Are You Giving Your Customers What They Need?

Amazon, that seller of everything on-line, recently did an amazing thing:

They gave their customers what they needed.

If you're like me, you use Amazon reviews quite extensively. Amazon reviews allows me to make a more informed purchasing decision because I can read feedback from people who are actually USING the products (Reading through the reviews, it's amazing how many things seem to NOT work with Microsoft's Vista OS.)

Always on the cutting edge, Amazon recently rolled out capabilities for video reviews. Problem was, hardly anyone was using them. So Amazon came up with a brilliant strategy:

they gave away free video cameras.

That's right. Amazon gave away $179.00 Flip Video Cameras. And they were smart about it ... they gave them away to people who consistently post reviews.

In other words, Amazon had set up a sales channel that wasn't working. Rather than abandon it, they chose instead to support it by giving people (customers, in this case) the materials they needed to get the job done. (I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall listening in on the negotiations between Amazon and Pure Digital, the makers of the Flip Video Camera!)

I got mine. Best of all, the give-away happened at a synchronistic time for me. Recently, I've been reviewing options to move into providing videos for my customers. The Flip Camera gives me an easy way to begin explore the digital video arena.

For years, I've been a big fan of Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. I was a fan even when the naysayers in the late '90's said that Amazon would never amount to much. This camera give-away continues to support my belief in Amazon, and not just because I got a free camera. Rather, it is strategic moves like these that shows how Amazon is continuing to provide their customers a better way. Strategies like that will always win in the marketplace.

Go, Jeff!


BOTTOM LINE: Superior leaders make sure they give their customers what they need. It's called great customer service.

The importance of "emotional baggage" for leaders

A leader recently emailed me about the importance of leaders dealing with "emotional baggage" - emotional leftovers that can arise as anger, frustration, etc. years after an event. This leader wanted to know how emotional baggage from the past might hurt him in his leadership role today.

His question got me thinking.

Whenever leaders ask me this question, I use the metaphor of physical wounds. If I'm cooking in the kitchen, and I cut myself with a knife, I may have to get several stitches. If the wound heals properly, two years down the road there will be a scar. If the cut is still festering and oozing disgusting fluids two years later, I am going to get the cut treated, because left untreated, that festering wound can make me very physically sick.

This analogy holds for leaders' psychology. If I go through an event that leaves emotional scars, what is called "emotional baggage" is what happens when our emotional wounds are festing and oozing emotional pus. The feelings of anger, frustration (or whatever feeling you experience in relation to this past events) ARE the emotional pus.

The best response when this "emotional pus" occurs is to manage the emotional wound with a coach. Working with a coach can help drastically descrease (or even remove) this emotional baggage.

So what happens when leaders ignore when their emotional wounds are oozing? They infect others around them, decreasing emotional engagement and employee performance.

Bottom Line: Effective leaders take care of emotional baggage from the past because they know doing so will make them even better leaders.

Going International with Asogomi Publishing International

My micro-publishing company is now truly international! Here're the details...

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Micro-Publisher Lands Deal with Key International Publisher

Micro-Publisher’s Best-Selling Leadership Book Vaults into International Market

Contact: Timothy H. Warneka at 440.944.4746
P.O. Box 20
Cleveland, OH 44092
Tim@timwarneka.com
http://www.timwarneka.com/

Cleveland, Ohio – June 6, 2007 – Micro-Publisher Asogomi Publishing International announces landing its first international agreement with Pearson Education India. Pearson and Asogomi recently signed an agreement for Pearson to publish Asogomi’s best-selling book, Leading People the Black Belt Way: Conquering the Five Core Problems Facing Leaders Today. Written by Asogomi’s president, Tim Warneka, Leading People the Black Belt Way describes the Black Belt Way, a new approach to leadership that draws from the science of Emotional Intelligence and principles from the revolutionary non-violent martial art of Aikido.

“It is an honor to be able to work with an illustrious publisher such as Pearson Education,” commented Warneka, who founded Asogomi in 2005 in order to bring more sophisticated leadership approaches into the field. Pearson Education won the Foreign Rights for publishing Leading People the Black Belt Way after a heated bidding war with another publisher in India. “We are quite happy to have won the bid for such an important leadership book,” reports Sonal Sharma, a representative of Pearson.

To learn more about Asogomi Publishing International, visit them on-line at:

http://www.asogomi.com/

Warneka’s books are $19.95 (paperback) and $29.95 (hardback) and are available from Asogomi Publishing International. Or send your business card and a check (U.S. fund only) payable to Asogomi Publishing International, P.O. Box 20, Cleveland, Ohio, 44092. Or call 440.944.4746.

The books are also available from your local bookstore as well as from on-line book sellers such as Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com) and Barnes & Noble (http://www.bn.com/).

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Permission to Reprint

Need an illustration or author photo? Book cover and author images are available at:
http://www.asogomi.com/pressroom.html

Leading People the Black Belt Way book review...

"If you’re looking for a goldmine of timeless leadership treasures, you’ll want to add Leading People The Black Belt Way to your collection..."

So begins this review of Leading People the Black Belt Way by Lora Adrianse.

Other excerpts from Ms. Adrianse's blog include:

"... This book is a great investment because it’s jam packed with hidden gems. It’s so content rich that he could have easily broken it down to several smaller, simpler books. Warneka clearly put his heart and soul into this piece of work..."

... and ...

"... If you couldn’t put down Daniel Goleman’s books on emotional intelligence, you’re likely to be thrilled with this book. On the other hand, if you found Goleman’s books to be great reference material versus engaging and inspirational, you’ll likely feel the same way about this one..."



You can read Ms. Adrianse's full blog here.