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During his keynote on Friday, Nov. 6, Verne Harnish, author and business consultant, managed to pack so much information into an hour and half that I can't possibly share it all. What I can share with you is a couple tips from Harnish.

1. Everyone needs a coach (or to read a lot of books) to continue the learning curve well past the point where you think you know it all. Harnish used examples from Bill Gates, who to this day devotes a full week a couple times a year to consuming books, papers, trade mags, all those resources in that pile on your side desk (you know you have one). The goal, to learn. Harnish stresses that no one every achieved peak performance without a coach, and IT business owners are no different. Now maybe your "coach" is a book, or a vendor partner, or a hired business coach or peer-to-peer group, but get one.

2. Another tidbit is the two key leadership traits most leaders are lacking. One, talk less and listen more, and two, make fewer statements, and ask more questions. Think that's easy? Try it next week, and see how it goes.

3. About that marketing you do (please tell me you are doing marketing!!). He recommends taking a look at all your marketing - from websites to the emails you send to printed collateral. But red boxes around we, our language, and green boxes around the your, you language. Why? Because your clients don't care what you think you do best, they want to know what pain points of theirs you can improve. Think about it. Get out the pens. Go!