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If you don't know how to run effective meetings, your business, your organization, and your career are doomed.

There's nothing worse than a bad meeting. You sit there grinding your teeth wondering why in the world you have to waste your time sitting through something that never should have happened in the first place.

The fact that we've all been there, sometimes weekly or even daily, doesn't make it any less annoying. It doesn't even begin to take the edge off that nagging thought that you could be making so much better use of your time.

But here's the thing. Meetings aren't just an unfortunate fact of business life. They're a hugely important fact of business life. They're how strategies are debated, budgets are vetted, projects are reviewed, and plans are agreed upon. They're how deals are negotiated and how they ultimately get done.

Not only are meetings the most efficient ways to get certain things done, they're the most effective tools for managing teams--if they're done right, that is.

I once calculated that I sat in more than 30,000 meetings during my 30-year career. Every type of meeting you can think of, from executive staff and board meetings to project reviews and strategy sessions. From one-on-ones to all hands operations reviews. From press interviews to customer meetings.

And you know what? I learned a lot about how to make meetings more effective. Here are 7 tips that I guarantee will make a big difference for you and your organization.

Learn this equation. No leader + no documentation + no follow up = waste of time. Every meeting has to have a leader, a stated purpose, a start and end time, and a valid reason for each and every person to be there. The leader documents conclusions, plans, action items, whatever, then follows up.

Do you even know what you're doing? Every leader should know how to run effective meetings, like how to set ground rules for constructive engagement, how to use tools like Parking Lots to take issues offline, and how to bring people to consensus.

Have them in the afternoon. I once read in a Scott Adams Dilbert book (no, I'm not kidding) that people do their best work in the morning, so you should have meetings in the afternoon. I asked my staff and they agreed unanimously. Turned out to be a great move. Also most people are more relaxed after lunch. Don't ask me why.

Beware the hive mentality. I've worked with companies where executives were double and triple booked in meetings most days and managers were required to have weekly one-on-ones with their boss and staff (and monthly with peers). How in the world do CEOs expects their management teams to get anything done that way?

Lose the hallway meetings. Founders and other start-up executives are often fond of ad-hoc hallway meetings. The problem is that decisions are made without input from key stakeholders. Sometimes that's a smokescreen for passive-aggressive behavior. Other times it results in strategy du jour. Either way, it destroys organizational effectiveness.

Challenge the status quo. If you run a periodic staff meeting, occasionally ask your team what you can do to improve it and help make them more effective. You'll usually get at least one good suggestion. Not only that, but your folks will appreciate it.

You evaluate individual performance before entrusting a new hire with a big task. Science suggests you should apply the same principle to teams.

Teams, as we've all experienced, aren't simply the sum of their parts. Through good mojo, friendly competition or complimentary talents, some groups wildly outperform what their individual members could accomplish working alone. But sadly, the converse is also true. Some teams produce less than the same people could crank out alone in a cubicle.

What separates the one sort from the other?

The ability of a team to gel together seems magical sometimes, something akin to the inexplicable chemistry that you either do or do not have with a date, but science, it turns out, actually has useful lessons to offer on how you can better ensure the teams at your company have chemistry.

A post by Dr. Christian Jarrett, a psychologist and author of the Rough Guide to Psychology, on 99u recently laid out five evidence-based techniques for getting more out of your teams, including one idea that applies a fundamental principle of car shopping to team selection. In short, writes Jarrett, take it for a test drive:

Individual assessment is such a fundamental part of working life, yet we often take it for granted. If you want the best person for a job, you put the candidates through their paces to see who comes out on top. The basic assumption is that if they do well in the test context, they'll also excel on future projects. It turns out the same principle applies to groups – U.S. researchers showed in 2010 that a team that does well in one situation will tend to do well on other challenges too.

He concludes that, "it's a mistake to think that putting together a bunch of skilled individuals will automatically create a gifted team." Social sensitivity matters as much as smarts, according to the same research (which, as a side note, means teams of mixed gender generally outperform all males groups because of women's tendency to be more socially sensitive). So before you hand over a huge pile of work to a newly formed team, consider giving them something smaller to gauge how well they'll perform together.

Interested in the other four research-validated ideas to improve your teams' performance? Check out Jarrett's uniformly interesting post. Or, if you're looking for other expert tips to encourage teamwork, architects and designers suggest that office design really matters, while Phil Geldart, author of In Your Hands, the Behaviors of a World Class Leader, has outlined seven fundamental building blocks of successful teams.

What's your top tip to optimize teamwork?

Whether you think your pitch meeting went well or poorly, you can improve your next one with an intelligent de-briefing.

When you walk out of a big pitch meeting, what comes next? We all know you shouldn’t discuss the meeting on a public elevator or within earshot of your hosts. But once the coast is clear, what should you say? Here’s the smart way to debrief.

What was that question?

Make a list of the questions the other party asked, and think back to how you answered.

Questions show two things:

• They are most often a search for data and learning--someone’s attempt to better understand what you are trying to say. You almost always do well on these questions because you know your business better than anyone else.
• Second, questions are a natural way for someone to signal what their concerns are, and what they are really thinking about. These questions usually take a different form. They can have a more negative tone, and they can be stated somewhat clumsily-- often as a statement that’s been turned into a question. These questions tell you what your potential partner is worried about, and what you need to address in your follow-up.

What was important to them?

There is nothing wrong with waiting for follow-up, and asking the other party to outline next steps. But it’s more creative and proactive to walk out and think about what the others reacted to. See if your colleagues heard the same things as you did.

What were they thinking?

Of course you can never know exactly what’s going on in someone else’s head. But try to figure out why your potential partners asked you particular questions or steered the conversation to certain topics.

Avoid answering those queries by falling back into what you think is important-;try to put yourself into their heads. And don’t make things more complicated than they need to be. If your potential partners asked a certain question repeatedly, maybe they just didn’t hear you the first time.

What’s the process?

Ask yourself, “If they don’t follow up, what’s the next logical step in engaging them?” If your counterparty doesn’t already have a process in place, they’re not going to build it for you. You need to do it.

One safe bet is to suggest a next step that will provide more information on something the other party asked about, in a way that doesn’t disrespect their process but gives them more data to assuage any concern. It may be best to include your follow-up information in your next communication, without waiting to ask, “Would you like us to do this?” or “Would this help?”

We all struggle to be self-aware, to know what we are good or bad at, and to examine ourselves. A pitch meeting, along with the content and feedback that come out of it, provides a platform for you to look at yourself and your company and learn. Take 15 minutes after the meeting to review the data so that your next meeting is even better.

Use these tactics to thwart four common dirty tricks that employees play on their bosses.

While most people are well-meaning, there is always a subset who thinks they can get a head by manipulating others to do what they want. Nowhere is this tendency more toxic than in the employee-boss relationship.

I've already written about the ways bosses (foolishly in my view) attempt to manipulate employees rather than inspire them. This post describe the four most common ways that employees try to manipulate a boss, and how a boss can avoid being manipulated.

1. Forcing a Card

When stage magicians have an audience member pick a card, they have numerous ways to ensure that a particular card is picked. This is known in the trade as "forcing a card."

Employees do something similar when they want a boss to make a particular decision. They prepare three alternative approaches to a problem so that it appears to the boss that there's a choice, but in fact only one approach makes any sense.

