr. Seuss

Will you succeed? Yes you will indeed! (98 and 34 percent guaranteed.) - Dr. Seuss in Oh, the Places You'll Go
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Faithful Finances 101

If you’re thinking about heading back to school or know someone who is, consider this Biblical passage from Proverbs, says Gary Moore in Faithful Finances 101: From the Poverty of Fear and Greed to the Riches of Spiritual Investing (Templeton Foundation Press): “It does a fool no good to spend money on an education, because he has no common sense.” Strive for wisdom not education.
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Pot of Gold Daily Quote

Caliper, a Princeton, N.J.-based management-consulting company with a worldwide roster of corporate clients interviewed 60 women leaders from some of the top companies in the United Kingdom and the United States and compared the results with findings about men. Caliper determined women may feel the sting of a setback - may even dwell upon it and become more self-critical - they are also more likely to shake it off.
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Ovid

A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man's brow.
Ovid
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The Bully at Work

Can work make you sick? If you have a bully for a boss, there is no doubt, according to The Bully at Work by Gary Namie and Ruth Namie (Sourcebooks):"The American Psychiatric Association recognizes a condition called acute stress disorder with symptoms that include disorientation, confusion, intense agitation and dazed detachment, sometimes followed by amnesia . . . this is what bullying does."
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Russell Rules

Delegating authority to make decisions implies absolute confidence in those who get the power, says NBA great Bill Russell and co-author David Falkner in Russell Rules: 11 Lessons on Leadership (Penguin): “The process is always about teamwork. Make delegating a process of communication. You must do everything possible to remain in active touch with those to whom power has been given.”
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How the Wise Decide

Fill a room with barbarians, say Bryn Zeckhauser and Aaron Sandoski in How the Wise Decide (Crown Business), a culture of candor: "Participants accept and embrace the highly charged atmosphere of the room. Everyone is expected to come prepared and to have an opinion." Bosses, too, must be prepared for a critique: "Truth is the goal, and when the decision finally emerges, everyone is expected to sign on to support it."
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Women Leaders

Caliper, a Princeton, N.J.-based management-consulting company with a worldwide roster of corporate clients interviewed 60 women leaders from some of the top companies in the United Kingdom and the United States and compared the results with findings about men. Caliper determined women have stronger powers of persuasion, and when it comes to achievement, women are more driven to meet goals.
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Work as a Spiritual Practice

Entrepreneurs have a huge tolerance for failure because they see it as a process and not an event. Work as a Spiritual Practice by Lewis Richmond (Broadway) talks about Thomas Edison: "Edison tried thousands of combinations of materials before he was successful in inventing the light bulb. He didn't experience these disappointments as failures but as clues on the road to success."
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50 Steps to Business Success

All company leaders should embrace customer satisfaction assessments, Peter M. Cleveland says in 50 Steps to Business Success (ECW Press). To do otherwise is foolhardy. "Leaders who don't employ objective customer needs analyses are gambling by using complacency as a strategy," the author insists. "At best, they'll maintain existing sales volumes. At worst, aggressive competitors will gain ground."
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Dr. Seuss

Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So. . . get on your way.
Dr. Seuss
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Winning Through Innovation

Managers should know that the spotlight is never off, says Michael L. Tushman and Charles A. O’Reilly in Winning Through Innovation: A Practical Guide to Leading Organizational Change and Renewal (Harvard Business School Publishing): “Their behaviors are always being observed and define for others what is valued and important. Managers must be unrelentingly consistent in words and actions.”
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Hope

My hopes are not always realized, but I always hope.
Ovid

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Active listening

If you want to know what skill will serve you best in your career, consider active listening, says Glen Ellis and Jeff Jernigan in The Six-Figure Job-Hunting Handbook (Crown). “Many people are more intent on what they are going to say next than what is being said to them,” the authors contend. “If this description fits you, then you will need to practice listening.”
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Make Every Second Count

Avoid the horizontal-pile system of filing at all cost. In 101 Ways to Make Every Second Count: Time Management Tips and Techniques for More Success with Less Stress (Career Press), author Robert W. Bly points out a better way: “The average four-drawer file cabinet contains 10,000 pieces of paper,” Bly says. “Your average four-drawer file cabinet can hold almost seven times more than the top of a table or desk.”

