Communication – Personal Development – Business

If you don’t follow what Jeff Bezos, tech’s leading philosopher and Amazon’s CEO is doing, you should. Other leaders have stated the simple principles for centuries but he is actually acting on each. One of my favorite principles he has is how to deal with stress: “Laugh a lot.” Read the Forbes article for more.

Here are the five winning principles that every leader and employee should focus on every day – whether at work or at home.

1. Treat every person as a customer. It’s what they want and need, not what you want to give.

Tags: laugh, leadership by Marsha
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by Marsha Petrie Sue, MBA, CSP

A major business publication estimates that more than 11 million meetings are held every business day. We all attend meetings that are boring and a waste of time.

The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings.

—Thomas Sowell, American economist

Reviewing the painful aspects of poorly planned meetings solves nothing. Understanding what makes successful meetings is time well spent.

8. Ask for Q&A before the meeting closes, with action items. You want people to walk away with what they need to do instead of the answer to the last question.

Tags: leadership, meetings by Marsha
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by Marsha Petrie Sue, MBA, CSP

Death by Meeting:

A major business publication estimates that more than 11 million meetings are held every business day. We all attend meetings that are boring and a waste of time and money.

A committee of three often gets more done if two don’t show up.

—Herbert V. Prochnow

Reviewing the painful aspects of poorly planned meetings solves nothing. Understanding what makes successful meetings is time well spent.

Is your two-hour meeting worth $576?

1. Add together the per-hour salaries or hourly pay of all the people who attended a meeting.

Tags: leadership, meetings by Marsha
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4 experienced leaders sharing leadership ideas

Enterprise Network is a networking group I’d heard of in Phoenix. I was invited to their last meeting by their incoming president, Linda Lang whom I had met while keynoting the California Association of Community Managers Annual Meeting.

They had a panel of Real Estate experts: Holly Eslinger – Exclusive Homes and Land, John Foltz – Realty Executives, Martha Appel – Colwell Banker, Sam Wercinski – former AZ Real Estate Commissioner. Their topic was Business Survival Strategies. You would think this was about Real Estate – but it was more about leadership.

Tags: leadership, networking, Uncategorized by Marsha
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I am in the process of completing another chapter in my next book and I wanted to share some of the research I’m working on.  I asked key leaders of small and large companies (like American Express, McCarthy Construction, IPC The Hospitalist, Starwood) what they looked for when hiring, promoting and firing people.  You won’t be surprised to find out they will not let the spoiled brats, or other bad behavior get in the way of running a successful company.  You will note it is all about personal responsibility, developing yourself and especially communications!

Tags: leaders, leadership, maturity, promote yourself by Marsha
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I’m about ready to go nuts with all the crazyness in the market today.  Down, up, down, up!  Where will it all end. In the midst of a political upheaval, this is getting quite interesting.  Watch closely what both parties say and expouse.  Look at a variety of reporting agencies and different media.  Don’t let yourself fall in the trap of only believing one source.

Whether McCain or Obama, we must elect people that take personal responsibility for the outcomes and stop pointing fingers. We need true leadership and business acumen. Moral Amnesia has set in – again!  Remember Enron?  Lehman, AIG, and others are going down the same path.  These are private concerns and it is just disgusting when you look at what the top leaders of these companies are making.

Tags: accountability, leadership by Marsha
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Yep – I’m at it again. I am just enthralled with Gen Y and all the clamoring around their entry into the workplace. So here is more of my thinking…

Are you ready to turn your thinking from Generation Y as difficult people to great corporate citizens? Generation X and the Baby Boomers have not had this kind of press because they remained within a “norm” of others expectations. Gen Y do not consider themselves to be difficult or toxic people.

Tags: accountability, Gen X, Gen Y, leadership, management by Marsha
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Amazingly, this is the hottest topic in business today. I receive emails everyday asking, “How do I work with Generation Y?” How do you provide leadership and motivation to this new entrant into the workforce? The Millenials, the other moniker for Gen Y, were born between 1977 and 1994 and there are some 70 million in this 14 to 31 age group…roughly 20 percent of the U.S. Population.

Some ideas:

1. Tear up historical job descriptions. I mean really — people aren’t doing what’s written in them, so there is a gap between reality and the written word. Gen Y wants the reality of the job, not some over stated litany of words that is outdated.

Tags: Gen Y, leadership, motivate, self awareness by Marsha
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