Almost every executive, owner, or manager I meet has three significant problems:

• They are challenged setting direction for their company.

• They have employees that cause them undue frustration and heartache.

• They lack a disciplined approach to managing their day to day operations.

If this sounds familiar, rest assured, you aren’t alone.

Often, leaders in any business have a deep sense of knowing what to do. But they tend to postpone or simply procrastinate on the important issues in order to deal with the urgent, often unimportant ones. What could possibly be more important than creating a plan and setting direction for your business?

Leaders, even very good ones, let troublesome and difficult employees get the upper hand in the business, and in turn, undermine the remainder of their team. Such employees get under a leader’s skin and create anxiety, often to the point where communication breaks down and a crisis develops.

Perhaps even more disturbing, leaders find themselves with no rudder to keep the business moving in the right direction. Instead of having a managed approach to maintaining sensible and realistic activities, they resort to the “whim of the day” without recognizing the impact this can have on people around them.

All good leaders need someone to talk to, to confide in, and to provide advice and counsel that brings clarity to business decision-making. If you don’t have someone like this, I encourage you to get moving on it right away.

Eight Reasons to Buy and Stock Colored Gemstone Jewelry

I was recently interviewed by The American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) on the merits of buying and stocking colored stones and colored stone jewelry. My answers to their questions seemed basic, yet most retail jewelers fail to have adequate colored gemstone jewelry in their stores, and therefore sell far less of this product category than they should.

Click here to read eight reasons to buy and stock colored gemstone jewelry….

Moving From Success to Significance

When you are finally ready to move from success to significance, you will begin to see life and work differently.

What you place value on changes, and will be reflected in how you spend your money, and your time….[more]

Here are a few Business and Life Tips to think about:

Business Tips

• Refusing to change to meet emerging technologies is a bad business strategy. Adapt in order to thrive in a competitive environment.
• Constructive advice provides corrective opportunity. Criticism builds defensiveness and animosity. Share your insights carefully.
• As a retailer, you ARE who you buy from and what you buy. Your top ten suppliers produce 80% of your profitability.

Life Tips

• Invest in integrity. It doesn’t cost you anything, it makes you feel better about yourself, and it wins favor with those around you.
• Often, we fail to do something for no good reason. Next time, ask yourself, what’s the worst thing that can happen? Then go get things done.
• There is no reason to get upset over things that are out of your control. Exercising patience is times of challenge is a virtue.

Tags: Advice, Business Tips, Crisis Management, Developing Leaders, Leaders, Leadership Excellence, Leadership Skills, Life Tips, Managers