"In a culture where being social and outgoing are prized above all else, it can be difficult, even shameful, to be an introvert. But, as Susan Cain argues in this passionate talk, introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world, and should be encouraged and celebrated."

When managing a team we have to be very careful to assume we have a great team or that were building a great team without some very specific imperatives.So often managers will nebulous lead describe how people need to act as good teammates or be a part of the team but what does that exactly mean and that leads us to our steps:

What is a great team? What do clients want? So often we define things from the inside out versus the outside in. What if client defined their expectations of how teams should work together as teammates and then we did it - wouldn't that provide a great advantage in the marketplace?

What if customers could define your training that would provide you an opportunity to  differentiate your company right? WOW what an advantage that would be. How should a company do that void of simply doing the annual client feedback survey that is rarely put into actionable development?

One of the services we provide clients is a coach the coach service. We ask managers to tell us what they're doing in regards to coaching and developing their talent and we provide one to one personalized feedback. One of the most common things we hear when we provide the service is the perspectives from both ends as it relates to this thing called feedback. This involves providing as well as an..

We work with a lot of sales organizations and their sales teams, and one of the most common things we hear is about is a staff’s ability to deal with objections. Objections are tough when they are related to price, competitor, stall, prospecting, etc. just to name a few.

We need to validate coaching and what it can do for an organization outside of just simply sales or customer service metrics. One of the best ways we can measure the effectiveness of coaching is our ability to recruit through our staff as well as reducer turnover. It has been researched that hiring new talent can cost organizations anywhere from 25 to 40% of the first year salary.

What does this mean, being proactive? Can you define it? Can you describe it, specifically? This aspect of being proactive is one we hear from managers all the time. When we press them for a definition they struggle a bit and here in lies the opportunity! There is no doubt people who are proactive will typically be better with time management, project completion, client engagement, etc.

Especially when we are coaching very specific areas or targeted areas we need to be very clear as it relates to expectations. Let me give you a brief example. A few months back I sat in on a meeting when a manager stood up and kept preaching that we need to have a sense of urgency when it comes to getting back to customers. I stop the meeting and asked everyone to write down their own definition..