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🤦 Another 3 Important Leadership Mistakes

We all make mistakes all the time. Or to put it another way: we do things that do not optimally advance us and others, but hinder us in some way.

This is quite normal so far. However, there are various mistakes in everyday leadership that most people are not even aware of, but which nevertheless have a strong negative effect.

Since the first step to any positive change is always the awareness of today's deficits and mistakes, I have exactly this as a topic in my coaching practice time and again.

It is all about recognizing and lifting the true potential that lies within all of us in an absolutely positive sense.

And the easiest way to do this is often to stop doing certain things that prevent us from moving forward.

Some time ago ( here's the post) I had written about three hidden leadership mistakes:

  • Lack of clarity and lack of focus
  • Too much tolerance
  • Not having a sparring partner

In principle, the list is inexhaustible. The problem is that we often have little awareness of the...

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😖 Why You Don’t Succeed

Most leaders know quite well what to do to grow the success of their team and their business. Many even initiate the right actions and initiatives.

The issue: more often than not, these initiatives do not lead to the expected results or the effects could be much more substantial. 

Why is this? The keyword is “inconsistencies”. Inconsistencies are relatively easy to spot for somebody external who sees a team or an entire organisation from the outside, but they are very difficult to see if you are “part of the system”. 

Example: When I arrive any company’s reception for the first time, I sense immediately how important customer care is in their culture. The friendliness and professionalism of the receptionist, design of the welcome area, and presented brochures tell me a lot about their focus areas. Then, when the CEO later tells me about the importance of customer service, I already know if they have inner conflicts that prevent them from...

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🚀 5 Unusual Productivity Tips

High productivity is a topic that usually comes across as a little "unsexy", but it has a huge impact on your success and fulfillment.

This is especially true in leadership: If you as a leader significantly increase your productivity, you will have more time and energy to take care of the really important things, like developing your people or establishing strategic directions.

Most leaders I know complain about "too little time." In other words, their productivity is too low. So it's about time to work on this issue more intensively.

An important insight at the beginning: We all can always become more productive, i.e. achieve significantly more with the same input or the same results with significantly less input.

The difference in productivity can easily be a factor of 10, 100 or even 1000.

There are various methods how you can achieve this. I'll go into that elsewhere (or contact me for more info).

Here in this memo, I'll give you five somewhat unusual tips that can have a...

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🔥 Ignite The Fire In People!

Isn’t this remarkable? During my workshops with leadership teams, the greatest results are always achieved when people work passionately on creating results. Personal mood, background, environment, co-workers, and other factors play a surprisingly minor role when it comes to producing results. All that counts is the dedication and passion of the team members. 

This is why in the most impactful speeches and seminars content delivery is only a small part (which you could otherwise read in a book or watch a video on YouTube). Indeed, what matters is how much the speaker ignites a fire within us. 

I even take it a step further: almost all people by nature have a fire burning within them that wants to get out.

Just watch children when they are playing, or take a look at adults at my seminars when they are doing role plays or the like. Even the most introverted person starts contributing and presenting with joy and passion. 

Hence, most managers wrongly attempt to...

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🏆 Why You Should Stop Wanting To Win

Even if it sounds surprising: we often get in our own way because we want to win too much.

And even worse: we frustrate others with it. This is especially significant if you are a leader.

What do I mean by that?

Well, there is a delicate line between wanting to win for the sake of the cause (because it really does get us better results) and wanting to win for the sake of our own ego.

We all have an ego to a greater or lesser degree - no exception.

In most cases this is positive, because it is reflected in healthy self-confidence and also helps us to assert important interests.

However, the ego also leads us to want to win on issues that are actually unimportant. Sometimes there is no other reason to stand up for ourselves than to satisfy our ego.

Remember the last argument you had: to what extent was it really about the cause (and was arguing the best way to do that?) and to what extent was it about our own ego, which you saw hurt?

In conflicts, ego almost always plays the bigger...

