Holiday are a really good time for introspection.  Not just what you’ve accomplished but who you’ve become and where is your next stage of personal and professional growth going to come from?  Which relationships will you choose to invest in – personally and professionally and why?  How will you grow into the stronger manager, leader, professional, or even the better human being you aspire to become, not just tasks or functions you seek to accomplish?

This thanksgiving holiday season, I’m grateful for family, friends, clients, partners and colleagues.  I hope in some small way, I’ve positively impacted your experiences.  Thank you for your support of my passion to remain a life-long student of business relationships.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones,

David

p.s.

A friend emailed me the cartoon below – thought you’d enjoy it as well…

The November issue of Harvard Business Review highlights Kevin Peters, Office Depot’s president for North America and his bewilderment at a puzzling set of facts – declining sales but customer service scores going through the roof.  How could they be “delivering phenomenal service to customers, yet they weren’t buying anything?” Read the rest of this entry »

“Hi David – It’s good to hear from you and of the completion of your latest book.  After checking with my bosses I’m going to have to decline your request.  They don’t want me, or anyone else in the firm, endorsing others products including books. Best wishes on the release.”

That’s an email that you don’t expect to receive.  As many of you know, I’ve been working on the release of my 4th commercial book, Return on Impact – Leadership Strategies for the Age of Connected Relationships (ASAE, 2012).  As it’s customary, I’ve reached out to a dozen or so current and past clients with key insights about the book and have asked them for endorsements / testimonials of our work together.  Here are just two kind ones: Read the rest of this entry »

I received the email above from LinkedIn and it reminded me of great friends from Emory’s Exec. MBA program several (OK – thanks to the LinkedIn reminder – 11 years ago).  Beyond their names that I have in my address book, their faces reinforce that social is highly personal and social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) are simply an enabler of that personal interaction.  I’m amazed every single day with people who confuse the two.  They abdicate their interpersonal interactions (the essence of any relationship) to status updates, connections, followers, fans, and “likes.”  Email and social is one-dimensional; phone conversations are two dimensional because I can gauge your tonality; in-person is three dimensional and nothing will ever replace that interpersonal interactions.

Bottom line – pick up the phone and call a business relationship you haven’t in some time just to say hello and ask how they’re doing!  If you find a way to become an asset, amazing how often they’ll reciprocate!

What a fun way to go have a great weekend!  Compliments of All Twitter.

Did you know that most people make up their first impression of someone in the first 7-10 seconds of interacting with them?  The amazing aspect is that the other person doesn’t even have to say anything!  It has a great deal to do with how they look, how they carry themselves, and the context of the interaction – whether they were on time, who they were with, how they arrived, etc.

More importantly, once an initial interaction has been established, sociologists tell us that we give a little, they take, they judge, they give a little, we take, we judge, and we give a little more back.  This exchange continues for some time and the more comfortable we feel in that interaction, the more we tend to get beyond a facade and share pertinent or particularly valuable information.  As such, most people cement their initial impression in the first 10 minutes of the interaction.  Most people have two opportunities from that initial interaction – they’ll either enhance their perceived credibility or dilute it.  In what they say, what they do, how they behave, the value-add they bring to the table, and the caliber of the questions they ask! Read the rest of this entry »