For example, suppose an employee wants a boss to hire his college friend. He recommends three candidates: 1) his friend, 2) an unqualified person, and 3) an overqualified person.

The Best Defense:

When presented with false alternatives, refuse to accept them. Say something like "I wanted three real alternatives and what you've given me here is one that's viable and two that aren't."

The employee will probably get defensive. If so say: "Be honest: are you trying to force my hand? Because I need some real choices." Your goal is to insert honesty into the relationship while letting the employee know you can't be manipulated.

2. Creative Goldbricking

When employees want to avoid difficult projects or even work in general, they'll often pretend to be so busy that you'd be insane to even consider putting something extra on their over-full agenda.

Such employees sport frazzled expressions, carry around huge stacks of papers, and complain--constantly--about how "stressed" they are. Even so, when you actually look into what they're getting done, it's not all that much.

Some employees, of course, may be spinning their wheels unintentionally, in which case you'll need to help them get out of a rut. But make no mistake, sometimes the "stressed to the max" shtick is only for show.

The Best Defense:

The difference between wheel-spinning and goldbricking is the intent behind the behavior. Since it's impossible for you to read an employee's mind, it's a waste of time to assess intent. Instead, address the behavior.

Tell the employee: "I'm clearing you of all responsibility, starting now." Give that statement a second or two to sink in. Then say: "We will now work on specific tasks that must be completed by a specific date."

Make certain that every task on the list has a concrete end-point, where there's no question whether the task has been accomplished or not. Think "get Acme to buy a product by end of month" rather than "increase customer communications."

3. Hiding the Skeleton

Suppose an employee wants you to remain ignorant of a fact but also doesn't want to be accused of holding back information. In this case, the employee may inform you of the fact without really informing you.

There are two ways to do this. The first is to bury the inconvenient fact near the end (but not AT the end) of a long report or email. Chances are you won't notice it, but the employee can claim you were "told all about it."

The second method is to hide the fact with weasel words and legalese. Example: "Pursuant to the inquiry dated 11/7, the conclusion was that the extirpation resulted from product usage." Translation: "Our product just killed somebody."

The Best Defense:

Whenever you receive a long report that might contain something problematic, click to the end of the document, then click back a few paragraphs. If there's a skeleton hiding in the report, that's where you'll find it.

When confronted with jargon, your best approach is to ask, point blank: "What does this mean in plain language? Please use words of one syllable." Note: this approach is a really fun way to drive corporate lawyers crazy.

In either case, hedge your bet by asking: "Is there anything here that, if I fully understood it, might alter my decision?" Then add: "Because I'm going to hold you accountable if there is."

4. Rat-holing

When employees don't like where a meeting is headed, they may try to change the subject by bringing up an issue that's guaranteed to distract your attention. This is known as "sending the meeting down a rat-hole"

For example, suppose the purpose of your meeting is to review project status, but "Joe" hasn't gotten much done. Rather than take the heat, Joe brings up (or makes up) a rumor that your biggest customer may leave for another vendor.

Suddenly, the project review turns into a planning session to avoid the impending disaster. The ensuing discussion consumes the remainder of the meeting time, thereby keeping the lateness of Joe's project off your radar.

The Best Defense:

Rat-holes only work when you're willing to jump down them. Have an agenda for every meeting and stick to that agenda, so that your meetings stay on course, even if employees surface distracting issues.

Whenever you sense a rat-hole, state that you realize that the issue is important (even if it's not) and then "table" that issue for later discussion. Eventually, employees will realize that, in your case, rat-holing is futile.

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For crowdfunding entrepreneurs, here's how you should approach your campaign.

New research from Oklahoma University found that rhetoric which asserts blame and cites an existing concern is more successful at raising cash than a list of achievements and skills. Though researchers focused the survey on 6,000 entrepreneurs in developing nations, they said the trends could apply to entrepreneurs anywhere.

"The investor feels like the entrepreneur is a more worthy recipient of their funds because their problems are blamable on external causes and not on any fault of the entrepreneur," said Thomas H. Allison, lead author on the study.

Seems pretty obvious, but there's a valuable lesson in this.

Aaron McKenny, also a researcher on the study, said that the focus on “This is going to help me overcome this problem"-- which gives the investor insight into an outcome or end-point-- is a sentiment that will translate into more money.

While this survey is limited to a sample set, there are certainly best practices when it comes to creating a solid crowdfunding campaign.

Slava Rubin, co-founder of Indiegogo, recently suggested a few pointers.

We know that to have a video as part of your campaign, you raise 114 percent more money than if you don't have a video. We know that you want to set a realistic deadline, typically, your deadline, on day 36, your target on day 36 of a 47 day campaign. You want to keep your campaign fresh with updates. So if you have an update every five days or less you will raise four times more money than if you have an update 20 days or more.

He added some specifics about using social media to boost your campaign.

We know that e-mail is your number one tool in raising the most money, Facebook is number two, and Twitter is number three. You want to have great perks. So over 90 percent of the campaigns on Indiegogo will offer perks in return, clearly if we're talking equity crowd funding, the perk can be the equity.

What are your best practices?

Sure, it's nice to help a college kid, but interns can also help your business. Think about it.

Your business is small. Too small to have a fancy internship program or connections with universities. You may even be located in a town far removed from a school that has a major that fits your business.

You should consider hiring a summer intern anyway. An intern can bring fresh ideas at low cost. Plus, you get the opportunity to help someone else learn how to be a great employee. Here's how to go about it.

Make a clear job description (and stick to it). This is critical for any job recruitment, but especially for interns. If you are planning to offer an unpaid internship, there are strict guidelines you have to meet to qualify, including that your company gets no benefit from the intern. A job description helps you keep within the law. However, my recommendation is that you offer a paid internship. That gives you more flexibility and a wider array of candidates to consider. Plus, it means you can give your intern meaningful projects that help your business.

Be prepared to start at the beginning. Remember your first job? How awkward you were? How you didn't understand the importance of office politics? Don't expect your intern to instinctively know all this stuff. He or she might, but don't count on it. You need to set out very clear guidelines that you don't need for your regular staff. Things such as dress codes, starting times, iPod volume, and TMI conversations should be addressed from the first day. Don't wait until there is a problem.

Give real projects. The point of an internship is to teach someone new how the real business world operates. If you are just having your intern clean the office or sort out the filing cabinet, that's called a summer job. That's also valuable (and I'm not discouraging you from hiring someone to do that), but it's not an internship. Have your intern accompany you on a sales call. Let her do a first draft of a project proposal. Introduce her to clients as, "This is Jane. She's doing an internship with us this summer. She's a student at State University, and we're thrilled to have her." This way, your clients don't expect polished and perfect.

Don't feel obligated to give only interesting tasks. Although you don't want to abandon your intern to the file room, part of work is, well, work, and there are plenty of tedious and boring tasks to go around. As long as you are paying, then it's perfectly OK to expect your intern to spend part of the time doing the boring but necessary things. But the focus should be on things that will help prepare her for the work force.

Give feedback (and lots of it). College students are used to homework assignments, papers, and tests that regularly tell them how they are doing. Saying, "Good job!" isn't the equivalent. Tell your intern precisely what was good and what was not so good about a project. This doesn't mean you turn into a nitpicky micromanager. It just means you make sure your intern knows precisely how she's doing and where she needs to improve.

