Blog Archives

Confessions of a Craven CEO

In May 2012, I “challenged” my team to cut costs and increase revenue. Actually, I flat-out demanded that they do it. Because of my commitment to my company’s mission, vision, and values, I like to think I can be pretty

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The Performance Conversation

The performance conversation is the third of three critical conversations for supervisors to have with team members and prospective hires. The supervisor will first want to ascertain the team members’ commitment to and alignment with the organization’s values via the

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Commitment: All or Nothing

People tend to talk about commitment in fractions, as though we can be partially committed to something. But the purpose of making a commitment is to let someone know that he or she can rely upon us to act a

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The Values Conversation

The values conversation is the second of three critical conversations for supervisors to have with team members and prospective hires. At ITX, we are implementing these conversations across the board, with all of our team members, in order to align

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Introduction to Spectacular Service

A 7-Part Recipe to Move Clients from Anxiety to Joy When clients complain – in any industry, whether it’s service or product based, and whether it’s an internal client or an external client — our first instinct is to try

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Managing Client Anxiety

A workable relationship is marked by feelings of comfort, ease and safety. If one of the partners feels too much anxiety too much of the time, the opposite of those positive sensations, the relationship will be problematic. And if one

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Considering Affinity in Client Relationships

Affinity is a term that is bandied about without much thought behind it. So what is an affinity? Affinity is a liking for or attraction to a person, thing or idea. In short, it’s a connection and our connection to

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The Commitment Conversation

The commitment conversation is the first of three critical conversations for supervisors to have with team members and prospective hires. It is intended to give supervisors the benefit of knowing the commitment level of each team member at any given

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Hunters, Farmers & Self-Deceivers

In the business world, there are two main types of salespeople: Hunters and Farmers. Hunters go out and find new customers, and Farmers maintain existing customer accounts. However, there is a third type of salesperson, one that no one ever

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