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Category Archive for 'leader'

This week marks the 2nd anniversary of one of my favorite books written by one of my favorite people — The Pollyanna Principles by Hildy Gottlieb. Loyal readers of Spurspectives may have seen a few posts referencing this book. There are links to some of them below. This is one of my favorite books because [...]

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I talk to a lot of community bankers. They’re fascinating people. Just like anywhere else, no two are alike. Everyone has a unique story. The same is true of the banks they run. They’re all different with their own unique culture. Yet, they all seem to share a common problem with marketing differentiation. How can [...]

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Book Review: Managing (Right) for the First Time by David C. Baker
Twitter version: Manage people? Buy this book now.
This is a first for Spurspectives, a book review. Those of you who know me are aware that I read a lot, so it may seem strange that this is the first book review that I’ve [...]

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I used to skydive. If you haven’t tried it, I recommend it. It’s fun. So when my son told me he and his friends were going skydiving I was O.K. with it. I checked out the airport and club behind his back just to make sure it was fine. After all I am his dad. [...]

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Regular readers of SPURspectives know that Spur Communications provides marketing services for financial services and community benefit organizations. We are routinely asked to help with brand development. So, we spend a lot of time asking why — Why do you exist? Why do you matter? Why should someone care? As you can imagine, our nonprofit [...]

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Championship competitions are great for studying the microcosm of team cohesion. The World Cup may be the greatest study of all due to its global reach. This Cup’s German team is showing something very unique and I think reflective a change in how the world does business.
Teams have long been assembled like armies, with top [...]

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There are three big questions that drive a lot of human behavior — what, how and why. Finding answers to them is key to most of your personal and business life. Since much of the world outside of the U.S. understands soccer to be a metaphor for life, I thought I would look at these [...]

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Do you know your strengths and weaknesses? It seems like a simple enough question — pretty straightforward. We all know where we excel and where we come up short. Don’t we? Of course most of us can make at least a short list of a few things we do well, but we tend to dwell [...]

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I love soccer. I know most Americans don’t get it, but I think the game is wonderful because it is filled with life lessons. With the 2010 World Cup in full swing now in South Africa, there is no shortage of lessons to learn. Consider this weekend’s 1-1 draw between England and the USA squad.
It [...]

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Social media is just making its way to the financial services sector. A recent research report by American Century Investments found only 14% of financial advisory firms reporting that social media is producing tangible value for their firms. That’s pretty damning evidence until you see that only 19% reported using social media daily or more [...]

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