Archive for the ‘business’ Category

Words are powerful. They can move people into action. They inspire, they challenge, they amuse, but words also sell. Regardless of your industry, you are in sales. We all are, especially those who are in the non-profit sector or church leadership. It’s perhaps the most important of all sales: hope (Continue reading…)

“Every leader must learn that just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.” That’s what I came up with after the lady asked me to write down my favorite quote. Nothing had come to mind but that statement. That was it. Of all the books I’ve read and (Continue reading…)

Partnerships are important part of business as well as ministry. Great partners can help you grow while a bad one can be the death of a dream. While we can easily form a partnership, it takes a long time to break one apart, sometimes with dire consequences. Here’s what I (Continue reading…)

Some people you trust with your life. Some people you know will get the job done. These are two essential qualities that every leader looks for in building their organization. But unless you find both trust and competence in those whom you lead, you don’t have a dynamic team who (Continue reading…)

Life is a series of negotiations. We negotiate our way through traffic, we negotiate with family, with our boss,  with a car salesman, and with our clients. Some of us are better at it than others. But whether it comes naturally and easy or whether negotiating is hard work, your (Continue reading…)

“I just wish my team would get along,” I heard from a leader not long ago. That’s not an uncommon complaint. But the more I learn about organizational health, the more I blame the leader for getting it in such predicament. In my experience, unrest, infighting among departments or ministries, (Continue reading…)

“We priced it low because we wanted the exposure.” Every young, and even some seasoned entrepreneur can fall on the trap of the “exposure” temptation. In the search for legitimacy and clout, entrepreneurs want to have the recognizable “big fish” names in our portfolios.  After all, that means great PR (Continue reading…)

Understanding your audience’s motivation is key in finding opportunities to reach them. That point was driven home a while back during dinner at J. Alexander’s in north Atlanta. Our server, Jimmy, did something I haven’t seen done much lately in a restaurant. He assessed the situation and improvised, getting our (Continue reading…)

One of the toughest lessons I had to learn as a businessman was to identify and successfully deal with a no-win situation. That’s a very difficult situation for an entrepreneur to navigate because most of us are optimists by nature. We want to believe we can rescue the relationship, deliver (Continue reading…)

Sometimes you are not in your best game. Things go wrong, and you know what just happened is in no way close to your best effort. You or your team fail your customer, client, or audience. So what should you do as a leader? Recently I ate at a restaurant (Continue reading…)