Loading the searchable article library…
Browse published articles attributed to Michael Beck, with full-archive search.
Stop trying to be normal. It undermines your success and keeps you in a state of mediocrity. It's an interesting phenomenon. This idea of being "normal" starts to take hold in high school. There begins to form this desire to "fit in" - to be part of a group. Or at least, not be singled out as someone who "doesn't fit in". Along with that comes the desire to be an "insider".
Most companies take a good approach to developing leaders, but generally miss the point. There's a lot of emphasis placed on good decision making, effective communication, and team building. And all those are important, but don't address what matters most. When you get right down to it, the essence of leadership - the thing that best reflects good leadership - is when a leader is able to bring out the best in others. If a leader is able to elicit excellence from the people around him or her, then that person can truly be deemed great leader.
The idea of expecting excellence isn't new, nor is the premise that every leader should expect excellence from his or her team. But just like everything a leader says and does, it's not so much a matter of "what" he or she does as much as it is about "how" they do what they do.
Don't bother setting goals. It's a waste of time. Let me explain why I feel this way about goals and then offer a better alte ative. See if this scenario sounds familiar. You decide to work towards some new level of accomplishment. So you set a goal for yourself. Actually, you probably set a few goals. The first goal you set is for the end result. Your goal might be to reach a certain level of sales, or to drop X pounds, or to build a sales team of a certain size. You get the idea... Next, you set an activity goal. No... more like 2 or even 3 activity goals.
There are many aspects to leadership that parallel the philosophies, concepts, and perspectives of Zen Buddhism. I don't profess to have a great depth of knowledge regarding Zen Buddhism, but from the insights I do have, I can see the application with respect to effective leadership. The parallel exists within the concept of leading without leading. It exists in the ebb and flow of leadership style. And it's reflected in the very duality of the role of a leader within an organization. Let me share my perspectives on each of those concepts as an insight into effective leadership.r
Eliciting excellence in others is the essence of leadership, and one of the most effective means of eliciting excellence is to instill a sense of pride in those around us. Instilling pride has a myriad of benefits - quality of work and workmanship improves, creativity and innovation increases, collaboration is facilitated more easily, and people are willing to "go the extra mile" to do their best. A team or department instilled with a sense of pride will excel simply to prove to others that things can be accomplished that are otherwise thought impossible.
There is tremendous opportunity and satisfaction as a leader in developing others. By effectively developing the people around us, we elicit excellence in a number of impactful and far-reaching ways. Developing others is an important function of effective leadership.
Recently on LinkedIn I posed three questions that resulted in some very interesting conversations. Here they are: 1. An executive is only a leader if people choose to follow. How can you tell whether people are following or just doing their job? 2. Everyone says leadership is important, but why does it make a difference? 3. If an executive produces a good bottom line are they a good leader?
This is the time of year when insurance professionals are focused on finishing the year strong and reaching all those goals their company has set for them. It’s also the time we begin to think about next year. We think about what goals we’d like to attain, how we’re going to do things ...
Effective delegation can be a springboard that launches your success to new heights. Successfulnpeople master delegation, while mediocre performers desperately hang on to tasks which arenimportant but better left to administrative experts. Over the years, I’ve found that often people ...
An important key to high productivity and effective leadership, not to mention sales and marketing success, is to have and maintain a positive attitude. Nothing else will have a greater effect on you than your attitude. Remember the saying, “Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude”? It’s ...
Despite the hundreds of books, programs and websites devoted to leadership, the truth is that leaders can't be trained. Leaders need to be developed. Hopefully this doesn't seem like a simple matter of semantics, because it isn't.
Create a clear, worthwhile purpose for your organization. How you develop a meaningful purpose? Involve people throughout the organization to develop and distill the essence of why your organization exists. Don’t simply rely on the executive team to develop and then dictate the purpose to ...
Imagine this scenario... You spend years working hard to succeed. During these years, you have some success, mixed with lots of false starts. But you never really reach the level of success you dream of. And then something shifts. Everything begins to work, and your fame and fortune take off. Here's the question: Does success change you? Does becoming successful cause you to think and act in a different way? Understanding the answer the answer to this question has significant implications for your future. The answer is "yes" and "no".