Consider hiring someone without the best grades. Good grades are good things. But good grades don't tell you everything about the person. Instead, look for someone who loves your field and who has enthusiasm and is likely to want to live in your community in the future. You may find a hidden gem.

Talk about references. Internship managers are going to be the best reference a new grad can find. So, be clear with your intern over what you'll say. If she's been a disaster, let her know that you can't give her a good reference, so she won't list you on her applications. If she's been fantastic, let her know to be sure to use you as a reference. And when giving a reference, don't hold your intern to the same standard you hold your experienced employees.

Consider it your good deed for the year. The job market is tight, especially for people just entering the work force. Internships are a huge help to the new grad. And it's pretty cheap labor for you as well.

It's silly and perhaps already played-out, but the latest viral dance epitomizes an employee-driven culture where fun is spontaneous and teams like to work together.

You've seen it, of course, this meme-du-month that swept in around the time of the northeast blizzard. By last week, Shakes were taking place everywhere from college lecture halls to senior centers to Sea World. Every office with an open floor plan seems to have staged one.

The workplace versions--my subject here--begin with a lone figure in plain, typically tech-support-casual clothes and eccentric headgear (motorcycle helmet, Viking horns, a box). For 15 seconds, he or she grooves freestyle to a track of repetitive synthetic percussion by the electronic musician Baauer. The dancer's colleagues labor on, oblivious. Then cut and everyone's decked out in wacky costumes, flailing, gyrating, cartwheeling, and getting in touch with their inner Mardi Gras krewes. As of Friday, 40,000 versions of the viral sensation--which Wikipedia reports originated with some teenagers in Australia (those in Harlem say it's not the real Harlem Shake)--had been uploaded. No figures yet on the hit to global productivity.

Before the Harlem Shake, employees danced Gangnam Style.

In December, companies were acting out Gagnam Style to the equally-aurally assaultive music of PSY. Imagine Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland as employees in a Silicon Valley startup: "Come on kids! You get the sunglasses and I'll get the tuxedo jackets and we'll put on a show in the lunchroom!"

Over at TechCrunch Josh Constine explains why the Harlem Shake is so ubiquitous. The videos follow a rudimentary formula, are infinitely customizable and, from the perspective of viewers, "remarkably snackable." But I would like to think the workplace versions signify something more. Viewed in the context of organizational behavior, they represent a turn toward organic, employee-driven cultures where fun is spontaneous rather than scripted, and teams work together because they want to--not because they have to. They reveal why Monday mornings aren't universally depressing.

A bottom-up phenomenon (top-down management the Harlem Shake is not).

I suppose it's possible some of these videos originated in a corner office. In his copious free time spent surfing YouTube, a CEO stumbles across the staffs of Facebook or Rackspace or Vertical Response getting jiggy with it. He emails the HR director: "Let's make one of these. It will boost morale in wake of the layoffs and enhance our brand as bold and creative." The HR director gathers a Harlem Shake team in the conference room and brainstorms themes. Someone heads to iParty with the corporate credit card for costumes and props. A memo goes out prohibiting shirtlessness and pelvic thrusts.

But these videos don't feel like that. For all their adherence to formula, they feel loose and anarchic: like the joyful impromptu collaborations of people who genuinely like one another. Individual freak flags fly; but the overall effect is tribal. A shared sense of humor, a shared sense of style, a shared sense that such things are worth doing. And if there's an implicit rebellion against cubicle culture, it's a very mild one. These people may be overworked but they don't seem beaten down.

In a few weeks, the Harlem Shake contagion will likely subside to a low-grade fever. Employees will store away their feather boas and gas masks and bunny ears and get back to work. When they next meme rides through, they will know they are free--even encouraged--to call out, "Come on kids! Let's put on a show."

I'm not a fan of federal government. But let's ease the administrative burden of filing in 50 different states, and end the debate over how to tax online sales.

You know what's worse than getting a notice from the IRS? It's getting one of those "request for information" sales tax forms from the state of Michigan. Or any state, for that matter.

Just ask Cindy. She's the controller at a Pennsylvania-based client of mine. This company has the misfortune of being profitable in an age when governments are desperately seeking tax revenue. And it also has the misfortune of selling its products to customers located all around the country. Some of its products are sold online. But most orders are taken the old fashioned way--by phone or email. The states don't care how the purchases happen. They just want money.

"I get requests like these all the time," Cindy told me. "And they terrify me."

State sales taxes place a heavy burden on small businesses.

Cindy's company not only has customers around the country, but it has in the past employed a lone sales rep here and there. Or rented out a small warehouse to store goods now and then. And woe upon it for doing this. Because the minute a state like Michigan smells that there was some type of business done under its nose the "information requests" begin. And if you're naïve enough to honestly respond to one of these requests you could be setting yourself up for an avalanche of further requests, tax forms, nasty-grams, and other notices from the state bureau of collection trying to grab some cash. For a small business trying to do the right thing it becomes an administrative nightmare over a small amount of money. And, oh God, let's not get into calculating "use" tax. Does anyone really understand that? I tell you who does: high-priced CPAs and attorneys that many businesses are forced to hire to tackle this nightmare.

This is why the United States needs what's called a value added tax, or VAT. The country needs to eliminate the complex, bureaucratic state tax system, and replace it with something more simple: a federal tax on spending. It's been debated before. It needs to be addressed again.

I don't suggest this because of the deficit (although I wouldn't be opposed to some contribution being made to that). I am not suggesting a new form of taxation. I am suggesting relief for small businesses like Cindy's. And although I'm never a fan of the federal government taking control of anything, this is one area where Washington needs to step in. Especially now.

There's a huge debate about Internet taxation across state lines.

Large online retailers like Amazon.com are embroiled in arguments with New York, California, Michigan, Minnesota, and other municipalities looking for blood. They see companies located thousands of miles away selling millions of dollars of products to their residents via the Internet and they want a piece of the action. A 1992 Supreme Court decision found that retailers can't be forced to collect sales taxes on out-of-state purchases unless they have a physical presence in those states. More than 20 years and billions of dollars in deficits later, states are trying to find ways around this law. They are trying to find evidence of employees, warehouses, or other signs of local business activity or ownership to prove grounds for charging sales tax on purchases. Amazon.com is getting all the attention. But if (and as) they lose these state-by-state arguments, a precedent will be set for any business, big or small, that sells products online.

Congress is now getting involved with a new push to pass a Federal Marketplace Fairness Act for online sales. Groups like the National Taxpayers' Union are strongly opposed to it. "...the latest proposal will...undermine tax competition among the states, tilt the commercial playing field in favor of big-box stores, and upend the constitutionally-based doctrine of physical presence that has shielded sellers and buyers from out-of-state collectors reaching into their pockets," says the union's vice president.

But here's the last straw: The federal government recently announced that it will continue to make pennies, even though the typical penny costs 2.5 cents! Why? Because one of the biggest reasons against stopping this production is that the current state sales tax systems "...could not function without pennies to pay the odd tax rates."

OK...enough! We need a national VAT!

Yes, the VAT has issues. Big issues. A spending tax is regressive--it hurts lower income people more than higher income people. It will be difficult to unwind all the state tax systems and make it so that the states get their fair share. The federal infrastructure would cost money. Some may be nervous with more federal involvement in local affairs. And, for some businesses, it may increase the administrative burden. I get this. I'm a small business owner. I'm not a fan of the federal government. But I also know when a system isn't working. And the country's state tax system isn't a system. It's 50 systems. And within each system there are other systems. It's enough already. We have to simplify this.

