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I tell my audiences every day that the key to success is taking action. Take a minute to look over this weeks featured articles and videos that highlight the different ways you might take action and have it positively benefit your bottom line……

5 Little Words That Will Make You a Much Better Leader By Jessica Stillman

We all know great leaders excel at articulating their vision. What’s less often appreciated is that listening is an equally valuable leadership skill.

Why? First, because feeling truly heard is deeply empowering for a team. As Yale business professor Marissa Kind has explained, “when employees feel listened to, they are less likely to feel emotionally exhausted and less likely to quit their job. They are also more likely to trust — and like — their bosses, and feel committed to them.”

Second, because you need to actually hear and process information about the world to be able to set a sensible vision in the first place. Listening well makes you smarter.

So how do you get better at this essential but under sung skill? There are a million suggestions out there, but perhaps one of the most powerful is also the simplest. It comes from author Simon Sinek and consists of all of five little words.

“Be the last to speak.”

In the quick snippet of a talk below (hat tip to design blog swissmiss), Sinek offers a profound leadership lesson that’s dead easy to remember: be the last to speak.

“I see it in boardrooms every day of the week, even people who consider themselves to be good leaders, who may actually be decent leaders, will walk into the room and say, ‘Here’s the problem. Here’s what I think, but I’m interested in your opinion. Let’s go around the room.’ It’s too late,” he warns.

Instead, cultivate the skill to hold your tongue until everyone else has weighed in. Not only does this allow other participants to feel heard, but it gives you an obvious advantage: you get to hear everyone else’s brilliant ideas before you contribute your own. Of course, you’ll say smarter things compared to when you first walked in itching to put your ideas instantly out there.

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16 Highly Effective Strategies for Closing a Sale, Revealed by 16 Top Salespeople  By Jeff Haden

Finding the right way to close a sale is what separates sales hunters from sales gatherers. Here are some great closing techniques you can start using today.

Gathering sales leads is tough. Getting in the door. Getting in front of decision makers is tough. But closing the sale? That’s what separates good salespeople from great salespeople.

The following is from Ryan Robinson, a content marketing consultant to the world’s top experts and growing startups.

Here’s Ryan:

Whether you’re just getting started or you’ve built a career in sales, you already know first-hand that selling tactics aren’t just learned in the classroom and immediately applied to driving real business results.

While there are certainly a stable of proven sale strategies that are widely applicable to growing your startup regardless of the industry you’re in, it’s not quite as simple as copying, pasting, and kicking back to watch your numbers soar.

Becoming a master at sales takes time, repetition, the willingness to adapt on the fly, and a dedication to improving your craft on a daily basis. For most, that bank of experience and knowledge takes years to accumulate.

However, if you decide to learn from the right people who’ve already put in thousands of hours sending cold emails and picking up the phone to close deals, you can significantly chip away at the inside sales learning curve.

That’s why we’re sharing the best sales tactics from over a dozen inside sales professionals, which have been honed over countless years of experience.

And beyond just the advice these pros are sharing, we’re drilling down into the fundamentals of how to take their tips and implement them as part of your sales process today. Let’s dive in.

1. Develop a deep understanding of your prospect’s business– Julianne Gsell, director of enterprise sales at Box.com

Starting as the company’s very first sales development representative back in 2009, Julianne Gsell is now the director of sales on the enterprise team at Box. Her work is now largely with a field sales team, so it’s safe to say she’s learned a thing or two about mastering both the art and science behind what it takes to be effective at sales throughout her career.

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10 Examples of Companies With Fantastic Cultures by Sujan Patel

Having great company culture is no longer just an option. Today’s workers consider it as much as they consider salary and benefits. In fact, fantastic company culture is almost expected along with other traditional benefits.

While the culture that works for one company might not work for another, you can learn a lot from companies who are doing it right, and get started on company culture hacks of your own.

1. Zappos

Zappos has become almost as well known for its culture as it is for the shoes that it sells online. What does that culture look like?

It starts with a cultural fit interview, which carries half the weight of whether the candidate is hired. New employees are offered $2,000 to quit after the first week of training if they decide the job isn’t for them. Ten core values are instilled in every team member. Employee raises come from workers who pass skills tests and exhibit increased capability, not from office politics. Portions of the budget are dedicated to employee team building and culture promotion.

Great benefits and a workplace that is fun and dedicated to making customers happy all fit in with the Zappos approach to company culture — when you get the company culture right, great customer service and a great brand will happen on its own.

Takeaway: Zappos hires according to cultural fit first and foremost. It has established what the company culture is, and fitting into that culture is the most important thing managers look for when hiring. This promotes the culture and happy employees, which ultimately leads to happy customers.

2. Warby Parker

Warby Parker has been making and selling prescription glasses online since 2010. It designs its own glasses, and sells directly to customers, cutting out the middleman and keeping prices low.

Company culture at Warby Parker instigates “culture crushes,” and one reason for that level of success is a team dedicated to culture. That team means that a positive culture is on the forefront, setting up fun lunches, events and programs. The company makes sure that there is always an upcoming event so the entire team has something to look forward to, and it uses methods to make sure the entire team works well together by insisting everyone helps keep break areas clean or sending random employees out to lunch together.

Takeaway: Warby Parker has made company culture deliberate by creating a dedicated team tasked with coming up with events and programs to promote community. Great company culture doesn’t happen on its own.

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Given such success, we have decided to go nationwide in 2018, Locations for the new Forum groups will be:

Orange Country, CA Forum Dates: Jan 31 & Feb 1, June 6 & 7 and Oct 16 & 17

San Diego, CA Forum Dates: Feb 22 & 23, July 12 & 13 and Oct 18 & 19

Philadelphia, PA Forum Dates: Feb 20 & 21, June 20 & 21 and Oct 11 & 12

Ft. Lauderdale, FL Forum Dates: Mar 6 & 7, July 10 & 11 and Nov 1 & 2

Participation is by application/qualification so email [email protected] or 888-298-6868 for more information. The max seats per group are 15, none of which can be filled with a competitor. If the participant feels they did not see more value than the membership, then membership dues will be returned, no questions asked. Now that we know the value, such an offer is easy to make!

I encourage you to watch the video testimonials and overview by me on the forum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-mqFDjc3Us&feature=youtu.be