For an executive to be highly effective, they need to become highly productive. In addition, how they attain high productivity is as important as the productivity itself. High productivity is essential for executives because it serves three important purposes. The first, most obvious, is that it enables us to get our work done. No small task given the pace of business and the extra load budgetary constraints impose. The second, no less important benefit, is that by completing our work in a highly productive manner, it keeps our stress and anxiety levels under control.
We all have patterns, habits, and beliefs that limit us. The challenge is that we generally can't see how those thought-patte s and beliefs hold us back and what we can't see tends to sabotage our efforts.
Successful people master delegation, while mediocre performers desperately hang on to tasks which are important but better left to administrative experts. Being clear as to how you’d be more productive if you had the time is key to getting motivated about delegating. You are where you are ...
The restaurant business is something we live and breathe. We're in the restaurant for countless hours every week. We talk about it all the time to customers, staff and friends. We think about it constantly. And yet... the success we'd really like to have often eludes us.
If you long for "the good old days" the way they were a couple of years ago, then things have to change. I'm not talking about the economy or the politicians. I'm talking about us and our business. If we want to regain the success of days past, then we need to change our marketing and how we go about doing it. The problem is that when things become challenging, there's a tendency to rely on what used to work. And here's what happens.
The answer is “No”. Let me clarify that. I don’t believe we can change our true destiny – that is, the destiny we secretly know to be true - for the truth is the truth. But we can and should change that “destiny” or fate that we have resigned ourselves to accept. You see, that “destiny” isn’t ...
Ah, those magic words – “Attract Clients”. Virtually every professional I know loves the idea of attracting clients, and would be even happier if there was a “magic formula” for accomplishing it. Well, actually there is a formula that works like magic for attracting clients to you. And I’m going ...
Mastering the Art of Asking Questions is essential if you want to succeed. It's not simply a matter of getting in the habit of utilizing questions in your interactions with people. It's really about learning how to ask the right questions at the right time.
In a recent workshop I conducted on “The Art of Dealing with Difficult People”, we spent some time discussing terminations. If you’ve ever had to terminate someone, you know how difficult and stressful this can be. (Donald Trump excluded!) Over the years, I’ve developed a leadership philosophy ...
A topic that I'm often asked about is how to motivate people. Executives are always looking for ways to improve the attitude and performance of their team. My clients will tell me about how they've met and worked with each of their team members to get them to improve their performance but ...
Now that we’re better aware of some of the pitfalls to avoid (read my article “Tele-phony”), let’s discuss how to be an effective professional on the phone. People like to be around people, who are appropriately positive, appropriately enthusiastic, and who reflect a belief and confidence in ...
How to Read the Cards Now that we have a general idea of each social style (previous article “Build Rapport Quickly and Drive up Your Closing Ratios!”), let’s look at how to spot styles in others. Remember that we’re all complex, unique individuals – made up of aspects of all styles. What we’re ...
The other evening I was out having a cigar and a beverage. While sitting around a fire pit (an outdoor wood fire), I overheard an interesting conversation. [We were all sitting and standing pretty close to one another and this group was talking fairly loudly, so one couldn’t help but hear.] This ...
Anyone who conducts marketing and sales has to deal with using the phone as an important communication tool. The problem is that most people don’t maximize its effectiveness. Using the phone poorly can inadvertently act as a detriment to our success. Understand that the phone conveys our ...
Look… Let’s be honest. There’s no “one size fits all” solution to survival during challenging times. But there are some strategies that will help no matter what situation you and your business are in. The first strategy, for starters, is not to take things too seriously. I know that there ...
In truth, it’s WHO YOU ARE, rather than what you do or what you know, that persuades someone to buy from you. People will choose to do business with you because they like you, relate to you, and trust you. What traits define “who you are” in the minds of others? Obviously there are many things ...
In many ways, good leadership is hard to define. It can't be directly measured. There's no leadership "score" or report card. In fact often the measure of leadership is qualitative rather than quantitative - although quantitative results always follow. So, the questions remains, how can you tell ...
Product knowledge is important in selling insurance. Understanding how to uncover your prospect’s needs and then determining which product will best address those needs is critical. But as we’ve heard before, people buy from people they like. People buy Benefits, not Features … and they’re more ...