Let there be one national sales tax, a VAT.

Let the VAT be administered by a federal agency. Agree on a national rate. Let the feds collect the tax and then distribute it out to the states. The states will be happy because they'll start collecting money that they didn't collect before, which will be a revenue boon to them. They will be able to eliminate all the costs associated with sending those nasty-grams to companies like Cindy's as well as the costs of collecting sales tax in their own states. The feds can charge the states to cover their costs for administering the program. And although this is not my main reason, if (and only if) they attain certain agreed-upon financial milestones, their "vig" can go toward reducing the nation's deficit.

Will some people suffer from a national VAT? Will small businesses? Yes, many consumers will have to pay an extra tax that they're not currently paying. But this is based on their spending, so the choice is up to them. And I believe in the power of the American consumer. An extra few percentage points isn't going to turn people away from buying that big screen TV to watch The Bachelor. And if implemented correctly, a national sales tax rate should be lower than what most states are currently charging. For businesses the transition would be worthwhile too. Yes, a federal VAT form would require sales data by state by month. But most accounting programs can easily provide that. The administrative burden of dealing with 50 different states would be eliminated. And let's not forget: 2.5 cents to make a penny? C'mon!

The VAT works well in nearly every other developed nation and it can work just as well here. It would replace our current, complicated, and frustrating sales-tax system with something much more simplified. It would end the debate over Internet sales and ease the pain for many small businesses struggling to cope with the filing requirements of 50 different states. And, if incentivized the right way, it could help contribute to paying down the deficit.

No, I do not want new taxes. I don't want a more powerful federal government. I just want an easier and more efficient system for clients like Cindy.

You may have a bunch of demographic stats, but do you really understand how your customers feel?

When people talk about their company's target audience, you typically hear things like "individuals between the ages of 13 and 25 who enjoy playing video games and have a mobile phone," or "active consumers between the ages of 25 and 45 who like to hike and rock climb" or "procurement officers at Fortune 1000 companies."

These descriptions all follow the traditional format taught in marketing classes around the world, and, sadly, they're all nearly worthless because they provide almost no relevant information for making strategic decisions. Every year, countless executives and marketing directors dutifully write up plans with these kinds of empty descriptions of their target audiences. And every year, these same companies fumble around trying to figure out why they're not clicking with their customers.

Skip the Stats

Your customers aren't demographics. They're not age ranges. They're not job titles, or geographical regions, or salary brackets. They're human beings. It seems ridiculous to have to say that, but companies are chronically unable to remember this basic fact.

As a result, these companies continue to churn out utterly uninspiring messages to their audiences. "Like video games? You'll love Blongotron!" "UltraThingy is designed especially for your active lifestyle!" "MetaSystemizer optimizes corporate alignment to streamline synergistic opportunities."

Meanwhile, all their customers are rolling their eyes. They know marketing drivel when they see it--just like you do--and they quickly move on.

Get Real With Your Customers

If you want to connect with your customers, you have to stop pushing knee-jerk marketing clichés on them, and focus on understanding who they really are, how they really think, and what's really important to them.

That soccer mom with 2.5 kids? Her name is Sarah. Yes, she goes to yoga classes, do you know why she goes? She has a minivan, but do you know how she feels about it? Stop making assumptions (because you're probably way off) and start asking questions. Then, when you start to understand, you can get real in the way you talk to Sarah.

Get Your Company on Board

Once you better understand what's going on in the minds of your audience, there are several steps you can take within your organization to ensure that this information doesn't just sit in a dusty binder on some executive's shelf, but rather that it becomes an everyday part of how your company works.

For example, you can create a "customer persona" (a fictional profile of a typical customer) with a name and a face, to help your staff connect with your target audience in a more direct way.

In meetings, then, they'd no longer have to try to hold an abstract customer profile in their heads; they can simply ask, "What would Sarah think about this?"

This simple change can bring about significant differences in the way a company considers its customers during decision-making processes.

Who are your customers?

Consumer Electronics Association head Gary Shapiro says small tech companies, when they're at their best, act like ninjas.

Being president of one of the largest trade organizations in the world comes with a number of privileges. Just ask Gary Shapiro, head of the Consumer Electronics Association, which holds the annual International CES in Las Vegas. For 30 years, Shapiro has been able to watch an extraordinary number of small tech companies as they try to make it big. He wrote about what he's learned along the way in a book out last month called, Ninja Innovation: The Ten Killer Strategies of the World's Most Successful Businesses. Shapiro recently spoke to Inc.com about the ninja ways of entrepreneurs.

What is "ninja innovation" and how can start-ups use it?
The ancient Japanese warriors overcame great odds to beat enemies who were bigger and better-equipped. In the corporate world, large companies are at a high risk of becoming stagnant. While the big companies are mired in bureaucracy, small businesses can be ninja innovators by being more agile. They can and should adapt quickly, change strategies when necessary, think outside the box, create something different, and outwit the established competition.

What are a few concrete examples of ninja tactics?
Accept failure, learn from it: Failure is what makes us strive harder and innovate better... and it's what makes our American culture so great. We accept and embrace failure, and encourage innovators to keep striving for victory.

Mentor others and be mentored: It's rewarding to mentor younger entrepreneurs and innovators... but learning from others is also crucial for growth. You're never too old or too successful to be taught yourself. [Mentoring] is both an obligation and a joy for anyone who has succeeded or wants to be successful.

Reject the top-down solution: Successful solutions can come from anywhere in your company, from the president and CEO to the interns. Ninja innovators create a culture of openness and creativity where everyone is encouraged to think outside the box and propose solutions. I challenge my employees never to come to me with a problem. Think of ways to innovate and bring solutions to the business, instead of dwelling on roadblocks.

What mistakes do you see small companies making when they try to innovate?
Going it alone. There's a myth that most big successful start-ups start with one guy in his garage toiling away in solitude. But the truth of the matter is that every start-up will at some point find itself in a place where it needs more resources and other perspectives. This is when one needs to find the right individuals to come in and work as their strike force. In Ninja Innovation I use the example of eBay, which faced a turning point in 1998. Founder Pierre Omidyar recognized that he wasn't the right person to shepherd the company to a public offering, so he brought in Meg Whitman. At the time Whitman seemed to clash with eBay's corporate ethos, but her success there was undeniable.

Let's talk about Apple. An example of ninja innovation, or a company that's slipping?
I don't think they are slipping. I think expectations for new breakthrough products are too high. Steve Jobs was one of the greatest ninja innovators ever, and his death is a huge loss to the company. Larger companies need to be able to adapt, adjust, and take risks to account for slipping sales or unforeseen problems that may arise. Apple knows its customers and is known for producing revolutionary products, so we'll have to see what comes next.

Can you give our readers one piece of advice that's core to start-up success?
Be flexible and try something new. This is a core principle of ninja innovation. Whether you're building your team, devising a strategy, or mentoring your colleagues, keeping the status quo is a doomed strategy. All of the principles of ninja innovation rely on the mantra of "innovate or die."

As part of Social Media Week, David Karp chats about his personal favorite Tumblr. You might want to take notes.

