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Articles by Kevin Eikenberry

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75 articles by Kevin Eikenberry · showing 25

Browse every published article connected to Kevin Eikenberry, or search within this exact expert archive.

By SelfGrowth ContributorFeb 24, 20081 topic

Eight Uncommon Approaches To Better Presentations

Somewhere in your organization someone will give a presentation today. It may be you, the person in the next office, or someone who works in another department. Even if you work solo, there are times when you will be the presenter.nnFew would argue that being able to present effectively â whether youâre presenting to two or two thousand â is an important skill. And since it is such a commonly needed skill, there is plenty of advice available to you â books, courses, w

Primary topic: Business Coach and Business Coaching

Business Coach and Business Coaching

690 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorFeb 23, 20081 topic

Leadership Lessons From Presidential Campaigns

Every four years the United States elects a new President. The process isnât simple, and it isnât short. nnBecause this process plays out in the news media, and because it requires leadership both to gain the job and do the job, there are lessons from the process for the taking. These lessons, while taken directly from the 2008 campaign, are lessons that will be seen in every future (and many past) campaigns. nnConsider this article as a first step in those lessons. nnCre

Primary topic: Business Coach and Business Coaching

Business Coach and Business Coaching

690 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorFeb 23, 20081 topic

Are You A Great Listener?

I could start this article extolling the importance of listening in our everyday lives, in our ability to lead others, in our ability to improve relationships and communications in general. I could lament that while throughout our school experiences we were taught the communication skills of writing and speaking, but seldom was any time spent learning the skills of listening. nnI could do those things, but I wonât. nnYouâve heard and said all of those things before. There

Primary topic: Business Coach and Business Coaching

Business Coach and Business Coaching

802 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorFeb 19, 20081 topic

Training Is An Event, Learning Is A Process

I say that phrase often.nnItâs part of my personal philosophy, and itâs part of my business philosophy.nnLet me explainâ¦nnPeople around the world (you included) buy learning materials, books, audio programs, webinars, tele-seminars and attend lectures and workshops every day. These learning options exist whether you want to learn about leadership, leopards, or being a lifeguard. nnCompanies and organizations everywhere organize and fill workshops and classes continually

Primary topic: Leadership

828 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorJan 15, 20081 topic

Putting Out Fires - Stop, Drop, And Role

Iâve worked with well-meaning, highly-principled leaders for years. When the topic of coaching and developing their employees comes up I often hear that they know coaching is important, they want to coach more, but they donât have time because they are too busy âputting out firesâ. nnAs children we learn that if we are ever in a fire, and our clothing catches on fire, we should âstop, drop and roll.â By dropping to the floor and rolling around we snuff out the fla

Primary topic: Business Coach and Business Coaching

Business Coach and Business Coaching

790 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorDec 19, 20071 topic

The Antidote for Unsuccessful New Year's Resolutions

Many people spend some time at the end of the year working on the New Year. These people typically fall into two groups: those who use the end of the year as a way to be introspective and look back on the past year, and those who spend time looking forward; setting goals and planning the coming year.nnActually, there is a much larger third group â the group that intends to do one or the other of these things but ends up doing neither. Why this third group exists is the topi

Primary topic: Business Coach and Business Coaching

Business Coach and Business Coaching

826 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorDec 9, 20071 topic

Five Keys To Great Questions

Toby was a young and ambitious salesperson. Part of his training had been to spend time with Janice, a veteran and very successful salesperson at the firm. As Toby went on sales calls with Janice he took notes, and one of the things he marveled at was Janiceâs ability to ask great questions. In fact he had been collecting and recording her questions and had begun using the same questions himself.nnToby was disappointed though, as it seemed that the questions that worked so

Primary topic: Management Skills

Management Skills

1,008 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorDec 9, 20071 topic

Exercise Your Learning Muscles

Recently I was asked to be interviewed for a podcast, and the interviewer asked me to pick a couple of articles from his website to comment on during the interview. As I reviewed the site and looked at a variety of articles, I selected two and decided that rather than just commenting on each, I would look for the common threads and compare and contrast them.nnAs I did this exercise in preparation for the interview I realized the power of what I was doing and decided at that m

Primary topic: Business Coach and Business Coaching

Business Coach and Business Coaching

919 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorNov 26, 20071 topic

I'm A Salesperson?

