Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. — Aristotle
Category: Quips and Quotables
Short, memorable ideas, quotes and words of wisdom.
During Customer meetings, the best salespeople always seem to know how to put the emphasis of the conversation back onto the Customer instead of products and services.
Customers are very intuitive. They know when they are being “played” and when the sale is more important than the relationship. Give more, get more. Listen more, learn more.
“Give me understanding, and I shall live.” Psalms 119:144
Having a passion for knowledge and understanding is a lifelong calling.
Paraphrasing a quote from Steven Covey, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”
We should always be stretching our minds and our thinking to understand more, and to become understood through our thoughts and actions.
Another shoutout to my fraternity brother, Darren Korn, who teaches “understanding” to 4th graders in the Sycamore Community School District (Cincinnati, OH).
Preparing our next generation of leaders is a noble endeavor that we should all strive to do.
Relationships are important to our human experience on earth. Good relationships can promote happiness, inclusion and belonging. Time passes easily with great relationships. Poor relationships, on the other hand, can be absolutely debilitating to our emotional and physical health. Ask someone about a crazy ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend. How about a fantastic boss or that manager from hell. It’s amazing how relationships can be so complicated and encompassing. Family, friends, classmates, teammates, coworkers, and even social media “likes” belong to us as relationships. Some are positive, some are negative. Some are influential and some are detrimental. Can relationships be quantified? Measured? We can quickly size up the value of a relationship as to whether or not someone is worthy of our time, love or commitment.
Here is a super easy scorecard that can be applied to every relationship. It’s an easy “yes” or “no” answer to 5 questions that if answered honestly, will give you a positive (+) or negative (-) score of an individual’s relationship with YOU. Ask yourself these 5 questions and honestly score your results. Avoid anyone that doesn’t at least have a positive rating. Better yet, surround yourself with people who score +3 or better.
Relationship Scorecard (value). Place a (+) or (-) by each component variable.
How do you feel about a relationship with someone? Add these answers for a total between +5 and -5.
__ Respect? “admiration for someone’s abilities, qualities, or achievements”
__ Relevance? “being closely associated, connected or appropriate”
__ Reciprocity? “practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit”
__ Empathy? “understanding the feelings of another person”
__ Encouragement? “Giving or receiving support, confidence or hope”