Among the many events currently taking place as part of Social Media Week, Tumblr founder David Karp sat down Wednesday with John Bell, Global Manager of Social@Ogilvy, to chat about all things Karp--including his dog Clark, his affinity for car commercials, and best of all, his favorite Tumblr.

So what's the Tumblr founder's fave Tumblr? Drum roll... It's Humans of New York.

“Basically this young aspiring photographer who moved to New York with this dream of taking ten thousand portraits," Karp said. "That was the dream: he wanted to take ten thousand portraits of some interesting and unbelievably mundane New Yorkers doing their regular New York stuff, or their regular weird New York stuff.”

Karp went on to describe one of his favorite posts within that Tumblr.

“Does anybody here know Blackwolf the Dragonmaster?....At some point you saw this guy wandering around Central Park. He’s got a dragon. He’s wearing like full wizard garb. Slender, kind of nerdy dude with a big staff…He’s usually eating a fish filet. And he’s like the coolest dude, who, he’ll like, enchant anything you want, he’s like the nicest guy ever. Just like, one of these weird characters I grew up with just always thinking like ‘that guy was cool.’”

For Karp, the Humans of New York is an example of how a community can add depth and significance to the Tumblr platform.

“It’s become this community effort where people actually send in stories about the dude that makes them a bagel every morning who just always has a great story to tell or the dude with an epic mustache that I see walking down the street every day," he said. "They send in these stories about these people and Brandon goes, finds them takes these gorgeous portraits of them, and uploads them with that story that led him to that person.”

And, of course, Karp himself has been featured on the Tumblr.

“[Brandon] shot me and [my dog] Clark on our motorcycle a few months ago…Clark’s there in the sidecar, my girlfriend’s holding him in the sidecar, and I’m up on top,” he said.

Click here to check out the full video and the rest of Social Media Week's offerings.

A new initiative introduced by Arizona State University works with libraries to create co-work spaces where entrepreneurs can gain training and support.

Though myriad co-work spaces already operate in public libraries across the U.S., Arizona State University is taking it to the next level.

Arizona State University’s Venture Catalyst start-up unit and the Scottsdale Public Library System have announced the introduction of the Alexandria Network, a system of co-work spaces for entrepreneurs in public libraries across Arizona. What's novel? The program will collaborate with libraries to reach entrepreneurs who may be less savvy than their peers and actually train library staff to deal with entrepreneurs.

“A lot of co-working spaces are targeting a particular type of person--this is more broad," Gordon McConnell, Assistant Vice President of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Venture Acceleration at ASU told Inc. "It’s probably for people that wouldn’t go to hipster co-working spaces. It’s great that those are happening—they’re an important foundation level to entrepreneurship. This is democratizing it a little bit."

McConnell also hopes the co-work spaces will be appealing to those among the growing population of entrepreneurs over age 50.

“Those are the people we’re trying to target, and they’ll be geographically spread out,” he added.

The pilot space will open in the Scottsdale Civic Center Library in early April, at which time the initiative also expects to announce the opening of six to eight more locations.

In addition to the work space, the library staff will be trained to provide basic assistance to those who visit the spaces seeking guidance on starting a business. Workshops on topics such as "Business Models vs. Business Plans" and "Legal Concerns for Startups" are currently open to both entrepreneurs and the library staff members learning to help them.

In response to the new intitiave, McConnell said, "[Library staff] were like, 'Yeah, this is great. We need to change. We don’t have this background in working with start-ups, you can support us.'"

For some entrepreneurs, prioritizing yourself can be one of the biggest challenges. Here's how to learn to say no and set boundaries.

Helping others, sharing, being kind: These are the sorts of values that have been instilled in most of us since kindergarten. And they're great values that make us better spouses, parents, neighbors, and citizens.

But sometimes, when you're an entrepreneur, being nice to others means shortchanging yourself and your business.

As Renée Warren, co-founder of Onboardly, reflected when asked what she wished she'd known starting out as an entrepreneur, the value of your time is one of the hardest things for some founders to learn. And safeguarding this resource requires saying no and being (constructively) selfish.

"It took me years to finally start saying no to things that would take me away from what really needed my attention," she says. "Time is the most valuable thing you have. Make sure you invest it wisely."

Why You Should Say No More Often

No one suggests being rude or truly self-centered, but according to time coach Elizabeth Grace Saunders, always trying to please others gets not only Warren but also a lot of busy professionals into trouble.

"In some jobs, immediate responsiveness comes with the territory (just think of fire fighters)," Saunders wrote on Lifehacker. "In others, a quick reply is preferable, such as with customer service reps or publicists. But in many other work situations, this cycle of responsiveness leads to neglect of the most important activities. Either they don't happen at all, or you end up filling your nights and weekends doing your 'real' work. I've worked with clients on six different continents who come to me feeling like victims of their circumstances."

So what can be done about this lack of boundaries? The short answer, which everyone already knows, is to say no more often. But if that were as easy as it sounds, so many of us wouldn't be struggling to manage our time.

How to Say No

Handily, Peter Bregman, writing on the HBR Blog Network, offers a mental toolkit of nine practices to help oversolicitous entrepreneurs get better at saying no and avoid both exhaustion and calendar chaos. Among them:

Be as resolute as they are pushy. Some people don't give up easily. That's their prerogative. But... give yourself permission to be just as pushy as they are. They'll respect you for it. You can make light of it if you want ("I know you don't give up easily--but neither do I. I'm getting better at saying no").

Establish a preemptive no. We all have certain people in our lives who tend to make repeated, sometimes burdensome requests of us. In those cases, it's better to say no before the request even comes in. Let that person know that you're hyperfocused on a couple of things in your life and trying to reduce your obligations in all other areas. If it's your boss who tends to make the requests, agree up front with her about where you should be spending your time. Then, when the requests come in, you can refer to your earlier conversation.

Be prepared to miss out. Some of us have a hard time saying no because we hate to miss an opportunity. And saying no always leads to a missed opportunity. But it's not just a missed opportunity; it's a tradeoff. Remind yourself that when you're saying no to the request, you are simultaneously saying yes to something you value more than the request. Both are opportunities. You're just choosing one over the other.

The remaining six suggestions are just as helpful, so check them out at HBR Blog Network. Saunders also has useful tips. She breaks down those who struggle with saying no into three categories--those with unrealistically high expectations for themselves, extremely service-focused people, and folks who are a bit delegation challenged--and offers advice for each.

Do you struggle with saying no? How do you cope with the problem?

Google+, Facebook, and LinkedIn can provide a lucrative opportunity if you can attract an engaged audience. Here's how to do it.

Facebook and Google+ Groups have made creating and managing a niche online community a lucrative practice, and many brands are already using those Groups as marketing tools. These communities provide an incredible opportunity to educate and generate leads from your target audience. Here are some tips on how to start your own niche community online.

Selecting between Google+, Facebook or LinkedIn

Google+, Facebook, and LinkedIn are the top three social media platforms that allow group formation and have the largest current user bases. Selecting which platform to adopt rests on a few critical questions to consider, such as:

1. Which platform has the largest concentration of my target audience?

If, for example, you're a B2B organization, LinkedIn would most likely be a more attractive platform than Facebook. Or maybe you're a B2C company that isn't comfortable with Facebook's unpredictability around user communication, so Google+ could provide a better option.

