#zenhabits, abundance, accountability, Culture, Engagement, Entrepreneurship, Failure, Featured Posts, goal-setting, goals, Happiness, Leadership, Management, Marketing, Motivation, Successful Culture #zenhabits, abundance, accountability, Culture, Engagement, Entrepreneurship, Failure, Featured Posts, goal-setting, goals, Happiness, Leadership, Management, Marketing, Motivation, Successful Culture

A Higher-Level Leadership Framework & Inspiring Through Adversity

As one who sees leadership and spirituality as two sides of the same coin, I often refer to Deepak's 7-Step Framework for LEADERS. Deepak describes a leader as "the symbolic soul of a group of consciousness." He says that group consciousness could be a family, an organization, a community, a country or the whole world. He explains that the leader represents the longings, the aspirations, the deepest desires of the group, so in a sense, "the soul." This is exactly why the CEO owns the culture of an organization, which is the organizational DNA.

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Personal Development IS The Goal

Personal development is not a tool for reaching a bigger goal. Instead, becoming a "complete human being is already the biggest and most noble goal you can aspire to." Most of us are on a quest of continuous self-improvement, with the goal of attaining greater success. "If I attend this school, if I obtain this certification, if I achieve this milestone, then I will be able to attain another level of achievement." The personal development is often tied to a desired outcome that moves us from one level to another.

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accountability, Employees, Entrepreneurship, Failure, Featured Posts, Growth, Information Experts, Leadership, Learning, Management, partnership, risk, Success, Successful Culture accountability, Employees, Entrepreneurship, Failure, Featured Posts, Growth, Information Experts, Leadership, Learning, Management, partnership, risk, Success, Successful Culture

Making a Partnership Work

Businesses can't grow without strategic partnerships. When thoughtfully selected, the right partner can enhance a company's client base, capabilities, market presence, and overall brand. When selected poorly, the wrong partner can result in wasted time, energy, and resources, with nothing to show for your efforts, and can potentially harm your company or reputation.

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accountability, Culture, Employees, Entrepreneurship, Failure, Featured Posts, goal-setting, goals, Growth, Happiness, risk accountability, Culture, Employees, Entrepreneurship, Failure, Featured Posts, goal-setting, goals, Growth, Happiness, risk

Every Day is Independence Day for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship is as American as apple pie, baseball, and SpongeBob Squarepants. The essence behind entrepreneurship is the freedom to live a professional life that has the most meaning to you - to not be defined by someone else's value system, personal vision & goals, and decisions. But with that freedom comes tremendous accountability, responsibility, and risk.As SpongeBob and Patrick so eloquently discussed, entrepreneurship has unlimited possibilities. With entrepreneurship, we are limited only by our own vision (and money - but we can often find it if we look in the right places). However, entrepreneurship does bring its own pain and suffering with it, so to answer Patrick's question, yes entrepreneurship can hurt at times.

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barbara corcoran, Culture, Employees, Engagement, Entrepreneurship, Failure, Family, Featured Posts, Growth, Happiness, Leadership, Learning, Management, Marketing, Motivation, Napoleon Hill, NWBOC, shark tank, Success, Successful Culture, Time management barbara corcoran, Culture, Employees, Engagement, Entrepreneurship, Failure, Family, Featured Posts, Growth, Happiness, Leadership, Learning, Management, Marketing, Motivation, Napoleon Hill, NWBOC, shark tank, Success, Successful Culture, Time management

Eight Lessons for Success (And Some Other Insights) by Barbara Corcoran

I had the privilege of speaking at the National Women Business Owners Corporation (NWBOC - www.nwboc.org) conference last week in Palm Beach, Florida. One of the highlights of the conference (where 200 women business owners came together to learn, share, and connect) was keynote Barbara Corcoran. Barbara is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the country. She took a $1,000 loan to start her real estate company, The Corcoran Group, which she grew into a $5 billion business. She sold the firm for $66 million in 2001.Barbara is also a host and investor on ABC's Shark Tank. During the last three seasons, she has bought 11 new businesses. She is also the author of three best-selling books, and is a regular small business and real estate contributor on all of the major networks.Like all great entrepreneurs, Barbara's journey to success has been filled with wonderful lessons. I have summarized them here for you.

