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The Difference Between Principles and Values
In his influential book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey outlined the difference between principles and values. In Covey’s view, principles are rules or laws that are permanent, unchanging, and universal in nature. Values are internal and subjective, and they may change over time. What are principles? For Covey, principles are self-evident and—as part of most traditions and philosophies over the ages—they’ve been woven into the fabric of societies throughout human [...]
Culture: Your Company Has One, But Do You Know What It Is?
Here's a simple statistic: 100% of companies have “a culture.” Whether you deliberately cultivated it, or it simply emerged and evolved on its own, your company has a culture. But what is company culture? Culture has huge implications for any organization, and it can ultimately make or break your business. However, many companies don't examine, evaluate, and understand the culture they have, and even fewer take actions to proactively influence it. To start understanding and examining [...]
How to Manage Your Manager
Let’s face it: not every boss out there is perfect at delegating. Not every boss is perfect at communicating. Sometimes your manager will make suggestions or request actions that don’t make a whole lot of sense or don’t seem to fit into your current priorities. There may be times when you are buried and your boss dumps a load of new tasks on your desk, and there may be other times when you have completed [...]
Taking Responsibility for Your Own Success in Project Management and Implementation
I recently had a kickoff meeting with one of our customers, and it was quite refreshing. These meetings are sessions where our Professional Services delivery team meets with a customer’s key stakeholders to “kickoff” a PlanPlus Online CRM implementation. In this particular meeting, the leader on the customer side began the session with a bit of a pep talk and motivational speech that set clear expectations and reminded the customer’s stakeholders of their responsibilities. This [...]
Catch-Up Day 2.0
We’ve all been there. It’s 5 p.m. and the workday has somehow raced past you without allowing you enough time to tackle what needs to be done. Twenty emails in bold type stare at you impatiently from your inbox, while you ponder if the three voicemails left on your phone during lunch can wait for a response tomorrow. Wait! Did you even have time for a lunch break?! Now it’s time to head home, where [...]
Achieving User Adoption and Implementing Best Practices in your CRM Software Implementation
The Dangers of Taking “Simple” for Granted These days, many cloud-based CRM software applications are pretty simple to use. In fact, many software vendors have done such a good job of touting the simplicity of their applications, with terms like “ease of use” and “user friendly”, that some of their customers take implementing and using their CRM system for granted. Unfortunately, just because something is simple does not mean that you can afford to neglect [...]
How to Choose a Good CRM Administrator
One of the most important decisions to make in having a successful rollout for your Customer Relationship Management software is to choose the right administrator. This seems like a simple step, and often it is overlooked or underestimated. Some organizations and particularly small businesses may think, “We don’t need an administrator” or “we will all just share the administrative responsibilities.” This is not a good policy. Having an administrator and choosing the right person for [...]
Things that Organized People Do
Are you an organized person? We hope so. Of course, there are numerous degrees of organization. If you're familiar with martial arts, you know that most disciplines will have different degrees or colors of belts based on the level of skill that a person's demonstrated. You might start out as a white belt, move to a yellow, or red, and ultimately to a black belt. How can you become a black belt when it comes [...]
What Does CRM Software Have to Do with Organizational Culture?
Organizational culture can be difficult to define because its meanings and varieties can be as numerous as the companies that exhibit it. In the most general sense, however, organizational culture represents our group behavior and our shared values. It drives the way that we interact within an organization and the way we interact with external partners, such as our customers, vendors, and community. In a previous post, we explored “The 5 Building Blocks of Culture”, [...]
The Wrong Way to Use Goals
I'm a huge advocate of goals! Goals have tremendous power. In fact, goals have the power to focus the potential of mankind. Goals have the potential to send a man to the moon, to cure cancer, and to change lives. Unfortunately, in much the same way that nuclear power can be used to power cities or destroy them, goals have the power to create and the power to destroy. When goals are used incorrectly, they have [...]