• The brighter you are, the more you have to learn.

  • The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. Vince Lombardi

  • The number one fear in the world is public speaking. “You” vs. “I” messages are powerful tools for capturing your audience’s attention.

  • It costs 10 times more to gain a new customer than it does to keep an existing customer.

  • Leadership is being the best you can be, and helping others be the best they can be.

  • No one of us is as smart as all of us – when teams function well, miracles happen.

  • Change is constant. To implement change you must listen, engage, and empower individuals in the change process.

  • 78% of consumers say their most satisfying experience occurred because of a capable and competent customer service representative.

  • 85% of business leaders agree that traditional differentiators alone are no longer a sustainable business strategy.

  • Learn something every day. Never stop learning.

  • "High performing organizations are constantly focusing on improving their capabilities through learning systems, building knowledge capital and transformational learning throughout the organization.” - Ken Blanchard

  • 50 – 70% of how employees perceive their organization can be traced back to the actions of one person – the leader.

  • It is estimated that 80% of mergers and acquisitions that occur today fail to meet initial expectations.

  • Companies Don’t Solve Problems.
    People Do.

  • Corporations can work five times harder and spend five times more money to gain new customers, or they can keep the ones they have.

  • A survey of 350 executives across 14 industries, 68% confirmed their companies experienced unanticipated problems in their change process. – International Consortium of Executive Development Research.

  • Employee loyalty builds customer loyalty, which builds brand loyalty. It’s as simple - and as difficult - as that.

  • The key to keeping customers satisfied and loyal is to value and train employees while making them an integral part of corporate success.

  • Effective coaching is a key method for increasing productivity and profitability in an organization. Recent studies have shown that 85% of the workforce wants holistic coaching so that they can continually improve and grow.

  • Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. Winston Churchill

  • The key to building a culture based on Trust and Personal Responsibility is getting all employees to be committed to the organization’s Vision and the Values That Build Trust.

  • First, people don’t grow and change much unless they’re in a supportive environment where people know what they want to do and encourage them to do it.

  • Leadership IQ being equal, it is believed emotional intelligence – how we manage ourselves, our emotions and the emotions of others – accounts for 85 – 90% of what separates the most outstanding leaders from their peers.

  • If you want 1 year of prosperity, grow rice. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people. – Chinese Proverb

  • The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving. Oliver Wendell Holmes

  • 70% of organizational changes fail and these failures can be traced to ineffective leadership.

  • People are the core strategic asset. To be successful, a company must listen, involve, encourage, nurture, support, empower, and reward all its constituencies.

  • 25 of every 27 customers who have a bad experience fail to report it because they don’t believe anything will change.

The Ithaca Journal - Businesses seek to bridge generation gaps in management

At engineering firm Stanley Consultants, workers say there's no conflict in the younger-boss/older-worker arrangement in some departments.

October 20, 2006

The Ithaca Journal

In fact, Vern McAllister, a principal engineer who has been with the Muscatine, Iowa-based company since 1975, said he hired his current supervisor, George Gardner.

Gardner, also a principal engineer, started at the company five years ago. McAllister is 59; Gardner is 42. "It's not an issue," said McAllister, "I think the reason it works out so well is ... everyone is interested in doing good electrical engineering projects. We don't get hung up on personnel issues."

Gardner said he often stops by the desks of the three senior members of his department to ask for their input and feedback. The three younger engineers in the department, he said, "really look to my three senior guys for advice and help."

A new survey out earlier this month by OfficeTeam suggests that the majority of workers would agree that age is just a number.

Eighty-four percent of workers polled said they would be comfortable reporting to a manager younger than they are; 89 percent said they wouldn't mind supervising employees older than themselves.

It's having a good "relationship between you and your boss that's most important," said Stacey Singleton, branch manager of OfficeTeam in Des Moines.

Both sides should listen to each other's perspectives, be sensitive to people's experiences and backgrounds, and be supportive to foster a collaborative work environment, Singleton said.

Younger workers should view those who are older as mentors, she said. "They're going to have a lot of organizational and industry knowledge. They can definitely give deeper insight as to what's going on in the workplace."

Older workers should remember to "be an employee, not a parent," Singleton said.

Gardner said the senior workers are "indispensable" not only with their help on projects but also mentoring the younger staff.

Stanley Consultants was named by AARP last year as the country's Best Employer for Workers Over 50.

Among its nearly 1,100 members, 32 percent are 50 or older; 50 percent are between 30 and 49.

Dianne Durkin, president of Loyalty Factor in Portsmouth, N.H., said that contrary to the OfficeTeam survey findings, she's hearing that tension between Generation X bosses overseeing baby boomer workers is "causing tons of conflict."

"We're getting into the X-ers now who are in their mid-30s who are being promoted, so we're getting older workers working for the younger people," said Durkin, who has been researching the topic for the past six years.

She said baby boomers are "workaholics" who define themselves by their work and performance, and want to be appreciated for their time and effort.

Gen-Xers, Durkin said, want more of a work-life balance, are unafraid of questioning authority and crave instant feedback.

"The best way to work together is to communicate to one another and learn from one another," she said.

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