Stop reading the newspaper! Everyone acknowledges that the newspaper is mostly filled with negativity – murder, fire, war, disasters, etc. Stop feeding yourself with it! Believe me, you can’t help but be informed about major stories one way or another. We are bombarded. There is no need to go ...
We live in a time when it seems like we're regularly put into situations that cause us stress. Sometimes we feel a little stress for a short time and sometimes we feel a lot of stress for a long time. The fact is that when we feel stress, especially for extended periods of time, not only does ...
In my workshops, I'll ask participants for examples of stress-causing situations or events. They're always eager to offer real-life examples of stressful events. (Some examples may have already popped into your head as you read this.) But the reality is that there are no stressful situations! ...
For as long as I’ve been a professional I’ve heard that a person’s attitude makes a difference. You’ve probably heard all the cute sayings about attitude – “Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude”, Attitude is Everything”, “The Only Thing You Can Control is Your Attitude”. Every sales manager ...
The three top issues that I seem to work with my executive clients on are Effective Recruiting, Maximizing Production and Time Management. Today I’d like to share some thoughts on how to better identify candidates that are more likely to succeed in our business. Have you ever brought someone ...
For a couple of years now, I’ve worked with clients regarding the impact that conflicting intentions can have on a person’s success, but it wasn’t until the year – 2005 - that I got to experience the impact firsthand. Before I tell you my experience with it, let me ...
Ever work in a company where the prospects of advancement or expansion of responsibilities were nonexistent? Someplace where you knew that you weren’t going anywhere? Stay very long? That’s my point. Without an opportunity for growth, learning, expansion of responsibility, and increase in ...
“Ha!” you say. “For someone to make a statement like that, they obviously haven’t worked in the realnworld and certainly have never had to run a company.” Well, let me assure you. In my past I’ve not onlynrun companies, but spent many years in one of the most notorious industries for turnover – ...
When I ask workshop participants about characteristics of both good and bad leaders, the list never includes issues of intelligence, technical skills, or effective decision-making! Instead, the list is full of people-related traits – good listener, respectful, good communicator, develops ...
I was talking to a friend the other day, explaining what I do for a living, when she interrupted me and proceeded to tell me all about how wonderful her insurance agent was. Her story caused me to reflect on why I left my previous agent. I don’t think my previous agent will be upset by ...
In contrast to previous article titled “Why Do Referral Efforts Fail”, how can we turn these shortfalls around? How can we put ALL the pieces together to generate an ongoing stream of referrals? Here are the 4 keys to referral success… Key #1: WORK WITH ENOUGH REFERRAL SOURCES You need to have ...
One of the issues most often raised by my clients is better time management. People have tried prioritizing tasks, blocking out parts of their day for certain tasks, implementing new systems and getting better at delegation. While all of those things can make a difference, there is something ...
The facts surrounding someone’s past give us an idea of where they’re coming from. However, their feelings and thoughts about their past experiences can offer a better insight into their make up. Some questions will be oriented towards clarifying past experiences and decisions; others are ...
Don’t you get tired of hearing about how great referrals are? Especially if you’re not getting enough of them? I am always speaking to managers, agents and advisors who say they’re so tired of chasing “suspects” and would love real prospects – specifically prospects that come from referrals. I ...
Let’s face it… No one likes to be “sold” something. To me, being “sold” is when somebody convinces me to buy something – whether or not I really needed or wanted it. Have you ever been convinced by someone to buy something, maybe even against your ...
By taking the time to gain new insights into ourselves and our business, we create an opportunity to see things in a different light – to truly see things as they are. Once we do that, we can much better determine whether we need to take a new and better approach to building our business ...
Work on your energy! In times of stress and anxiety, it’s even more critical to eat right, exercise, and get the proper amount of sleep (generally 6-8 hours a night). By taking care of yourself properly you maximize your ability to be highly productive throughout the day – every day. Know how ...
You know, this would be a great business if it weren’t for having to deal with people all the time… OK, so maybe I’ve exaggerated things a bit, but we’ve all certainly heard that saying before. Why does that sentiment ring true for so many folks? Obviously it’s ...