The 7:1 Rule

An interesting article here from CNNMoney.com titled 8 ways to be a better boss.  The article focuses on coaching which is a task that many sales managers avoid to their own detriment.  There are some excellent points in the article and this tidbit of which I was not familiar: 2. Always follow the 7:1 rule. “You must give seven pieces of positive feedback for every one piece of developmental feedback if you don’t want to be perceived as overly critical,” Frankel says. “Catch people in the act of doing things right and reinforce it with praise” – even if they’re just doing the job they get paid for. Seems like… Read More

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America’s Smartest Cities

Seriously, Forbes ranked the top 25…is there anything Forbes won’t rank?  Yet, I am a sucker and watched the slide show.  I’ll speed it up for you a bit and provide the top 5: Boulder, CO Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick, MD Ithaca, NY ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN Corvallis, OR I won’t mention which one of those towns is my hometown…well, I spent the first 5 years of my life there.  Lee says that doesn’t count.  Unfortunately for him, the Twin Cities did not make the list. In all seriousness, I’m not sure if there is much value to this type of list.  Clearly the top towns are host to a major university which stands… Read More

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LinkedIn to Gates

Bill Gates is on LinkedIn…are you?  I’m behind the curve on the social networking side, but I do find LinkedIn to be a fascinating tool.  We are just starting to expand our sourcing activities into the LinkedIn space and it is already paying dividends. We are starting to receive 2nd and 3rd degree of separation contacts from job seekers, business owners and old classmates.  It it almost like drawing a “Chance” card in monopoly – you’re not quite sure who is contacting you, but it always draws your attention.

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