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Making A Difference – Thoughts, Observations and Opinions
This is Dave Brock’s Blog.
It offers my views on a variety of business, sales, marketing, and leadership topic. My goal is to make a difference for you, the reader, in both your professional and personal lives.
Latest Posts
Auto Manufacturers and Dealers — Will They Ever Learn?
Every few years, I subject myself to one of the most frustrating experiences a consumer can ever go through, I buy a new car. I’ve been buying cars for too many years, and the experience is always terrible. After every dealer visit, I feel like I have to take a shower to clean the slime away.As a side note, before I get into my rant, a number of years ago, I wrote an article on the same topic. it was called “The Ultimate Buying Experience,” a tongue in cheek take off on the advertising theme of a large German car […]
What You Stop Is Important
Everyone I encounter, professionally and personally, has more on their plates than they could possibly accomplish. In virtually every business, organizations are trying to do more, with fewer resources and people, in shorter periods of time. That seems to leak over into our personal lives, with each of us over committing to each other. At some point, you start seeing very dis functional behaviors: Stress levels high, tempers short, people unhappy, people frustrated, fingers pointing, blame being passed and so forth. I’m working with one large organization that has undergone a series of severe resource cutbacks over the past 2 […]
"Completed Staff Work"
I was having a conversation with a client, the CEO of a Fortune 100 organization, and he cited something I hear from many leaders and executives, “My people come to me with problems, they don’t come to me with solutions.” There was more to it, but the comment reminded my of something a manager/mentor in IBM gave me many years ago. It was a short document called, “The Doctrine Of Completed Staff Work.” I’ve traced it to two sources, Brigadier General G.E.R. Smith, of the Canadeian Army (08/09/1943) and Brigadier General George A. Rehm, US Army, 1942-1943. Some may be […]
Guidelines For Giving And Receiving Feedback
Feedback is critical in developing powerful relationships and in effective communication. My experience is that most of us are poor at giving and receiving feedback. An incident with one of our clients in just the past few days—one which both the client and we handled poorly caused me to think about how to be more effective both in giving and receiving feedback. A close friend and colleague, Dr. George Lehner, developed these guidelines a number of years ago. They hold up, they are tough to execute consistently, but doing so makes each of us better. I’ll share just a short […]
Visible Leadership Every Day
Wally Bock had a great posting in his Three Star Leadership Blog yesterday. Incorporating habits into what you do everyday is critical to developing the organization. Some highlights: Everyday, you need to make your expectations clear. Everyday, you need to check for understanding. Everyday, you need to use every contact and an opportunity to improve team performance and morale. Coach team members. Encourage good behavior and honest effort. Correct what needs correcting. Counsel those who need it. Everyday, you need to do the hard work of weeding out the unfit and the unwilling. Great thoughts, tough to practice, but they […]
10 Step Program To Becoming A Better Listener
Listening–seems easy, we take it for granted, yet spend more time talking than really listening. I just read a nice blog that offered a good reminder of critical listening skills. This posting cam from “Dumb Little Man-Tips For Life,” it is worthwhile reading. Here is the summary, but read the post: Be legitimately interested. Avoid planning counterarguments. Be honest about your time. Accept the speaker’s point of view. Use body language, eye contact and repetition. Go beyond words. Get rid of distractions. Be aware of your history with the speaker. Ask questions. Watch and learn from the “good listener.” Listening—it’s […]