"We need to improve our customer service. Get someone in here for an afternoon to fix these people."

"We're busy. I may be able to spare a couple of people for a few hours. Beyond that, we don't have time for training."

"I don't get it. I send them to training with an expert consultant, and they seem as if they're learning something. Then, after a few days, it's back to the same old stuff. I want to scream."

Too often, organizations recognize they have a service issue, yet their efforts to address shortcomings fail to solve the problem. In the worst cases, customer service initiatives backfire and motivate people to do less. 

Last week, Chris stopped off at his local coffee shop to have a chai before heading off to a trade show to deliver a keynote speech.

As he sat at his usual spot near the counter a heated discussion ensued next to him regarding the 3rd Quarter of 2017. In the middle of the morning's caffeinated hustle and bustle, a marketing meeting was in progress.

He knew it was a marketing meeting because the three employees left the screens on their computers open to "Marketing Plans." Much to his amazement, they "abandoned" the table and were apparently on line (as well as online). They left two smartphones and a couple of memory sticks out in the open, plain as a Pumpkin Spiced Latte. 

In an era of tough competition, presentations that persuade, educate, motivate, and inspire give you a competitive edge. Good presentation skills are no longer simply nice to have; they can mean career life or death.

Imagine yourself in the front row of a ballroom at a convention. Sitting with you are sales professionals from all over the world. This was a software company's challenging January sales meeting.

That company had recently bought a competitor, and 40% of the sales professionals had nothing to do with the decision.

The opening speaker, the company's president, was challenged with getting everyone to know that they are working for the right company at the right time, that the company's strategy is sound, and that working for them will prove beneficial toward their career. He is an engineer, a brilliant leader, and rather shy. He is not a bad speaker; for this meeting, however, he knows he needs to become the corporate Rock Star.

Bitcoins were introduced in 2009 to great fanfare. But it's the means with which Bitcoin transactions are handled that have gotten most of the attention lately-and justifiably so.

Although there had been predecessors, Bitcoins were framed as the first form of cyber currency, meaning the system involved a peer-to-peer transaction network that operated directly between users without an intermediary.

Shortly after Bitcoins were introduced, I labeled them a Soft Trend-one whose future was looking good, but not a future certainty. In that same article, I labeled cyber currency a Hard Trend that would continue to grow. I also predicted there would be many more cyber currencies.

Since then, I've seen no need to change either designation, as the future success of Bitcoins remains promising but uncertain. Additionally, there are now more than 100 different cyber currencies.