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The Right Way to Receive Criticism if You’re a Leader

A business owner once told me she had to let go of an employee for creating a toxic work environment. This employee had been sharing personal complaints about the owner with coworkers, rather than bringing them up directly with her. It soon became popular to talk behind the owner’s back, and before long, the circulating negativity caused a rift between her and the team. Obviously, morale and productivity suffered greatly.

Was this employee a liability? Definitely. But there’s also more to the picture. It’s possible that this business owner created an environment that discouraged people from speaking their mind productively.

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Introducing the Let’s Talk Business Podcast!

Welcome to the Let’s Talk Business Podcast—the podcast for no-nonsense advice to help you learn, grow, and lead. Listen in as Ptex Group CEO Meny Hoffman talks to some of the world’s foremost business leaders and influencers about how they’re turning ambition into action, blunder into breakthroughs, and passion into profits. Please subscribe, rate, and enjoy the show!

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The Secret Superpower of Successful People

As a person in business, each day can feel like a new rollercoaster of experiences and emotions. One minute you’re engaged in an exciting sales call with a large potential client, the next you’re in an anxiety-filled strategy meeting. One minute you’re putting your best foot forward to deliver a presentation, and then you’re comforting your child after a hard day at school.

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You 2.0

You turn on your phone, and are greeted by a most familiar message.

An alert flashes across the screen giving you the option to update to the new and improved version of some app or software. Just a tap of the screen and presto! It’s better than ever.

This routine has become so commonplace in our mobile-centric lives. Today’s hyper-paced world has reached dizzying levels of speeds, and software developers are constantly rolling out new updates, security fixes, and improvements to their products in order to keep pace.

While there’s not much to do on our end, in reality there is a lot of work that goes into creating these updates. There is updated code to write, bugs to fix, development, testing, split testing, tweaking, consumer feedback, and more testing. It’s an ongoing, meticulous process.

Much like the phones that (unfortunately) control our lives, we, too, require periodic updates.

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Stop Perfecting Failure!

Reid Hoffman (no relation), co-founder of LinkedIn, has a famous quote which resonates with entrepreneurs:

If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.

It’s a simple but revealing maxim. And, truth be told, it’s one not reserved for entrepreneurs orbusiness owners, but applicable to every single one of us.

Many people tinker and re-tinker with their assignment, their product or their business – all in the name of “making it perfect”. In reality, though, that perfectionism is just procrastination in disguise.

The reason people procrastinate?

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Can You Just Stop For A Minute!?

2016 is just a couple of days away.

Many businesspeople know that the change in the calendar year is a great time to set goals for the next year.

But not too many know that there is a step prior to setting goals – the mindset.

Smart businesspeople know that there is no straight path to success. There are many confusing twists and turns, and it’s easy to get lost. To simply keep moving to try to find your way out is counterproductive.

Just ask Richard Bauer.

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Planning Ahead & Thinking Big: The Bill Gates Technique

I spent this past week in Arizona – and it wasn’t for vacation or relaxation purposes. Rather, it was to take part in a special mastermind group.

People flew in from across the USA to attend. The group seemed to be made of entrepreneurs of all ages… and in similar growth stages of business. We sat together in a big room and got right to work. Everybody spent hours learning, analyzing, discussing and strategizing how to go about advancing their business goals and career objectives.

Perhaps you think that leaving the office for nearly an entire week might be a little bit too intense. “Was the whole trip really necessary?” you may be asking yourself. To say it was productive would be an understatement. Truthfully, it baffles me as to why every single businessperson in today’s marketplace doesn’t spend just one week out of a whole a year attending a mastermind group to focus on planning ahead.

Of course, when I talk about planning ahead, I don’t only mean technical things like crunching numbers or crafting contingency plans.

I’m talking about thinking big.

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