I have found that the words sales, selling and salesperson always have feelings attached to them. Some of you are reading, pondering the title of this article and thinking a stream of positive thoughts about selling, things like:nnNothing happens until a sale is made or someone sells something. nSales is the engine of a capitalist economy. nOthers are reading thinking a stream of extremely different thoughts:nnIâm not in sales, Iâm a . nIf I wanted to be in sales, Iâd b

Primary topic: Business Coach and Business Coaching

Business Coach and Business Coaching

911 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorNov 12, 20071 topic

Maintaining And Building Momentum

You know what momentum is.nnYouâve felt it before.nnItâs that feeling that things are heading in the right direction; that things are going well; the future looks bright. It is like the snowball rolling downhill â as its gaining speed â it appears that the power of its momentum could make a huge difference at the bottom of the hill.nnMaybe youâve been on a project team that was making great progress and as things moved forward it seemed as if there were no obstacles

Primary topic: Motivation

901 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorNov 11, 20071 topic

One Important Choice

It might seem a bit strange to highlight one particular choice as important. After all, Iâm guessing you can immediately think of many important choices you have made in your life. However, the choice Iâm talking about isnât deciding what job to take, where to live or who to share your life with. Actually itâs a more fundamental choice that in my observation some people have never really considered. nnMy goal for the next few hundred words is to give you three specifi

Primary topic: Business Networking

Business Networking

1,037 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorNov 4, 20071 topic

The Journey To Our Goals

On a recent cross country flight I looked out over the Rocky Mountains from 30,000 feet and saw hundreds of paths sort of heading towards the summits of the various peaks.nnI write âsort ofâ because looking at these zigzagging paths made it very clear why they are called switchbacks. Those switchbacks occupied my thinking for most of the rest of the flight to Oakland and have been on my mind often since.nnIt occurred to me that those switchback paths are much like the pat

Primary topic: Goal Setting

769 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorOct 23, 20071 topic

The Magic Of Memory Lane

On a recent early autumn evening, I walked around the farm of my kidhood. In the spring, my father passed away, so I have spent more time here this year than in recent years. And on this particular evening I was on the farm alone. As the sun began to set a different memory seemed to arrive with each new step; memories of being a boy, of growing up, of mistakes made, of lessons learned and so much more.nnI donât share this to be sappy or sentimental, though I can be both of

Primary topic: Business Coach and Business Coaching

Business Coach and Business Coaching

790 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorOct 22, 20071 topic

Where Do I Belong?

Before you read any further, get a pen and a piece of paper. Write down all the groups you belong to. Iâll help you get started.nnI am a member of the human race. nI am a male/female. nnKeep writing until you have at have at least 10-15 groups on your list.nnNow that you are back, letâs review your list. nnIâm guessing that you will notice some groups that you are a member of without even making a choice, like the two I gave you to start your list. You also will likely

Primary topic: Leadership

969 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorOct 17, 20071 topic

A Starter Collection of Questions

People collect everything from McDonalds Happy Meal toys to antique guns to books to cars. Of all the things youâve heard of people collecting, perhaps questions isnât on that list. nnCollecting questions might seem unusual, but consider this: people typically collect things for at least on of three reasons: nnWhat they are collecting is meaningful. nWhat they are collecting is valuable. nGreat use or pleasure is derived from the pursuit of collecting, or the use of what

Primary topic: Executive Coach and Executive Coaching

Executive Coach and Executive Coaching

914 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorOct 17, 20071 topic

7 Ways To Harness The Power Of Questions

We all use questions everyday â in every part of our lives: as a leader, as a peer, as a parent, as a team member, as a spouse. We canât get through the day without asking at least some questions. Even if the only questions you ask all day are:nnâHow are you doing?â, ornnâWhatâs new?ânnYou are still asking questions.nnSo Iâm not going to urge you to simply ask questions; that doesnât make much sense â you already do that. The challenge I have for you today

Primary topic: Leadership

887 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorSep 25, 20071 topic

Business Lessons From Presidential Politics

The most influential CEO in the world (George W. Bush) is facing mandatory retirement in 16 months and already there are 20 men and women vying for the job â very publicly. They are talking about how they will do things differently if they are chosen, and they are doing everything they can to prove how all the other candidates are wrong for the job.nnWhen President Bush leaves office, many across the country will be thankful when the 24+ month campaign cycle has ended. But

