Achieving Business Excellence

I have just returned from Canada where I delivered several speeches and had the opportunity to spend some time with the fantastic folks at RESULTS.com, a consulting firm that specializes in strategy execution.  Whenever I get to spend time with colleagues that also focus on helping businesses be more successful I love to ask them what sort of challenges their clients are currently facing.  In my discussions with the team at RESULTS.com, I realized that we are all seeing a lot of the same sort of issues, but to me one stands out above all others at this particular point in time; organizations that struggle with a lack of open, honest, robust… and most importantly “courageous communication.” Continue reading “The Need for Courageous Communication” »

The video I did last week on “Creating a Culture of Accountability” was so well received, I decided to follow it up with another short video on a key business success topic: teamwork. I hope you find this video very valuable and send the link on to any of your friends or colleagues that you feel might enjoy it. Thanks so much – have a super day, John

Lack of disciplined execution and failure to hold people fully accountable… these two issues can cost a business as much as 85% of their potential revenues! This is a HUGE problem that needs to be addressed, so in this video I share some of my best advice for how to greatly increase the level of accountability in your organization. If you find this video helpful I truly hope you will send it on to any of your colleagues and friends that you feel might find value in the ideas I share. Thanks so much — John

The books I have recomended in this podcast are:

NOBLE ENTERPRISE: The Commonsense Guide to Uplifting People and Profits

The Orange Revolution: How One Great Team Can Transform an Entire Organization

Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide

The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself

The Greatness Zone – Know Yourself, Find Your Fit, Transform the World

Small Changes That Help Small Companies Make Big Increases in Sales

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation

I hope that you found these book recommendations helpful — if you have some books you think I should read, please let me know!

I was recently in Seattle where I spent a week working with some of the top folks at Abbott Labs and in meetings with a handful of key managers at Microsoft. The focus of our discussions all focused around leadership and how to keep your best people motivated and highly engaged. When asked what I thought were the top things that motivated “talent” I decided to go right to the source and during a lunch with twelve  “High Potential” employees from Abbott I asked them what they looked for in a leader that they would willingly follow and give 100% of their effort to. Here is exactly what they told me: Continue reading “What Does “Talent” Look For in a Leader?” »

After yeas and years of research and talking to dozens of experts about what truly motivates employees, I’ve boiled it all down to what I feel are the three most essential, core things that every employee… every person… deeply craves. Continue reading “The Three Keys to Employee Engagement” »

I have had the great pleasure of attending the World Business Forum several times in the last few years, but due to a very hectic travel schedule, I missed this year’s event. As always, it was packed with great speakers and about 3,000 very serious business “learners.”  Of course my friend Tom Peters was there, along with Jack Welch, Jim Collins, Charlene Li, and A.G. Lafley, the former CEO of Procter & Gamble.  The last time I attended the Forum I took nearly 4 legal pads worth of notes (200+ pages) and was able to spend some quality time talking to both Tom and Jim. I learned a ton and came back with some absolutely great new ideas. Continue reading “The World Business Forum” »

About this time last year (Oct 2009) a client of mine in the health care industry asked me to put together a short video on “How to Deal With Change” that they could send around to their nearly 7,000 employees to give them some good, solid information on how to navigate these challenging times and successfully adjust to the “New Normal.” Continue reading “Dealing With CHANGE” »

I was just reading a fantastic post by my good friend Jack Malcolm on his blog Practical Eloquence about what it truly takes to be superb at giving presentations and speeches. His article, entitled “Excellence is Not an Act,” points out that a major factor in gaining superior speaking skills is having the discipline to practice and continually work for incremental improvements. Jack’s post gave me several great ideas that really sparked my thinking about the topic of discipline, so I wanted to share a few key ideas on what I feel it takes to be “excellent” at creating a culture of disciplined execution within your organization. Continue reading “The Nine Steps for Effective Execution” »

Several months ago I put this video together, mostly to test a new tiny video camera I had bought for Skype calls, but also to deliver a John Spence “Rant” on terrible sales technique! I hope you’ll enjoy this short video — and find value in the sales advice I offer at the end.

My next blog will be a very important piece on the need for Disciplined Execution!

Hope this video gave you a little laugh with some solid sales advice. Take good care – John