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If you think difficult conversations can’t  be made easy, you’re  not alone.

It turns out there  are only 3 types. Diagnose which type you’re  in so you can  change it from being  emotionally taxing to a “learning conversation” where  problems get solved.

Three Types of Difficult Conversations

The “What Happened?” Conversation

Centers on who’s right, and who’s wrong.

The solution  is to shift from a blame-focused to a solution-focused conversation.

Acknowledge your own contribution  to the issue first – preventing other  party using it

as a weapon.

Authors Chip and Dan Heath help us make better decisions with their four-step process known as WRAP:

Widen Your Options:   Choices are rarely black-and-white so consider multiple alternatives. When life offers you “this or that” choices, always remember that the right answer might be “none of the above.”

Reality-Test Your Assumptions:  Innovative business leaders, like the late Steve Jobs, understand the power of testing assumptions. Rather than spending months planning the perfect product, they have their design team hack together a quick

In the story of David and  Goliath,  a simple  shepherd boy manages to defeat a gigantic  well-armed soldier.  This story has  long served as a metaphor for the weak winning an “improbable  victory” over the strong.

But according to Malcolm Gladwell,  this interpretation is wrong.  Instead, challenges and  obstacles can  actually  give underdogs a winning advantage.

The Advantages of Disadvantages (and the Disadvantages of  Advantages)

We tend  to assume that  the weak  person,

As industry is moving into the fully-digital future, businesses and employees are left unsure where things are headed or what they must do to survive and thrive.

To succeed in this rapidly changing environment internationally-acclaimed digital marketing guru Mitch

Joel offers …

Five Digital Strategies

Build Truly Direct Relationships with Customers

Don’t “blast back impersonal offers and specials” to your social media followers. Interact individually with them and look for ways to deliver value.

Provide Utility

Give priority to helping your customers ahead of promoting

Creativity is eclipsing all other factors as the key to growth – and even survival – for every type of business. An IBM survey of 1,500 CEOs reports that thinking creatively is the most important leadership competency.

Yet, only 25% of employees surveyed say they’re living up to their creative potential.  Could we be holding ourselves back? Perhaps we feel that being creative is a fixed trait…it’s not!

Creative confidence is like a muscle – it can be strengthened through  effort and

Qu’est-ce qui rend les choses populaires ? Pourquoi certaines idées se propagent-elles du jour au lendemain, tandis que d’autres disparaissent ? Comment se fait-il que certains produits deviennent omniprésents, tandis que d’autres ne gagnent jamais en popularité ? Jonah Berger partage les réponses dans son :

6 étapes clés pour arriver les gens à parler et à partager

S – Monnaie sociale

La monnaie sociale est comme le papier-monnaie – quelque chose de valeur que nous distribuons. Donc, nous disons aux gens

The Charisma Myth is the idea that charisma is a fundamental, inborn quality.  You either have it – like

Bill Clinton and Oprah – or you don’t.  But that’s simply not true.

Charisma:

Can be learned by anyone
Is not limited to outgoing personality types – shy people can be equally charismatic
Is not dependent on physical appearance or attractiveness

“Expensive clothing leads us to assume wealth. Friendly body language leads us to assume good intentions.   A confident posture leads us to assume the person has

For every small business owner who wants to cash-out, there are about a hundred businesses that just won’t sell. Whether you want to sell or not, it’s always reassuring to know that the business you’ve built from the ground up is actually worth something.

Build Your Business to Sell: 3 Critical Steps:

Scalability

You need a service or product  that has  the potential  to scale. It also must be (1) valuable to your customers, which avoids  commoditization; and (2) have  “teachable” processes for

Tout le monde est enseveli sous les informations et submergé par les interruptions. Personne n’a de temps à perdre, alors faites en sorte que votre message soit précis et concis. C’est la seule façon dont vos idées seront entendues.

Être BRIEF requiert trois compétences : conscience, discipline et esprit de décision :

Soyez conscient : Cela signifie que vous et les autres devez vous tenir à un niveau de concision plus élevé.
Soyez discipliné : Si les gens

Les progrès de la puissance de calcul et du stockage des données ont permis l’émergence du “big data” et son impact va être énorme.

Trois changements majeurs transforment notre façon d’analyser l’information :

Nous n’avons pas à nous contenter de l’échantillonnage – nous pouvons désormais utiliser toutes les données applicables.
Nous devrons renoncer à une certaine précision – les données volumineuses sont désordonnées, car elles se présentent sous différents formats et se présentent de diverses sources.
Nous devrons passer d’une concentration sur la recherche de