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Becoming A Solution To Your Customers Problems
Those of us in home based and small businesses are in effect selling our product. So becoming an effective salesperson is very important. Remember, however, that selling is not the only thing you do. Don’t forget to use your time wisely.
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Coaching for Creativity in the Workplace
There was a CEO of a large company who had an interesting object
on his desk. Over the course of many years the object had been
the topic of numerous conversations by most employees and
visitors who found themselves in his office. When I heard...
Lone Wolf -- Lead Wolf
Copyright 2005 Rick Johnson
Lone Wolf----Lead Wolf “The Evolution of Leadership”
Privately held companies range in size form very small “Mom & Pop” operations with revenue as low as $100,000 or less, to huge multi- million dollar...
Sell More by Testing your Web Headlines and Home Page
A client asked me, "At what point do you change your Web site when not making enough sales?" My answer? Within a month or so because as long as your ad copy is weak, those weak sales numbers will continue. My Web master says "It depends on how...
Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid When Joining a Professional Association
I'll be the first to admit that I went a little nuts when I moved I moved recently in terms of going all-out to participate in a variety of professional associations. I had some experience with most of the groups that I visited in other places I had...
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Hidden Traps for Life Partners Who Work Together
You may think that it would be wonderful to be in business with your spouse, but the truth is that when life partners become business partners unspoken assumptions can cause significant problems.
Neither couple I describe knows the other couple, but their stories are strikingly similar.
Craig and Warren are both recently retired executives. Craig’s wife, Marcy, owns and operates a website design firm. Warren’s wife, Sharon, owns an exclusive gift shop. Both businesses are successful, and each woman finds business ownership personally satisfying and rewarding. Both women requested couples coaching for similar reasons. Their husbands were interfering in their businesses.
Craig and Marcy were newlyweds. It was a long distance romance, and they both were delighted when his retirement allowed them to be together. His unspoken plan was to help her with her business so that she could work less, and they could spend more time together. Her plan, also unspoken, was to continue to develop her business in order to sell it in a few years and fund her own retirement.
Craig enthusiastically earned his certification in web design. He found the new information fun and refreshing after years of heavy corporate responsibility. Marcy was delighted that he was busy and happy, until he started to help her with her work. She found his suggestions insulting. It was her business, she was the expert, and she supervised many designers and negotiated profitable contracts. Now he, a novice, was trying to tell her what to do!
Warren and Sharon did talk to each other about their plans and goals. Warren felt that his expertise could be put to good use in Sharon’s business. He convinced her, against her “better judgment,” that expanding the business would create long term benefits for both of them. She decided to go along with his ideas.
They made plans together, expanded their capacity, hired several new employees, and Warren started pressuring everyone to be more productive. Sharon began to hate going to work. She had loved the personal
contact with her customers, but now she spent most of her time managing employees and trying to keep Warren calm.
Both women knew they were angry about their husbands’ interference, but neither could communicate about it effectively. Each was trying to balance keeping the peace, supporting their husbands and taking care of themselves and their businesses. Each time the women tried to discuss their own discomfort, their husbands would logically explain that they were only trying to help their wives.
During our sessions we uncovered the hidden assumptions and discussed them. When each man discovered the cause of their respective spouse’s feelings they was astonished to learn about the negative effects of genuinely trying to help their wives.
Neither of the men had thought much about how they were going to find a meaningful way to fill their time after retirement, and simply picked up what was convenient—their wife’s business. As the women learned to protect their own boundaries, a new conversation emerged. Each man needed to explore their own options for finding their own fulfilling activities.
Laurie Weiss, Ph.D., is an internationally known executive coach, psychotherapist, and author.
For more secrets please visit Laurie at or email laurie@laurieweiss.com
Free Mini-course: “Secrets for Turning Difficult Conversations into Amazing Opportunities for Cooperation and Success…” www.DareToSayIt.com introducing the information packed ebook, "I Wouldn't Dare say That!" How to Have Important Conversations that Build Working Relationships
Laurie Weiss, Ph.D., Master Certified Coach
Expert Coaching for Personal and Working Relationships
Empowerment Systems, 506 West Davies Way, Littleton, CO 80120
303-794-5379 Fax 303-794-5408, www.empowermentsystems.com
laurieweiss@empowermentsystems.com
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