2. What current groups (if any) exist that are similar to my idea?

Sometimes, it makes more sense to join an existing group that already has a large member base. Google+ might be the best option in this case, since the platform allows you to join a Google+ Group as a brand rather than just another individual.

3. How important is search exposure to my organization?

All other factors being equal, choosing Google+ ties you most closely to the most used search engine in the world. This guarantees that Google will be aware of all updates and content that your group generates over its lifetime. This will have positive consequences in search results for your organization as long as you update your group regularly, keep the content relevant and drive true user engagement. But if your target audience is concentrated on another platform, it doesn't make much sense to choose Google+ just for the search bonus--instead, go where your audience resides.

Building the Group

Be sure to maintain your brand standards when building your group. Visit our Google+ Community Creation Guide to get step-by-step instructions on creating your own G+ Community. The Social Media Examiner also wrote a great post on how to build a LinkedIn Group. Finally, The Next Web created a short and sweet guide on creating a Facebook Group.

Maintaining Your Group

It's also important to create content governance guidelines to support the inbound marketing efforts you offer to your online community. These guidelines dictate editorial and style guides related to content delivery, compliance, and publishing schedules. This important plan will put a structure in place that allows for smooth and consistent content creation. Without regular updates with relevant content, your community will die on the vine and your efforts will be in vain.

It may also be helpful to download a copy of the Enterprise Blog Optimization Guide, which offers more details on creating a content governance plan as well as other content creation ideas, tips, and instructions.

No matter what platform you choose or which plan you implement, the most important concept to remember is that you must make a commitment as an organization to maintain and grow your online community. Doing so will foster an evergreen resource that will generate leads and sales well into the future for your organization.

Unfortunately, the world is full of liars who could sabotage your start-up. Here are five things you can do to protect yourself.

The start-up’s board asks you to take over the 50-person venture, as its investors write a $20 million check to help it get to the next level. After conducting due diligence on the start-up’s finances, customers, partners and management team you decide to take the job.

After several meeting with the founder, he agrees to stay with the company as chief technology officer (CTO). You decide that a critical next step for the venture is to win a government contract that would customize the product - leading to thousands of orders.

Since he understands the product better than anyone else in the company and he has expressed an interest in helping the company grow to the next level, you ask the CTO to take the lead on writing a proposal for the contract and making sure it gets delivered to the procurement officer in six weeks.

Every week thereafter, you meet with the CTO and he tells you that everything is proceeding smoothly. Six weeks later, the CTO announces that he is leaving the company to start his own competing firm. You call the procurement officer for that government contract and discover that he never got the proposal that the CTO assured you he had delivered before the deadline.

Suddenly, what had looked like the greatest business opportunity of your career is falling apart before your eyes.

Unfortunately, the world is full of liars who could sabotage your start-up. Here are five things you can do to protect yourself.

1. Screen, screen, screen.

When you’re hiring new employees, go the extra mile to make sure they’re honest. You should do the obvious things - see if they have a criminal record, look at their credit reports, find out why they left their previous job, verify the details on their resumes, talk to their current and former landlords - if any, check at least five references and don’t accept pat answers, and check their social media presence.

But you also have to find ways to see whether they are honest through the interview process. For example, do they show up on time for the interview? Do they tell each of the people who interview them the same story about their career? Do they look you in the eye when they answer difficult questions?

Through all this checking, you have a good chance of weeding out the liars before they start collecting a pay check from your company.

2. Give people an opportunity to earn your trust.

But in most cases, you don’t have a chance to hire every employee. If you’re like the CEO we met above, you are inheriting a predecessor’s hiring decisions. And while you want those people to feel that you trust them, you must protect yourself from the possibility that there might be a few liars on your staff.

One way to give people an opportunity to earn your trust is to design and execute some experiments. For example, you can ask your direct reports to give you some ideas about which of their people ought to get a promotion and which are not performing up to snuff.

Once you get those lists and the reasons for the ranking of those people, you can meet informally with them. Talk to those people about the things they’ve been doing, their aspirations, and their assessment of their boss.

If their answers to you jibe with what your direct reports told you about them, then your direct reports have passed an initial test of trustworthiness. If there are big gaps, for example, between what your VP of Engineering said about her staff and what you learn from your meeting with that staff, you may wish to investigate the possibility that you can’t trust your VP of Engineering.

3. Make integrity a core value.

You ought to create a strong culture in your start-up. That starts with clear and deeply-felt values - backed up by memorable stories about how people put that value into practice and powerful incentives that reward people who act according to those values.

And one of those values should be integrity. There are many ways to measure integrity - but one memorable one comes from venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz (AH). Its co-founders decided to start a venture firm that would better serve entrepreneurs - instead of making them wait 45 minutes to see a partner, AH wanted its venture capitalists to treat entrepreneurs with respect.

So AH decided to fine its employees $10 for every minute they were late for any meeting. The idea was that making a promise to meet at a specific time and keeping that promise was a critical value. And by fining people who do not keep that promise, AH reinforced the importance of that cultural value.

Your start-up ought to make integrity a core value. And don’t just fine people who violate the value; use it as a way to figure out whom to hire, whom to promote, and whom to manage out of the company.

4. Trust but verify.

Even if you’ve done all these things and you think you can trust everyone, you can’t be sure. And often there are polite ways to verify the actions of people who generally think that you trust them.

For example, that unfortunate CEO we met earlier could have asked the CTO to send him copies of the emails he said he sent to the procurement officer. Moreover, it would have been fine for that CEO to have called the procurement officer - perhaps three times:

• Setting the stage. When he initially assigned the CTO to work with the procurement officer, the CEO could have called the procurement officer to tell him why he had asked the CTO to work with him.
• Progress check. Three weeks into the process, the CEO could have called the procurement officer to find out if he had any questions or concerns about how the start-up was handling things; and
• Due date conversation. Six weeks later, the CEO could have called the procurement officer to see whether he was satisfied with the start-up’s application.

Needless to say, had the CEO done this, he would have learned about the CTO’s treachery in time to take remedial action.

5. Dismiss liars with extreme prejudice.

Once you can prove that you have a liar in your midst, you should terminate that person immediately and do not offer to provide a reference.

While there are limits about what you can tell the rest of the organization, you should find acceptable ways to make it clear to everyone else in the company that you demand complete integrity in your communications soon after you dismiss the liar.

In a start-up, one person you can’t trust can send your venture up in flames. These five tactics can help protect you from that.

Sure, it's a ridiculous meme. But pay attention: Buried in those YouTube clips are some truths about why company culture is so important.

What would make grown adults wear absurd costumes, bump and grind on chair legs, and benchpress small co-workers in pulsating rhythm? On a random Thursday morning? In a lecture hall or office cafeteria?

The Harlem Shake is a dance fest that is sweeping the nation. Individuals, university students, and entire companies are shaking in unison and posting the silliness on YouTube.

YouTube reported on February 12 that 12,000 Harlem Shake videos have been uploaded since the first of February, and watched over 44 million times.

Read on to learn three universal truths this ridiculous dance reveals--and how they can impact your company culture for the better.

Truth #1: We want to feel.

The Harlem Shake is all about unabashed emotion. Moving freely with that unmistakable beat, people feel, if even for 30 seconds in front of a camera, that they are alive and not sleepwalking through their day.