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Rejected by TED... No Problem! "No" Means "Not Yet"

February was a month of wins - and losses. Everyone talks about their wins, so I'm going to move right past those, and get to the topic that that leaders rarely glorify: the losses.I was rejected in February by TED. TED stands for Technology, Engineering and Design. There are TED events all over the world that feature speakers that have ideas worth spreading. The TED website (www.ted.com) is my all-time favorite site because it opens our minds to so many ways of thinking about things we've never even thought about! It spotlights our greatest potential in any topic you can imagine.

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Recognizing the Positive Leadership of Carnival Cruise Lines CEO Gerry Cahill

The disaster of the failed Carnival Triumph cruise ship has captivated all of us over the last week.As a frequent cruiser who has cruised Carnival and other lines, I cringed upon seeing the pictures and videos of the squalor and disgusting conditions aboard ship. I sympathized with the passengers who entrusted their safety to Carnival, yet found themselves living a week-long, potentially life-endangering nightmare. Throughout the course of the week, I kept asking myself how well I would cope with being trapped on board with my family.Fortunately, the nightmare has ended, now that the ship has docked in Mobile Alabama, with all passengers and crew members safe (albeit hungry and dirty).Throughout this disaster, I've been watching how CEO Gerry Cahill has conducted himself. Personally, I think he has done an exceptional job - especially compared to Former BP CEO Tony Hayward during the 2010 oil spill disaster that claimed 11 lives and has spewed 100 million gallons of toxic oil into the Gulf of Mexico. - and here's why:

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Five Ways To Make The Most of Your Holiday Downtime

How we can make the most of our holiday downtime - you know those pockets of time when office productivity is low, laziness is high, and we're all pressing the reset button to move into the new year? I came across an article by Kevin Daum (http://www.kevindaum.com), a best-selling author, Inc columnist, Inc 500 entrepreneur, and fellow Entrepreneurs Organization (http://www.eonetwork.org) member that answered this question.I've taken 2 of his suggestions and mixed them with 3 of mine. Whether you're the reflective, spiritual, meditative type, the hyper-focused Type-A type, or somewhere in between, there should be something for everyone on this list.

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Growing Into the Title of CEO Starts Today - Four Reasons Why It Must.

As a small business owner, nothing communicates confidence to prospective customers, employees, and partners more than your title as CEO.In just three letters, the title communicates self-confidence, leadership, vision, strategy, and credibility.

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As an Entrepreneur, 11 Things For Which I am Thankful

It's always the right time to live life from a place of gratitude. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, today I reflect on what it means to be thankful as an entrepreneur.

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When the CEO Must Become the CPO (Chief Process Officer)

Traditionally, the CEO is responsible for the "heart" of the organization... the vision, culture, mission, strategy, and values. They are the "Chief Evangelist Officer," or the "Chief Cultural Officer" or even the "Chief Emotions Officer" (yes I've seen that one too).Conversely, it's usually the COO that is responsible for the "blood and guts of the organization" - the person that ensures the operations within the organization can support the vision.Strategy & Process are InterdependentExperience - backed up by a lot of research and peer consultation - has taught me that strategy and process are two sides of the same coin, and that the CEO must take ownership for the creation of the core processes that enable a business to run. It doesn't matter how strong a vision is. Without the processes required to execute, the strategy will fall flat. And while I absolutely believe that "culture eats strategy for breakfast," the one essential element that organizations require for healthy strategies, cultures, and ultimately growth is process.

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Your Greatest Success Lies Directly Behind Your Greatest Challenges

"Every adversity, every failure and every heartache carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit."This is just one of the golden nuggets of wisdom that stays with me from one of my all-time favorite business books, "Three Feet From Gold" by by Sharon L. Lechter and Greg S. Reid. (http://threefeetaway.com/). The book is a synopsis of Napoleon Hill's philosophies for success (http://www.naphill.org/).The title conveys that people often give up on their dreams because they believe they can't succeed, when in reality, their success is within their grasp - sometimes literally three feet away.Feeling discouragement or even despair when we've convinced ourselves that success isn't an option happens to everyone. So how can we push past the negative thinking? How can we find the strength and resolve to continue for three more feet to find our own pot of gold?

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