What’s your business posture?
Got a meeting with a potential prospect? You show up on time, but they keep you waiting. When you finally sit down, you realize your hour-long meeting is now just 30 minutes. [...]
13
09, 2024
10
02, 2024
What if you won $100M?
I’ve been thinking, “What would I do if I’d won the Powerball $100 million jackpot”? Yes, the odds are like being stuck twice by lightening in your lifetime. But heck, 2 people [...]
6
02, 2024
Are you playing to win or to not lose?
I've been thinking a lot about motivation lately, particularly when it comes to playing to win or playing not to lose. Think about any sport with qualification rounds. There's a noticeable difference [...]
2
02, 2024
The Paradigm Paradox: Why success could breed stagnation
I’m fascinated watching the uptake of AI language models. They’re a profound paradigm shift in how we approach work. Like any new frontier, there will be those who thrive and others who [...]
16
01, 2024
What could Taylor Swift teach us?
Success comes from preparation and practice. Be it in leadership or sales performance. There’s an old joke about the famous concert soloist lost on his way to Carnegie Hall. He asks a [...]
29
12, 2023
Reflect – Learn – Do
The new year is rapidly looming. What will it bring? None of us can predict the future. But we can learn from history. Now is a great time to sit back and [...]
30
09, 2023
10 minute productivity?
Do you find it difficult to estimate how long a job will take? Put a finger in the air? Then find it expands to the available time you’ve estimated? This happens to [...]
29
09, 2023
10 Minute Productivity
Do you find it difficult to estimate how long a job will take? Put a finger in the air? Then find it expands to the available time you’ve estimated? This happens to [...]
23
09, 2023
This evoked a lifetime of curiosity
I was a teenager when I first read Dale Carnegie’s “How to win friends and influence people”. It evoked a lifelong curiosity about what makes people tick and how to deal with [...]
20
09, 2023
Theory or implementation?
There’s a huge difference between theory and implementation. Especially when it comes to dealing with people. Moving into sales roles, I read tons of books. Went to courses. Studied persuasion techniques and [...]
30
05, 2023
Could you be Albert?
Business posture means you have a firm unshakable belief that you provide real value and deserve to be respected by your clients. Positioning involves being seen as a credible authority in your [...]
23
05, 2023
Deadlines – how do you react?
We’re moving house. There’s a defined date – stuff has to be packed and ready to move. Which brings up an interesting topic – deadlines. I’ve been mulling over why we take [...]
13
05, 2023
Could swimming improve your sales performance?
I’ve just started swimming again. Or should I say, attempting to . The last time I was in a pool was decades ago. I’ve always had trouble breathing so getting [...]
2
05, 2023
Challenged?
What happens when you get challenged? As a leader not everyone will agree with you. How you respond is critical. Do you get defensive? Feel resistance? Push back? Or do you encourage [...]
30
04, 2023
Reframing failure…
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship rocket exploded. Maybe not quite the result they’d want. What’s enlightening is their reframe. The SpaceX engineers class the mission a success. They test early and often. They’re [...]
25
04, 2023
Decisions…
Decisions, decisions, decisions. How comfortable are you making them? Especially the hard ones. Ones where you may not know the outcome. I’ve been reflecting on my own decision-making process. Under what circumstances [...]
7
03, 2023
Inferential thinking…
Thought this quote from James Clear is very apt in today’s world. "When you need to learn quickly, learn from others. When you need to learn deeply, learn from experience." To this [...]
4
03, 2023
The dark side of empathy
We’re all taught to play to our strengths. However, a strength overdone often becomes a weakness. Take empathy. In sales, empathy is extolled as a strength. “Get into your clients’ shoes” “Understand [...]
25
02, 2023
Liked or Respected?
Given a binary choice – be liked or respected, which would you choose? Could choosing one over the other enhance or hinder your professional results – both from a leadership or sales [...]
21
02, 2023
Will you put your ego aside?
Recently attending a Mahler concert highlighted an important leadership lesson about courage and confidence. Let me set the scene. We were at the newly refurbished concert hall at the Sydney Opera House. [...]