So much of our waking life is spent at work. And let's face it, for many people, work sucks. And it sucks because most workplaces are mediocre, static, safe, and merely "functional."

But vibrant cultures make us feel. And they are fun. And I'm not talking about that b.s. office party kind of fun, but real, engaged, purposeful, hootenanny kind of fun. Culture is not something to define, but an energy to be felt.

Help people feel something, anything--excitement, contentment, joy, zeal, flow, effort, curiosity--and you will unleash ambassadors to carry your cause and your company's mission further than you ever could.

Truth #2: We want to connect.

If any one of us performed this dance flying solo we would look delusional. But in tandem with others, it somehow seems less insane, even acceptable, to look like a fool. This shared experience binds us with other crazy people.

The same thing is true for company culture. Connecting with other people through shared experiences and honest dialogue emboldens us to take risks, execute fearlessly, and collaborate intelligently. What we won't do alone, we're likely to do with fellow sojourners. Taken from an African proverb, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."

My proverb: "If you want to feel sane, do crazy stuff with other crazy people."

Truth #3: We want to belong.

Maslow said it was third on the list of psychological needs--the need to belong.

The scads of people in those Harlem Shake uploads are not random strangers. These dances are planned and performed by a group of people that know each other well. They are a tribe of people--roommates, teammates, coworkers, families--that say to the video-viewing world "we're together." It's about trust and identity.

Humans have a psychological need to belong to a group. We need to feel loved and accepted. When we don't, social anxiety can run amuck, leaving us socially paralyzed and unable to be authentic.

Creating a sense of belonging in a company culture is not difficult. Smaller teams working toward the same goal can create it. Sharing values with your co-workers can create it. Rituals that build cohesion and pride can create it.

And even sharing an obnoxious dance that no one understands can create it.

Successful comedians are deft presenters. 8 comedy lessons to apply to your next business presentation.

What do standup comedy and business presentations have in common?

More than you think. Comedians are entrepreneurs. They often write their own material, book their gigs, arrange their travel and negotiate and collect their compensation from club owners. Both comedians and entrepreneurs must engage and entertain their demanding audiences. You might not be looking for laughs, but there's plenty entrepreneurs can learn from their comic brethren.

Tip #1: Go for the strong start.

Due to their limited stage time, comedians must quickly set the tone. Often the success or failure of the opening joke determines how well a whole routine is received. When appropriate, open your business presentations with an anecdote or personal story that establishes affinity with your audience. Tell the audience who you are, what your passion is and why they should share your passion.

Tip #2: Get physical.

Successful comedians are well aware that it is often not what they say, but how they say it. Studies have shown that approximately 55 percent of a speaker's communication during the first few minutes of a presentation is nonverbal. An additional 38 percent is tone of voice. A mere 7 percent of a speaker's initial communications come from the actual words. So use your voice, posture, gestures and physical appearance to establish the appropriate tenor.

Tip #3: Manage the hecklers.

An audience has a group identity, even when they do not know each other or have any formal affiliation. This effectively creates an "us versus them" paradigm between the speaker and the audience.

Experienced comedians understand this dynamic. They know that if they prematurely shut down a heckler, they risk alienating the crowd. Instead, veteran comedians endure a heckler's interruptions until it is clear that the audience is also annoyed. Then the comedian shuts down the heckler with the audience's implicit approval.

You may not have hecklers at your presentations. But you probably have a Q and A session. An audience member who asks an irrelevant or nonsensical question isn't that different than a heckler. The presenter must respond respectfully. If the questioner continues to ask off-base or overly pointed questions, the audience will eventually become agitated. That's when speaker should politely tell the questioner that they will address their additional questions after the presentation has concluded. It's all about getting the audience on your side.

Tip #4: Develop a repartee.

Comedians often ask their audience questions and make comments about people's wardrobes, dates, drinks, etc. The audience assumes that the guy drinking the "girlie drink" in the back of the room really exists--though often he doesn't.

Chiding or mocking your audience probably isn't the best idea. But soliciting their participation can help keep them engaged. In a small group, use their first names and ask probing questions to uncover hidden concerns. Comedians often ask questions to set up their punch lines. In business presentations, you can deploy the same approach to underscore your key selling points.

Tip #5: Rehearse your spontaneity.

The documentary The Comedian chronicles Jerry Seinfeld's effort to create a new comedy routine. It makes clear that even a talented comic's new material usually bombs. Comedy requires extensive trial and error to separate the bad bits from those that work. The same is true with business presentations.

The next time you attend a comedy show, watch the waitstaff. In most cases, they're straight-faced--even through the funniest bits. Why? Because they have heard the jokes over and over, in the same order and delivered in the same "spontaneous" way. Great comedy appears off-the-cuff and effortless, but it is usually the result of painstaking practice. That's what distinguishes professional comics from amateurs.

When we took Computer Motion public, we conducted a three-week road show in which the executive team gave the same presentation day after day, often multiple times per day. Our most effective presentations were those in which our well-rehearsed ad-libbing sounded spontaneous.

Tip #6: Stop for a breath.

Proper pacing is of vital importance in comedy. Comedians have to wait for each joke to sink in. At the same time, too many pauses and people get bored.

One way to ensure effective pacing is to establish segues that alert the audience when you move from one subject to another. In comedy, questions like, "Anyone here from New York?" or "Did you guys hear the news story about... ?" are used to transition between topics. Verbal landmarks give the audience a chance to catch their breath and guide them to the next subject.

Tip #7: Don't fear humor.

This is a big one. Deft use of humor is the greatest lesson entrepreneurs can learn from comedians. Business presentations do not have to be boring. Injecting humor into your talks, when done judiciously, can make them more engaging, and thus, more impactful. Engaged people are persuadable people.

Tip #8: Bring it home.

Comedians often deploy the bookend technique, in which they reference their opening joke at the conclusion of their show. This gives their performance a feeling of completion and symmetry. You can do the same: refer to your opening story in your closing remarks.

Whether or not you circle back to the beginning, your line is crucial. So call upon your inner comic and end your talk on an applause line that underscores a clear call to action.

We like to think that whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger, but the truth is that adversity only reinforces what's already there.

We’ve all had lunatic bosses. Steve Jobs was actually fired from Apple, the company he co-founded, because his management style was considered toxic. I have known quite a few CEOs and founders who went ballistic at the drop of a hat. It was pretty traumatic at times.

And you know what? I bet I’ve got some former employees who might say the same thing about me.

Sure, I admit, there were times when I lost it under pressure. I could have rationalized that sort of behavior with euphemisms like it comes with the territory or some other nonsense. But I’d like to think I found a better way. I faced it and decided it was time for a change.

Live and, Most Important, Learn

The German philosopher Nietzsche said, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”

He was referring to survival in the face of adversity. It’s a great sentiment, one I’m sure we’d all like to be true. But in reality, it’s not, at least not for all of us. It depends on your true character.

There’s a lot written about the scourge of bad bosses. But there’s a flip side to the equation that doesn’t get a lot of ink. The question of whether leaders ever learn from their mistakes. Whether they become stronger in the face of adversity. It’s actually a situation that many of you will face.

You see, executives and business leaders often shoot themselves in the foot. Sometimes we even self-destruct. Nobody’s perfect; we all make mistakes. Sometimes we make big ones. If we’re reasonably self-aware, strong enough to look ourselves in the mirror and face what we see, then yes, we might come out of it stronger than before.

