Blog

Paying Attention to Evolutionary Change that Surrounds an Organization

By Wayne O'Neill

We tend to see information and insight in big dramatic blocks of what’s going on in the marketplace, when in reality it’s subtle. It’s the same as what we see going on in the world of public-private finance. Everything operates like a flywheel—the environment changes little by little, time after time. Then, all the sudden, you have what I call Milestone Capitulation Events. This is a time in which big progress gets made, but not in a straight line.


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Interviewing Influencers: Networking Strategies with Bethany Williams

By Terri Hoffman

Networking doesn’t come easy for most of us. Many are intimidated at the notion of creating valuable conversation with a group full of people they’ve never heard of, and if your goal is to rub elbows with top-of-the-rung executives with busy schedules, you’ve got an added hurdle to cross.

Today on Interviewing Influencers, we talked with Bethany Williams about strategically connecting with C-suite executives.


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Boring Ass Articles: Why you should pay attention even when you don’t want to

By Wayne O'Neill

I’m always reading something. You’ll often find me staring intently at my iPad, soaking up the latest book from my book list or using the latest apps to connect with recent news and industry articles. If you catch me with my iPad powered off, I’ll have my nose buried deep within a trade publication: magazines that are, at times, so bad they won’t charge the readers—just the advertisers.


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Don’t get lost: The downsides to Geographical Thinking

By Wayne O'Neill

Many firms think that they connect best with their clients when they think geographically. They focus on having an office in every major city, so they can feel physically close to them and more available to meet needs as they arrive. What they don’t realize is that clients are more interested in someone that understands them and connects on a deeper level than can be limited by quantity of miles.


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The Death of the Weekly Sales Call

By Wayne O'Neill

A Case against Monday Meetings

Monday morning, 9:30 a.m. sharp: your team gathers around and begins dissecting every single one of the potential clients they’re pursuing. For up to three or four hours, you and your team members could be sitting around that same table, checking leads off your list. It quickly becomes exhausting, and before you know it, no one is listening—they’re waiting for their turn to talk, they’re checking emails, checking Twitter—they’re doing anything but listening.


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What and Who You Don’t Know that Can Hurt You

By Wayne O'Neill

Part of the genius of someone like Steve Jobs is that he saw what was missing and made an educated guess. He sought out different perspectives. What you don’t know can hurt you because someone who is trying to connect with your client may make that educated guess and beat you to the punch.


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Interviewing Influencers: Lessons on Leadership with Leigh Mires

By Maurielle Balczon

When you’re in a leadership position, constant learning is crucial. Whether you’re researching trends in the marketplace, or getting a deeper understanding of underlying internal issues, you have to be open-minded and prepared. For another perspective on the importance of learning when in a leadership position, we interviewed Leigh Mires, Chief Learning Officer at Thornton Tomasetti.


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Just Forget about Presenting…And Think About Connecting

By Wayne O'Neill

You’ve probably read a thing or two about effective presenting, or have some of your own opinions or strategies for effective presenting. In my opinion, all styles of presenting work. I don’t believe in presentation protocol, I believe in you getting up there in front of people and being true to yourself.


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Leadership Lessons from a Dancing Guy

By Wayne O'Neill

A colleague of mine sent me this video, First Follower: Leadership Lessons from a Dancing Guy and it’s full of counterintuitive notions about how behavior transformation happens. In watching it, the first thing I’m struck by is the fact that what really changes a group is the first follower to a leader, not the leader himself.


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The Connectors: Tadd Tellepsen, Part Two

By Wayne O'Neill

Yesterday, we introduced our new series, The Connectors, with former client Wayne O’ Neill Tadd Tellepsen. He worked for two years with Wayne O’Neill and Associates on The Connections Process, so he had more than one post’s worth of information to share about his experience. Today, we’ll pick up where he left off.


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