by George Pastidis
51 years ago, on Thursday, April 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was standing out at the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis when a bullet entered through his right cheek. King dropped unconscious and an hour later, according to the autopsy report, he passed away. read more…
by George Pastidis
I am watching these days the second season of the Netflix series “Designated Survivor” with Kiefer Sutherland playing the US President Tom Kirkman. In one of the last episodes, there is a cabinet hearing taking place to determine if President Kirkman is mentally fit to continue in the Presidency. His Vice President walks in his office to tell him that the cabinet wants him to continue in his capacity of President. The President who was preparing to step down, is taken by surprise and his Vice President explains the decision, telling him that the reason is nothing but the beyond any doubts loyalty his close teammates have demonstrated to him and ‘loyalty is a consequence of leadership and leadership is a touchstone of competence’. read more…
by George Pastidis
A couple weeks ago, I saw a friend posting on linkedin the interesting article below https://thriveglobal.com/stories/9-ways-multitasking-is-killing-your-brain-and-productivity-according-to-neuroscientists/ . An article which explains why our brains are not made to do more than one thing at the same time. Few days later, I attended an excellent Ken Blanchard Leadership training. The trainer, a very good trainer by the way, explained again why we should avoid multitasking. Being a little puzzled, I started thinking how a day at work usually is. read more…
by George Pastidis
Research says that when we’re happy with some customer experience, we tell 8 people. When we’re upset, we get a lot more vocal, telling 22 people, almost four times as many. I believe this research finding does not mirror how I do things. I like sharing both my ugly and pretty customer experiences. Today is the turn of an ugly one though. read more…
by George Pastidis
2019 is here and all sales people start gearing up for making their sales targets. Either because things did not end right last year, or because we need to start up fresh and get motivated, we tend to set our new year resolutions. Depending on each one’s strengths and weaknesses and our market’s and industry’s situation, these resolutions may vary. I would carefully though recommend sales people to pay particular attention in the following three sales resolutions: read more…
by George Pastidis
I was preparing for a persuasion workshop and I stumbled on a good old movie. One of my favorites. 12 Angry Men of Sidney Lumet. Henry Fonda, the main actor, plays an ethical and responsible jury who does his best to prevent a miscarriage of justice, trying to persuade the other 11 juries to reconsider evidence and their initial vote for “guilty” read more…
by George Pastidis
Who likes boring people? Who likes wasting time, interacting with predictable communicators? Who would ever be convinced to buy from somebody who uses worn-out clichés instead of demonstrating disruptive thinking? Nobody! There is a big list of repellent, sales killer clichés that should be avoided read more…
by George Pastidis
I did not get to live in the States when I was a kid that Halloween was always big. And back then, in Europe and in Greece in particular that I grew up, it was not among the known or popular customs. Things are changing fast though. The movie industry and internet has closed the gaps between different countries and cultures and today we see Halloween parties and Trick-or-Treaters everywhere. Trick-or-Treat, what an amazing Sales 101 course! You learn so much there. read more…
by George Pastidis
I was having a beer with a cousin of mine during my summer vacation and the guy was really upset. I tried to understand what was wrong with him to find out that a couple of guests that had just left the room he was renting in an island, had written a pretty bad and unfair in his opinion review on Booking. At first, I was taken by surprise, seeing how much this incident had affected his mood but then I understood. I check out ratings and reviews before I go to a restaurant that I have not been before. Even if I am standing outside a restaurant that looks appealing, the first thing I do, unless I have a friend recommending it, is to get on Trip Advisor and check it out. read more…
by George Pastidis
It was about ten years ago when I attended an HR conference in Athens that Damian Hughes was speaking at. He literally fascinated me referring to the concept of “Future History”. He told us that Muhammad Ali had made 19 public declarations about the round that he would knock-out his opponent and he got it right in 17 out of 19 times. When he was interviewed once, he was asked how come he managed to do that. And he explained that long before a fight, he would weight his opponent’s strengths and weaknesses compared to his, he would set a goal and then he would prepare to make it happen. He would prepare to make his future history. He would play the day of the fight to come over and over again in his mind. He would vision himself walking in the ring, hearing the spectators cheering for him, smelling his opponent’s sweat, seeing his opponent in the eyes, throwing at him the perfect punch. He would make future history every time. read more…