In a Stanford University commencement speech, Steve Jobs famously said, "I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. It was awful-tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick."

We all know the rest of the story, how Jobs returned to Apple and turned the nearly bankrupt company into the world’s most valuable corporation. Clearly, the public humiliation of being fired from the company he loved ultimately brought out the best in him. It made him stronger.

I can give you a laundry list of people I’ve known and worked with who fit that same description. One chief executive of a late-stage start-up had his two top vice presidents resign on the same day. That might have severely crippled a lesser man’s confidence and resolve, but not his. He survived and, years later, took the company public in a highly successful IPO.

Are You in Denial?

But all too often, that’s not the case. You see, I’ve also known and worked with many dysfunctional or incompetent leaders who lived in denial. When things went terribly wrong for them and their companies, they blamed it on everyone but themselves. In those cases, the only things that came out stronger than before were the walls that separate their overblown egos from reality.

The truth is that when things go wrong, we’re not always aware of what really happened or who’s at fault. Sometimes we never figure it out. So the question of accountability isn’t always as clear cut as it seems. Nevertheless, there are distinct signs of whether Nietzsche’s hypothesis will hold true for you.

If you’re the kind of person who thinks he has all the answers, whose ego writes checks that reality can’t cash, who hates to be wrong, who is always pointing fingers at everyone else, who holds himself accountable only when good things happen, then there’s a very good chance that you won’t do well in the face of adversity.

If, on the other hand, you’re a pretty grounded person, don’t take yourself too seriously, aren’t likely to judge others harshly, have a relatively objective sense of your own strengths and weaknesses, and are genuinely open and introspective when things go wrong, then life’s trials and tribulations will serve only to strengthen you.

With all due respect to Nietzsche, I would say, “What doesn’t kill you brings out your true character.”

The relationship between buyers and sellers has changed. In the process, these four tactics have become major turn-offs.

Something has happened between most companies and their customers--and it has led to a lot of lost sales. "Buyers are completely over sellers," declares Kristin Zhivago, revenue coach and author of Roadmap to Revenue. "They want to be educated and assisted, not sold. But sellers are still trying to sell the same old way."

If you don't understand this dynamic, chances are you're creating barriers that actually discourage customers from buying. Think this couldn't apply to you? Consider the following questions:

1. How many clicks does it take for a customer to reach a purchase page on your website?

"In most cases, there are too many steps to get to the information you need," Zhivago says. "There should be two clicks to the payoff--see it, click it, and then buy it. Most websites fail that miserably [because] they're designed to serve the seller's needs, not the buyer's." It may seem like a good idea to make the customer create an account, collect social media information, or ask questions about what led the customer to the site. But every additional step makes it more likely that he or she will abandon the purchase.

"Another thing companies are choosing to ignore is the importance of reviews," Zhivago adds. Prominent customer reviews are a big factor in the success of Amazon, not to mention the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. "You have to get out of the way and let customers sell each other," Zhivago says. "Not enough companies do that."

2. How aggressive are your salespeople?

You may think hiring the most energetic go-getters is the best way to generate sales, Zhivago says. Not so. "I recently had that experience with some market automation software," she says. "I thought this software might be very useful for both me and my clients so I asked for a demo, and they sent their super-salesperson to do it." That salesperson was so rushed and took such an of-course-you-want-to-buy-this attitude that Zhivago was completely put off and decided not to buy after all.

3. Can a customer who contacts you get detailed answers to questions right away?

"These days, by the time customers talk to salespeople, they've already answered 80 percent of the questions they had by doing online research or talking to their friends about the product," Zhivago says. When they pick up the phone to talk to a live representative, their questions are likely to be very specific and detailed. And the person on the other end probably won't be able to answer them. "They'll either say, 'I don't know,' which is likely to annoy the customer, or 'I'll have to get back to you,' which is also annoying," Zhivago says.

What's the solution? "Some companies are now shifting their salesforce to bring people up from the technical areas or from customer service," Zhivago says. Another approach is to carefully document the questions customers ask and make sure your salespeople can answer them next time.

4. Do you believe you know what your customers are thinking?

You don't. In thousands of customer interviews, Zhivago has learned that what companies think they know about customers' top priorities is inevitably wrong.

Part of the problem is the companies think they know who those customers are. "If someone came to you and assumed they knew all about you based on the earrings you wear, you'd be insulted," she says. "Yet people make those types of assumptions all the time, discussing customers in conference rooms where no customer is represented."

To illustrate the danger of those assumptions, Zhivago describes an event where the audience was told to close their eyes and envision a possible customer, a single mother in her 30s raising two boys on her own.

Then they were told to open their eyes. They were looking at a photo of Princess Di.

Tired of sending out emails and getting no responses back? An email expert shares seven tips to help make sure that your emails get read.

Recently I connected with Jonathan Borge, an email expert who has mastered the art of getting emails answered. Through an email conversation, (how else would you communicate with an email expert, right?), he shared with me seven great tips on how you can ensure that your emails will get noticed.

1. Subject lines: Remember that only 20 percent to 40 percent of your emails will actually get opened, though most of your subject lines will be seen. To boost your open rates, think of short, catchy, and informative subject lines. You should try to dangle compelling information ("The future of sales emails"), and you can even try adding some mystery ("Strange question"). We also recommend personalized subject lines, if possible ("Hunter Sullivan suggested I contact you").]

2. Your tone: Portray yourself as someone that other people can connect to. You'll want to show your recipients that you care about hearing back from them... so you can't simply sound like you're just sending another mass email. Never use "Dear sir or Madam," and stay away from overly formal language.

3. Email content: Make your emails short, simple, and easy to quickly digest. Your leads are busy people with jobs, too, so you need to maintain their interest. Do your research and find out what resonates for your prospects. Try to get an introduction to them or, if that's not possible, figure out in more detail what they or their company do. Tell them why you're emailing them, specifically. Talk about how you can solve a problem for them.

4. Your sign-off: End your emails with a definitive, clear call to action. Make it dead simple for your recipients to say yes—whether it's to a meeting, phone call, or product demo. Don't ask them for permission. If you want a phone call, then say "Call me right now at X for more details."

5. Your timing: Reach out to your leads when they're not too busy. Make sure you avoid heavy traffic times like Monday mornings. Based on our tracking data, we recommend the middle of the week, mid-day, as the best time to send emails.

6. Your image: First impressions are important both in person and online. The tone and formatting of your email is all your recipients have to judge you by. Make sure you are being professional, clear, and easy to understand. Stay away from over-formatted emails that look gimmicky, but don't hesitate to call out important information in bold or bullet points.

7. Your homework: Send yourself a sales email. Put yourself in your leads' shoes. If you were them, would you open this email? Would you spend more than two seconds reading it? If so, what would you do next?

The first time you read this list, you'll probably think "I already knew all that." But, do what I did. Go look at the last 10 emails you sent to prospects or new contacts and read them with a critical eye to see if you followed all seven tips. I scored four or five on all of mine, but not a seven on any one of them.

About Jonathan Borge

Jonathan is a product specialist at ToutApp, a sales communications platform that helps salespeople and sales managers streamline and track their day-to-day email communications. Be sure to read ToutApp's book on how to write effective sales emails.