Our Favorite Online Resources of the Week

Small business owners have to be lifelong learners. That’s why every Thursday we bring together the best resources from around the Web to help you deal with your most persistent challenges so you can keep on growing and thriving.

1. How Customer Intimacy Is Evolving To Collective Intimacy, Thanks To Big Data

Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema lay out three generic strategies to succeed with your customers, one of which is customer intimacy. Today, with digital media as part of the strategy, your relationship with your customer may be somewhere between intimate and intrusive. Customers appreciate the seller being intimate, but they run for the hills when the seller is intrusive.

2. 6 Ways Humility Can Make You a Better Leader

Humility may not be the first trait that comes to mind when we think about what makes a good leader, but it has a big impact on the people leaders are trying to inspire.

3. Take This Important Quiz: Are You a Better Manager or Leader?

As Bill Bryan discussed in this week’s edition of Smashing the Plateau, leaders focus on why and how, managers focus on what. How do you know where your skills work best? Find out.

4. Two Kinds of Influence with Bill Bryan

Of course, we saved the best for last. Bill Bryan has had a whirlwind career in which he has been a psychologist, soldier, entrepreneur, consultant, and advocate for quality education. In this interview, Bill discusses the concept of leadership from a very different perspective. (And if you like what you hear, be sure to leave us a review here.)