1
11, 2022
Controlling the controllable
Right now a lot of businesses are facing challenges. High inflation, high interest rates. Difficulty finding people resources. Buyers avoiding making decisions. A lot of these things are out of our control. [...]
29
10, 2022
Leadership lessons from Star Trek
I'm a big fan of Star Trek. Both the original and Next Gen series. What strikes me in both are the leadership lessons from both captains, Kirk and Picard. Lessons which apply [...]
8
10, 2022
Who are you listening to?
There's an old saying, "If it's to be, it's up to me". It's applicable in business and life generally. Right now Federal Reserves are putting up interest rates. The media talks about [...]
13
08, 2022
Who’s driving your bus?
Who’s driving your bus? I’ve been thinking about self leadership. What it takes to succeed in business. To be both emotionally and financially rewarded for the risks we take. In transactional analysis, [...]
21
07, 2022
Security – Opportunity – Prosperity
I'd like to talk about the relationship between security opportunity and prosperity and the chasm of possibilities this opens up.
17
06, 2022
5 minutes more…
When do you give up? Could success be just 5 minutes away? The next phone call? What's your level of grit, determination and resilience? My thanks to Greg Woodley for reminding me of this [...]
17
01, 2022
When did you last…?
If you own a business, when was the last time you stopped and asked yourself, “Why?” Why you’re in business. What your end goal is? How close to achieving you are? Most [...]
5
01, 2022
Conviction
Would you buy your own product or service at full price? Are you absolutely convinced in your heart of hearts that it delivers the value you claim? If not, why would anyone [...]
21
12, 2021
Agility, resilience, resourcefulness
Agility, resilience, resourcefulness. Courage, confidence and conviction. Are all attributes which I believe have a direct correlation with success in life. Agility means you rapidly respond to opportunities and adapt to different [...]
10
12, 2021
Vigilance, diligence, agility and vulnerability
Vigilance, diligence, agility and vulnerability. As a business leader, what do these words conjure up for you emotionally? For many of us the last couple of years have been anything but stable. [...]
7
12, 2021
Revisiting your big “WHY”
How often do you review why you're in business? Why you got started in the first place? If you're like many of us, you may well have fallen into business at some [...]
4
12, 2021
Do you embody these 7 Success traits?
I’m Rashid Kotwal. In almost two decades consulting to business owners I’ve come to realise all successful business owners and leaders exhibit certain traits that lead them to success. Now [...]
21
10, 2021
The one thing you can’t get more of…
There’s only one commodity you can’t get more of – time! You can always make more money – but you can never get wasted time back. So spend your time wisely. Start [...]
30
09, 2021
Tall poppy?
One of the biggest impediments to sales success is buying into the “tall poppy” story. Where we either don’t believe in our own value or just underplay it thinking we’ll come across [...]
12
04, 2021
Recognition
Status and recognition is a fundamental human driver. As Napoleon Bonaparte put it eloquently, “Recognition, babies cry for it, grown men die for it”. Status and recognition is often a major [...]
11
03, 2021
The delivery trap!
The biggest trap we face as consultants is getting subsumed by delivery. Yes, delivery is why we get paid, but unless you’re constantly out there selling, at some point there’ll be no [...]
12
11, 2020
Hitting the ground running in Jan 2021
It's almost the end of the year. What you do now will set you up for a great 2021. You either relax and take a break after all your hard [...]
22
10, 2020
Check-up from the neck up?
I love this quote from the late Zig Ziglar. “Your attitude not your aptitude will determine your altitude in life.” This is especially true in tough times like we’re facing [...]
20
10, 2020
Which camp do you fall into?
In conversations with business owners in the time of Covid-19 I’ve been struck by two completely different attitudes. Some said “Woe is me. It’s really difficult and I’ve lost most of my [...]
15
10, 2020
Life is too short to…
As business owners, life is too short to work with people we don’t like, don’t appreciate the value we provide and are just painful to deal with. One of [...]