Shortform Books

What Is a Value Proposition?—Business Basics

What exactly is a value proposition? Why is it important to provide unique value to your customers? As the name suggests, your business’s value proposition is the value you provide to your customers in the form of products or services. When defining your value proposition, consider the nature of your product/service and how it is different from your competitors’ products/services. If you’re servicing the same customers, with the same needs, at the same price, you are not providing unique value. Here are some things to consider as you define how you intend to offer value to your customers.

How to Know When You Should Upgrade Your Product

How often should you upgrade your products? What should you do if customers request to add features to existing products? An important element of running a business is deciding when and if you should make improvements or upgrades to your product. Customers may request product upgrades or modifications, but that doesn’t mean you should make them before you are ready. Here is why you should hold off product upgrade requests—even if it means your customers outgrow your product.

4 Leadership Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs

Are you in a position of leadership at work? What leadership mistakes should you avoid making at all costs? There are four leadership mistakes that you may be making without even realizing it: withholding information, taking undeserved credit, practicing favoritism, and obsessing over goals. These bad habits may even be holding you back from receiving a promotion. Learn more about the four leadership mistakes and how you can work to fix your bad habits.

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle: Book Overview

What is The Power of Now about? What is the main cause of unhappiness, according to author Eckhart Tolle? In his book The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle proposes that the main cause of unhappiness and lack of fulfillment for most people is a lack of presence in their moment-to-moment experience. He walks the reader through his methods for quieting their thoughts and fears to find fulfillment through presence. Below is a brief overview of Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

What Male Genital Anatomy Says About Polygamy

What does male genital anatomy tell us about human sexuality? Is it proof that humans are wired to be polygamous? In their book Sex at Dawn, authors Ryan and Jethá discuss the male genital anatomy in relation to human mating behaviors. They back up their discussion with an examination of female copulatory vocalization. Here are Ryan and Jethá’s arguments.

The Shock Doctrine: Quotes by Naomi Klein

Are you looking for The Shock Doctrine quotes by Naomi Klein? What are some of the most noteworthy passages worth revisiting? The Shock Doctrine discusses how economic shock therapy gave rise to “the disaster capitalism complex”—a privatized system of destruction and economic reconstruction. Klein argues this economic plan doesn’t improve an economy, as its proponents claim. Instead, it invariably leads to mass unemployment, increased poverty, and widespread starvation, while a few select people become extremely rich. Here is a selection of The Shock Doctrine quotes with explanations.

Training a Sales Team: Tips for Sales Managers

Why do sales jobs have such a high staff turnover? What can you, as a sales leader, do to improve your team’s performance? One of the reasons for high staff turnover in sales roles is that sales representatives often lack training in the essential sales skills (e.g. making cold sales calls, closing techniques, etc.) Therefore, coaching your sales team is essential to generating optimum performance. In this article, we’ll take a look at some tips and techniques for both training a sales team generally and coaching them in specific skills.

Leadership Principle 1: Model the Way

What do Posner and Kouzes mean by “model the way” in the context of leadership? What can you, as a leader, do to instill your way of doing things in your subordinates? “Model the way” is the first principle of Barry Posner and James M. Kouzes’s outstanding leadership. You can do this by ensuring that your team members understand what you stand for and believe, and then by demonstrating how your values can increase the success of your organization and the overall happiness of your team. There are two guidelines for “modeling the way”: 1) establishing your values, and 2)

The Oz Principle: Lessons in Accountability

How does accountability relate to The Oz Principle? What exactly do the authors mean by accountability? The idea of accountability is at the heart of The Oz Principle‘s philosophy. The authors define accountability as the bridge or behavior that moves you from victimism and failure to success on both individual and organizational levels. Here is why accountability (not skill, luck, and determination) is the key to success.

The 7 Signs You Are Dating a “Nice Guy”

What is dating a “nice guy” like? Are self-proclaimed “nice guys” actually as nice as they say they are? According to Dr. Robert Glover, author of No More Mr. Nice Guy, many men who claim they are “Nice Guys” are actually far from nice. Glover’s conception of a Nice Guy doesn’t refer to someone who is kind and genuine, but someone who is insecure, people-pleasing, manipulative, and repressed. Keep reading to find out if you’re dating a nice guy.