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Coming to terms with solitude & overcoming isolation
You’re sitting at your desk when you feel the rumble of a hunger pang. You look at the clock and realize it’s 3:00 PM and you haven’t moved for four hours, nor have you had contact with another human being since you kissed your spouse good-bye as he left for work this morning. Working on your own as a home-based employee or busy small business owner can be an isolating experience, and long periods of isolation can lead to burnout, loss of perspective, overwork and depression. Unfortunately, solitude is the nature of the beast when you work for yourself or you are working from home for your employer. Most entrepreneurs…
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Business, Business Advice, Business Services, CFHuron Update, Coach's Corner, Customer Service, Small Business Management, Solving Small Business
7 ways to make your customers feel important
How many times have you spent your well-earned dollars on a product or service, only to feel like a number or a commodity to the company once they’ve received payment? On the other hand, how well do you remember the companies that made you feel like they really valued you as a customer? It seems that the second scenario is becoming rarer, and those companies that do go the extra mile to make their customers feel important and valued, stand head and shoulders above the rest. Winning customer loyalty takes a lot of time and energy… achieving it will give you a never-ending source of repeat business and referrals. Winning…
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Courtesy – a tool to grow your business
Many people are asking, whatever happened to common courtesy? Courtesy is something that appears to be doing a disappearing act in our culture. Recently, a group of advertising and marketing executives was asked how courteous they thought business professionals were today, as compared to ten years ago. Of those interviewed, 40% said they felt people are generally less courteous than they were ten years ago, and only 16% felt people were more courteous. Did you know? You can actually use courtesy to grow your business. While it seems courtesy is often not a top priority for busy, sometimes harried professionals it is still something most people desire, and being a…
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Coach’s Corner – Building Resilience
What is resilience? As defined by the Webster’s Dictionary, it is “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” The past few months and looking forward to the coming months, resilient people and businesses will recover and succeed. The recovery and adjustment will not be to the old ways, it will be to a “new normal” that has been imposed by current situations and restrictions—social distancing being one by-product. The question for many is how do we build resilience? What are the steps or processes that we can incorporate into our lives that strengthen our resiliency? How do we move forward successfully? “Resilience is accepting your…
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Managing your workforce remotely
Covid-19 has fast-tracked us into a new business paradigm that was, just a few months ago, only slowly infiltrating our business lives. A Gallup poll recently showed that by the end of April, 63% of people had worked from home in the preceding seven days. A Global Workplace Analytics survey shows that between 25% – 30% of the U.S. workforce will be working from home post-pandemic for multiple days of the week. Interestingly, some 77% will want to work from home. This “new norm” will require managers to rethink, not only their management approach and practices, but also learn new skills. Here are 8 things you should bear in mind…
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The COVID Stress Challenge
We live in crazy times and given the number of stressors flying about us it’s no wonder many of us are struggling to retain a sense of equilibrium. Minister for Women and Gender Equality, Maryam Monsef, recently said, “What the pandemic has done with the self-isolation measures, with the closures of some of the support systems, is create a powder keg.” She was referring to the recent increase in domestic violence across Canada, but it’s not a stretch to imagine business relationships being strained by the stress we are all under with the current situation. And, we need to consider our employees who are working from home cloistered with their spouses, children…
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Coach’s Corner – five thoughts on being an effective mentor
“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”— Isaac Newton Although this column generally speaks to coaching, it is important to also recognize that mentoring in organizations is a valuable resource. In coaching we assume that the person being coached is the expert and knows their role. In mentoring, however, the person being mentored, the mentee, is an individual who may be “learning the ropes.” They may be more junior in the organization and gaining experience. Mentors provide support because they have the knowledge, experience, and expertise to share with their mentee. “Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a…
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3 tele-sales tips
First, should you use a script or not? Rhetorical question: there’s no right answer. On the one hand, if you are supremely confident and know exactly what you want to say, then not using one maybe the best way to go. But if you have even an iota of doubt, a script can sometimes help ensure you cover all the points you need to make, especially when selling a new product or service. The key is, if you do use one, it should never come across as a script and you should allow enormous flexibility so that if the prospect interrupts you, it doesn’t throw you off kilter, or make…
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Does your integrity bear scrutiny?
That’s an in-your-face question. It almost slaps you across the face with its audacity. How dare anyone cast aspersions on you or your company’s integrity. Your knee-jerk reaction is to undoubtedly to say, 100%. But, is anyone 100% honest and ethical all the time? Is any company that honest and above board? What about shades of grey? Would every one of your employees score 100% on an integrity meter? What about you or your management team? Now for a scary thought: what about your advertising and promotional literature or your hiring practices? The problem with integrity is that there is no sliding scale, you either have integrity or you don’t.…
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Coach’s Corner – How can you delegate more effectively?
“If you really want to grow as an entrepreneur, you’ve got to learn to delegate.” – Richard Branson, British entrepreneur Have you ever found yourself in a position where you know there are things you shouldn’t be doing? Do you sometimes feel it is easier for you to simply do them rather than have someone else take them on? Do you find it difficult to delegate because you feel others will not do the task as well as you can or the way you would do it? These are common thoughts that leaders and managers have about delegating activities and tasks. Here are some ideas on how you may become a…
