Keith E. Webb's Blog, page 17
December 24, 2014
December 22, 2014
6 Ways Businesses Need to Think Like Nonprofits
For 25 years, I’ve worked with nonprofit organizations. I’ve applied a lot of business principlesto nonprofits. These days, I realize that nonprofits have a lot to teach businesses too. Here are 6 ways businesses can learn from nonprofits about purpose, marketing the intangible, and employee engagement.
Nonprofits and businesses are a lot alikeand a lot different from each other. The learning comes from using the differences to challenge our practices.
Many don’t know it, but in Peter Drucker’s...
December 15, 2014
6 Ways Nonprofits Need to Think Like Businesses
There’s a mindset among many nonprofit leaders that says their organizations shouldn’t run likebusinesses. The fact is, however, if nonprofits learn to think more like businesses they will serve more people and see more lives changed.
Nonprofits often operate from donor income, receivewhat volunteers want to give, and provide their services at little or no cost. After all the purpose of a nonprofit organization is to change lives.
The visionary nature of nonprofits makes them susceptible to th...
December 8, 2014
Radically Improve Your Understanding of What People Mean
Communication is a two-way street. Someone talks. You hear, then interpret what they said. And this is the point where things can go wrong. We think we understand what they are saying, but often we don’t. Here’s why and what to do about it.
Four Reasons We Misunderstand What People Say
1. Words have multiplemeanings
At an Apple iPod release presentation a reporter asked how long the battery would last. “For years,” the Apple representative responded, but the reporter interpreted it as “four year...
December 1, 2014
Daily Routines of Road Warriors
When you travel do you see all your normal life-giving dailyroutines go out the window? That’s what I experienced for years as I traveled. In many ways, travel energizes me, but poor management of my daily routines wore on me. Here’s what I did about it.
I travel a lot for speaking engagements and workshops. Usually, for a week at a time. Each place I travel tois new to me.
One thing that is constant is I’m always busy when I’m on the road. I often lead workshops that require...
November 24, 2014
Working From Home: 5 Ways to Increase Your Results
Working from home has some fantastic benefits. It also has some brutal pitfalls. A lack of boundaries, accountability, and self-discipline can make it difficult forthe virtual worker to getimportant things done.Here are 5 ways you can increase your results.
For more than 20 years I’ve worked from a home office. I’m not alone. Twenty-one percent of self-employed people consider home their main office. One in five other types of employees work from home at least once a week. [source]
There are so...
November 17, 2014
Escaping The Hamster Wheel At Work
As my training programsgrew, so did my busy-ness. New training programsmeant more systems to create and manage. More participantsmeant more emails to answer, registrations to process, orders to fulfill, and events to run. I became so busy running the organization that I no longer had time to develop new things.
I felt like I was running on a hamster wheel – going no where fast.
I tried to get off the wheel byreading management books, consulting with other leaders, and experimenting with differe...
November 10, 2014
If You Want to Learn, Start By Unlearning
Adults do not approach learning as a blank slate. We have preconceptions and prior experiences that can hinder as much as help. What we already know can get in the way of what we need to learn.To learn, we often have to unlearn first, then we can relearn.
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” – Alvin Toffler
Learn
Each year I get a new Moleskine journal to record my ideas, reflections, prayers, and expe...
November 3, 2014
Coaching the Positive Impact Scales
After my previous two posts on Positive Impact Scales I was asked how to coach using them. I have seen incredible changes in people and their organizations as they made changes in these four areas: Purpose, Impact, Money, and Ease. Here is my toolkit for increasing Positive Impact.
First, let me overview my 4-step process to coach the Positive Impact Scales.
I look at Purpose first. If the activity doesn’t fit Purpose, don’t be tempted, just eliminate it.
Next I look at Impact. What would produc...
October 27, 2014
Want to Tick Off Your Boss? Use Your Smartphone in Meetings
You are in a meeting. Your phone vibrates, youread the message, type a response and set the phone back down. The whole process takes you only 15 seconds. A new study says you’ve just irritated your boss and colleagues.
Lets face it, smartphones are everywhere. Yet, smartphone etiquette has not kept up.
One time, I witnessed a pastor take a call in the middle of teaching a group of people. “Hello? Can I call you back, I’m teaching. Yes, right now. There’s a group here. I’ll c...