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☹️ Do You Give Up Too Early?

One of the most important characteristics of great achievers is their persistence and resilience. Those who you see in the limelight today virtually never succeeded just because of ONE strategy or ONE plan. They succeeded because they constantly see setbacks as a chance to try something new. 

I’m sure you know this as common sense. Here comes the twist for you as a business leader:

We all can train our capabilities to be resilient.

However, instead, what most companies do is exactly the opposite: they try to squeeze their people into a one-trial-no-mistakes culture. 

Even if a zero-tolerance policy makes sense for ensuring predictably high quality, it also kills the motivation and even the capabilities of your people to be persistent and resilient enough to manage strategic changes. Why? Simply because the mental muscle is not trained. It is like a corset: tensed up muscles will become stunted. 

A significant number of businesses suffer from the incapability of...

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🔜 Why You Will Be A Different Person In 5 Years

The following concept is extremely powerful if you want to achieve great things and also become more fulfilled - be it for yourself, your team or your company.

Let me explain: Most changes in our lives happen so slowly that we hardly notice them.

And so we hardly notice that we are a different person today than we were five years ago. You think differently, you have different priorities, maybe your aspirations have evolved, you make different choices, and so on.

When you first hear this, you may be a little incredulous. That's normal. But take a closer look: you will clearly notice differences between the present you and the past you.

The same is true, of course, when we look into the future: You will be someone different in 5 years than you are today.

Of course, this development goes faster the more external influences there are in your life.

And what I'm explaining here for one person applies just as much to a team or even an entire company.

Here's the point: Either you let...

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🔝 What Is Your True Priority?

For any business, you as a customer can easily spot the true key priority of the vendor. It doesn’t matter which shiny statements they communicate on their websites or in their stores.

The truth immediately reveals itself as soon as you start interacting with them. 

Examples: 

  • Sales people in a store talk to each other instead of looking for customers.
  • When I ask a sales person for something specific, this person only points me to the shelves, “over there” without even asking if they can help me find the item.
  • On a website, I don’t find within 5 seconds, an easy way to get in touch.
  • The sales person doesn’t offer me any alternative, if they cannot find a solution for my primary demand.
  • The company is not at all interested in my motivation to buy, but just focused on their products.

The list could go on and on. The key point is this: People’s true priority is not something you can hammer into their mind. Instead, the behavior of...

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🔭 How To Learn To See More Opportunities

One of the most important characteristics of outstanding leaders is to seize opportunities.

Don't you sometimes wish you could take a big step forward by jumping on a good opportunity?

It makes sense, especially if you are a leader. After all, you want to move your team or company forward.

However, it is often extremely difficult to recognize opportunities at all.

Time and again, when one person sees a huge opportunity and takes advantage of it, the other person carelessly passes it by.

Why is that?

Well, most opportunities also involve a certain risk. At least the risk that you have to leave your chosen path - even if only mentally.

But our standard evolutionary programming emphasizes safety. In other words: We are programmed not to see great opportunities in the first place. Because they mean danger.

Of course, the whole thing runs completely unconsciously. Instead, we love incremental progress. In other words, progress in small, manageable steps. We can then also stay mostly...

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🙋 Can I Buy More, Please?

Here is how any business can easily increase their sales by 10 percent and more. Even if the technique is simple, only a few ever apply it. 

The fact is: Most businesses ask their prospective customers for less of what they would be willing to spend if – yes: if – they just would be offered something of more value. Many customers are ready to buy more, but are never asked. 

Here are 3 ideas on how to tap into the full purchasing potential of your customers: 

  1. For each basic product or service that you offer, create an advanced and a luxury version. Be creative! If you sell engineering, offer a speed upgrade. If you sell components for machines, offer a complete service and maintenance package. If you sell home cleaning services, offer a regular cleaning check at a flat rate.
  2. Attach an attractive name to these additional packages which communicates higher status, value and security. The message must be: You will feel better with this package....
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