Chalk Up a "6"

Andrew Carnegie hired Charles M. Schwab to run US Steel in 1921 and paid him $1 million per year. That was $3,000 per day, when people who made $50 per week, were considered well off. He was not hired because he knew more about steel than anyone else. Carnegie hired him because he was a genius at dealing with people. There was a book written about Mr. Schwab back in 1912 entitled Succeeding with What You Have. I would like to pull a short excerpt from the book that gives a great example of how Mr. Schwab was able to motivate his people to accomplish more without threats, condemnation, fear, criticism, intimidation, or pressure.

Attention Getter

I recently did a program on How to GRAB the Attention of Clients and Prospects. Here are a few points from that talk. According to the top advertising agencies in the world you’ve got 3 seconds to grab their attention. You scroll through your… Emails, Facebook feed, Today’s news, Tweets, Pins, Ads, Pics, and Videos … drowning in a sea of soundbites and thumbnails and headline after headline, page after page of information and ideas, until… suddenly, YOU stop scrolling. WHY! You hit that headline, that image, that quote that really speaks to YOU. You’re drawn into this piece of content and before you know it, you've consumed an entire email, article, blog, or post.

Beware of Opinions

A while back I read an article about a person that I had recently met and worked with several months prior. This individual is at the top of his profession, and everyone wants to know “The Secret”, “The Magic”, or “The Formula” to his success. He is inundated with requests for interviews, but unfortunately, he has very little time for them. He relented to a request for a feature article that allowed the writer access to him over several weeks.

A Bad Boss

It seems crazy to spend so much money properly training employees only to run them off with a BAD BOSS. A boss has an incredible influence over the employee experience. We’ve all heard the phrase “employees leave bosses, not companies.” Well, it’s true. In fact, 57% of employees leave their jobs because of their boss and 82% leave because of lack of recognition. Those are horrific statistics.

The Shame of Blame

The definition of blame is to “place the responsibility for a fault, error, etc.” The problem in some companies today is most of their so-called leaders put the majority of their effort in casting blame on others rather than finding a solution. I once heard a comedian say, “The secret of success is knowing who to blame for your failures.”

Throw Down the Gauntlet

To throw down the gauntlet means … to challenge. The term comes from the time of medieval knights when a knight would offer a challenge by throwing down his gauntlet (a metal glove which formed part of his suit of armor). The other knight accepted the challenge by picking up the gauntlet; to take up the gauntlet means to accept a challenge.