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The Ruthless Leader

If the screw-ups keep coming fast and furious from above, think about finding a new desk at a new company, suggests Alistair McAlpine in The Ruthless Leader: Three Classics of Strategy and Power (Wiley): "If the Prince is continually making mistakes, this is not the Prince to serve for it seems that he was never truly a Prince," McAlpine says.
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What Went Wrong

CEOs typically do not just quit, say Peter C. Fusaro and Ross M. Miller, co-authors of What Went Wrong at Enron (John Wiley & Sons). “A quitter can not endure the years of struggle required to reach the top...It is virtually unheard of for a CEO to quit for undisclosed personal reasons after only six months on the job.” When Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling resigned August 2001, that was a sign. Something was amiss.
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Why Teams Don’t Work

All too often teams run not like groups of people but like a machine and people make very poor machine parts, says Michael Finley, author of The book Why Teams Don’t Work (Berrett-Koehler): "It’s not that teams can’t work. We don’t let them work."
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Will Rogers

It's great to be great but it's greater to be human.
-Will Rogers
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Secrets of Question Based Selling

One of the best ways to establish credibility in a sale is to leverage existing relationships, advises Thomas A. Freese in Secrets of Question Based Selling (Sourcebook). Would a friend within a targeted prospect account give you a personal endorsement for a relationship in some other part of the company? "A credible reference is worth its weight in commission checks."
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Fly the friendly skies

There used to be a slogan that United Airlines embraced: "Fly the friendly skies of United," points out Michael S. Levine in Broken Windows - Broken Business (Warner Business Books). "This was, one assumes, in response to customer research that indicated frequent customers felt the service they received on the planes flown by United wasn't accommodating. It's not enough to tell people you're friendly. You have to be friendly, too."
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Negotiation Genius

It’s human nature to tend to stereotype people from groups other than our own but it can have dangerous consequences for negotiators, according to authors Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman in Negotiation Genius (Bantam): “Dolly Church of the Stern School of Business at NYU refers to this as the ‘stereotype tax,’ the price we pay for not overcoming our stereotypes of others.”
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Ovid

Habits change into character.
Ovid

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Living Your Best Life

When it comes to making promises, nobody is more important than you are, says Linda Berman Fortgang, author of Living Your Best Life: Discover Your Life's Blueprint for Success (Penguin-Putnam). “It is to ourselves that we must first begin to give our word and keep it. Breaking your own promises to yourself erodes your self-esteem. It deafens you to wisdom.”
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Two-Minute Drill

In Two-Minute Drill (Josey-Bass), authors Clinton O. Longenecker, Greg R. Papp and Timothy Stansfield explore lessons for rapid organizational improvement by studying how football teams score when the game is winding down. It's not an easy thing to do, the authors say: "Elevating personal and group efforts to a level beyond normal represents a challenge and, quite frankly, is not sustainable over long periods. It exacts a toll."

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The Sky's the Limit

Those who hope to sell to high-net-worth consumers need to start with a dynamic sales staff that will change a sales pitch in mid-stream, according to The Sky's the Limit (CFPN) by Russ Alan Prince, Hannah ShawGrover, Douglas D. Gollan and Carl Ruderman: "Start with a set-up such as 'Let me make sure I got this right' and deliver the trial-balloon question with a hint of hesitation."
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Email Rules

Never use email to deliver bad news, say Nancy Flynn and Randolph Kahn in Email Rules (AMACOM). “Lacking the benefit of body language, facial expression and intonation, email is the worst way to deliver bad news to employees,” the authors contend. “Should a wrongful termination lawsuit follow, personal notification may cast management in a better light.”
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