Primary topic: Business Coach and Business Coaching

Business Coach and Business Coaching

802 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorSep 24, 20071 topic

Leading The Day After - Leadership Opportunities After The Project Is Over

If you lead for any length of time, you have experienced one (or both) of these situations:nnYour team achieves a major goal, finishes a big project or lands the big client. nThe team tries for but doesnât reach the big goal, finishes a big project late or loses a big client. nWhile these two sets of situations are quite different â some are big successes and the others disappointments â both lead to something very challenging for us to deal with.nnOnce youâve climbed

Primary topic: Business Coach and Business Coaching

Business Coach and Business Coaching

783 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorSep 24, 20071 topic

Ten Ways To Nurture Your Network

We all have personal networks â the groups of people who make up your professional and personal collection of friends, colleagues, acquaintances, etc. Unfortunately, we almost all also have people we used to know or were close to that we have lost track of or fallen out of touch with. Whether personally or professionally, Iâm sure that this has happened to you and you look back with some amount of regret.nnLet me ask you a question: âAre you doing things now to keep tha

Primary topic: Business Coach and Business Coaching

Business Coach and Business Coaching

1,051 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorSep 23, 20071 topic

Getting Greater Creativity By Getting Past The Fear Of Failure

Most all of us would like everyone on our teams to be more creative (including ourselves). We celebrate the creative genius, dream of the breakthrough product or service idea, and marvel at those who can make these things happen.nnAs a leader you know that higher levels of creativity can make your teams more successful, productive and feel more satisfied in their work. The upsides to high levels of creativity are many. The downsides are few, but the biggest one is peopleâs

Primary topic: Business Coach and Business Coaching

Business Coach and Business Coaching

769 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorSep 23, 20071 topic

Feedback Isn't Enough

We all want feedback â we want to know how we are doing. Getting that input gives us a benchmark of our current performance and helps us improve. It is important. It is necessary. nnAnd it isnât enough.nnConsider your basic performance review (even if it is a really effective one) or most any performance discussion. Most, if not all, of that conversation focuses on the past â what people have done that worked and went well, and what could be improved or changed.nnAt the

Primary topic: Business Coach and Business Coaching

Business Coach and Business Coaching

827 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorSep 19, 20071 topic

Three Techniques For Better Feedback and One Big But

Feedback is something we all need, and at least in some instances something we all want. And yet for many leaders, giving feedback is something we arenât comfortable doing, or donât feel we do successfully.nnThis article is designed to give you some techniques to help make this valuable and important process more effective both for you (the sender of the feedback) and the feedback receiver as well. nnThree TechniquesnnGet people to talk about their own performance (first)

Primary topic: Business Coach and Business Coaching

Business Coach and Business Coaching

791 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorSep 19, 20071 topic

Simple Stories Sell Ideas

Most of us donât tell stories to become an entertainer or to make it on television. We tell stories as a way to instruct, explain and, in the end, sell our ideas to others. As a leader we must sell ideas. As a co-worker we must sell ideas. As a spouse, parent and friend we want and need to sell ideas.nnStories are a great way to sell ideas, but not all stories are successful in doing that. Of all the factors that will impact a storyâs effectiveness in getting a message ac

Primary topic: Business Networking

Business Networking

1,042 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorSep 17, 20071 topic

Get Your Message Across by Creating Powerful Stories

Stories are an incredibly powerful way to communicate. But you donât have to take it from me. Consider Platoâs view: âThose who tell stories rule society.â Perhaps you donât want to rule society, but you would like to be a bit more influential.nnCreative writing instructor Robert McKee: âStory telling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.â Now weâre talking â all of us have ideas we want to share and have spread.nnThe bottom line is tha

Primary topic: Business Coach and Business Coaching

Business Coach and Business Coaching

929 views

By SelfGrowth ContributorSep 16, 20071 topic

When People Don't Like You

First, let me be clear, this article is not a how-to piece to get everyone to like you. While your life will be more enjoyable and satisfying when you have many strong relationships,sometimes as a leader people will not like you. nnWhy?nnBecause, as a leader, you are challenging their comfort zones, encouraging change and expecting improvement. It wouldnât matter what you did or how you did it, when you expect more than status quo some people get rattled. And there are some

Primary topic: Business Coach and Business Coaching

Business Coach and Business Coaching

1,147 views

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