Artificial intelligence: it’s not just for tech experts anymore. Instead, a heaping helping of free online resources has emerged. These classes are specifically designed to welcome beginners into the world of AI, even if they possess little or no prior technical background.
I selected these Coursera courses for their beginner-friendly approach, high ratings, and comprehensive coverage of foundational concepts and key AI domains.

You know that moment when someone says the exact wrong thing at the exact wrong time? It’s not just awkward—it’s costly. Because as, communication expert and Exactly What to Say author Phil M. Jones wrote, “The worst time to think about what you’re going to say is in the moment you’re saying it.”
That’s not just about rehearsing the right words. It’s about something deeper: intentionally preparing for the moments that matter most. Jones and I recently spoke about what it really takes to become a more influential communicator, and it starts way before you open your mouth.

Years ago, I went to work for a women-owned and women-led company, whose employees were composed of 80-90% white women. It had a fantastic culture that was all about trust and high expectations, one of the best I had ever seen as a consultant on organizational culture.

And then in 2020, George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis. That event triggered global protests over racism and police brutality. And like many other companies at that time, mine had a reckoning.

We’re facing a career confidence crisis. Work is changing fast, yet many employees feel stuck. At LinkedIn, our data shows workforce confidence has dropped to a five-year low, and only 15% of employees say their manager has supported them with career planning in the past six months.

Managers can play a big role in righting the ship—helping employees build the new skills they need to stay relevant and develop into future leaders. But this requires a fundamental shift: transforming them from task-overseers to coaches developing talent and sparking the best ideas from their teams.

Today’s top-performing teams blend proven strategies with innovative approaches and stay ahead by keeping an eye on emerging trends. The B2B sales landscape of 2025 demands that teams be on their toes to stand out from the competition and convert prospects into loyal customers. Let's explore some ways to excel in this environment.

Proven Sales Methodologies In 2025. Establishing a strong foundation is essential for successful B2B sales. These sales methodologies can help teams improve win rates, boost efficiency, ensure consistency and offer a clear framework to track and analyze sales performance.

While the value of technology built to manage customer service and support interactions is undeniable, customer service and support leaders often experience systemic and cultural disconnects that hinder their ability to make informed technology decisions. Combined with the allure of vendor-led sales presentations, it’s all too easy to lose sight of what matters most: how the technology contributes to business objectives.

Sales cycles are longer, more influencers are involved, and buyer paralysis is the new status quo. Yet some sales teams are smashing their revenue plans by 118%, almost doubling the quota attainment of their less successful peers and halving potential no-decision rates.

What are they doing differently? They’re combining talent, skill set, mindset, methodology, coaching, and technology in their sales strategy.

Too many employees know what it’s like to work for a boss who’s more focused on the bottom line than on the people who actually get the work done. Servant leadership turns that all-too-common scenario on its head. It focuses on the needs of employees, customers, and other stakeholders instead of focusing on their own needs. Here’s a secret: Research shows that this leadership style can enhance team performance and satisfaction.

The days of being able to lead without awareness are over. If you’re a leader and take that responsibility for granted, you’re already behind your competition.
While 83% of employers state it’s crucial to develop leaders at all levels, only 14% of high-level executives have the leadership talent they need to grow their businesses, according to LinkedIn. As a leader, you need to give people a reason to follow you.

Charles O’Reilly started his career in the military and probably would have stayed there but for one major problem: “I wanted more control over my life.” Although he was ambitious, O’Reilly prioritized the freedom to pursue his interests over any status or impact he might achieve as an officer. He left the Army to pursue an academic career, trading external markers of success for the possibility of meeting his own intrinsic goals.

In 1928, the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming returned from a two-week vacation and realized he had made a significant oversight. In his haste to leave for his holiday, he had left a messy pile of petri dishes on his workstation. As he began to dispose of the dishes, something unusual caught his eye: a mold had formed around the bacteria in one of the petri dishes. Upon closer examination, Fleming made a startling discovery. The mold wasn’t just growing—it was actively inhibiting the spread of the bacteria.

In everyday life, it’s not the person with the highest IQ who gets the deal done, it’s the person with the highest EQ—the most emotional intelligence—and the resources to get the deal done. Good deal making is more than dollars, cents, contract terms, and deadlines. It’s about knowing people and developing your EQ. I used to think making deals was only about the bottom line. I thought I was so good at deal making that I knew what was best for everybody.

An elevator pitch, also known as an elevator speech, is a concise summary of you and your product or service. It’s a prime opportunity to capture attention and convey the unique value of your big idea in a short space of time using this type of pitch. Crafting an excellent elevator pitch is an art. You need to be able to convey your message in an easy-to-understand way, and you need to be able to do it quickly to keep your audience engaged.

The first two quarters of the year are a whirlwind for most businesses. Major events like the Super Bowl, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter and Mother's Day tend to grow order volumes 10 to 15 times higher than an average week. These peak periods are a gold mine for boosting revenue, attracting new customers and increasing brand recognition, but these perks also come with immense pressure on operations. Today, I will share tips from my experience on how to plan smarter, not harder, and thrive during these critical periods.

Over the course of my career, I’ve learned firsthand that practicing good sales behaviors is essential for success … and that bad sales behaviors can sink an entire sales org. Developing good sales behaviors yourself and helping your team improve is the hallmark of an effective sales professional. But it’s hard to know how to get better when you don’t know what you’re doing wrong.

Let’s face it—nobody sets out to create a toxic workplace. However, sometimes, that’s just what you end up with. I should know since a few years ago I wrote a book on the topic called Wait, I’m Working With Who?!?

As a leader, you likely started with the best intentions, creating a team that produces great results. Yet, despite your best efforts, workplace cultures can sour. The hardest part? You might be the last to know.

At least half of the people I coach identify delegation as an area that they’d like to improve. Delegating can be a real challenge because—let’s face it—it’s tough to let go of control. Many of us believe that if we want something done right, we have to do it ourselves. Plus, it takes effort to explain the task, trust someone else to do it, and then follow up. Sometimes, it feels like it’s just easier to do it ourselves rather than invest the time in teaching someone else.

Effective team communication does more than pass information along. It strengthens relationships, builds trust, and aligns people toward a shared purpose. A leader’s ability to communicate well can shape the culture of an entire organization. Some leaders make the mistake of thinking communication is about speaking well. Great communication, however, is about connection. Every leader has a message to share, but not every leader knows how to ensure that message is heard, understood, and acted upon.

Feedback has the power to motivate and improve performance, but it often backfires. Instead of sparking growth, it can trigger defensiveness or lead to silence. Some people soften their words so much that the message gets lost. Others stay quiet entirely, fearing conflict. Introverts often tell me they leave meetings thinking, “I wish I had said something,” because they prefer to process before speaking. Extraverts tend to speak while thinking and later say, “I wish I hadn’t said that.” In both cases, feedback is challenging.

Need More Wins? Try a Culture Shift in Your Sales Team. You’ve probably tried many different ways to improve the performance of your sales teams, with varying success. But there’s one way that has been proven to work and yet is often ignored by sales leaders—improving your sales team’s culture. Culture is hard to characterize, hard to measure, and hard to change. So it gets ignored on the list of levers to pull when transforming a sales organization plan.