Five Lessons You Won’t Learn in Business School

What don’t they teach in modern business schools? Plenty. For starters, some of the standard ethics and corporate etiquette courses have gone the way of Latin and Greek. In the 1990’s, many of the world’s B-schools cut out offerings they deemed unnecessary, redundant, or outdated. Sadly, that meant losing a few excelling offerings like professional etiquette, philosophy, and ethics. What’s the good news? You can teach yourself via online tutorials, webinars, and hundreds of other free resources. Before you set time aside to do that, here’s a quick cheat sheet of key lessons you should consider adding to your self-education curriculum.

Etiquette Matters

What’s a simple, guaranteed way to build a solid, loyal client base? Make an effort to remember people’s names, delivering as much or more than you promised, always saying thank you, and consistently being on time for appointments. These seem like simple things but if you observe people in modern work environments, it’s apparent they are lost arts. Check out some of the excellent online workshops and tutorials on classic business etiquette and you’ll be surprised how easy it is to incorporate new habits into your way of dealing with others.

Old School SEO Won’t Get the Job Done

Old style manners might be a great idea, but outdated SEO tactics won’t cut it in today’s competitive environment. If you’re interested in educating yourself in order to boost revenue, take a page from advanced SEO practitioners. That means taking intention into account when you create keywords. For instance, if you operate a trash-hauling service, consider using short verbs within keywords, making sure they reflect what people want when they perform online searches. “Find local trash haulers,” “hire junk removers,” and “learn about trash removal” all reflect your potential customer’s intentions, which is why the method is called intent SEO.

Emotions Can be Your Biggest Enemy

Learning how to rein in your emotions can save your assets in the corporate world. Alongside IQ, intelligence quotient, is EQ, emotional quotient. It used to be called maturity, or acting like an adult. What is it? The current use of the term refers to a person’s ability to control outward signs of emotion and manage their behavior while around others. Don’t ignore this key skill. It can save your career when used at the right time and in the right way.

Ignore the Bogus Definition of Insanity

Frequently attributed to Einstein, though he never said anything like it, the phrase, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results,” shows up in more business and academic presentations than any other. Not only did the great genius never utter it, it’s complete rubbish as a professional philosophy. Note that the phrase, which actually originated in romance novels, is substantially the definition of persistence. Educate yourself by avoiding trendy phrases and simplistic slogans like these, especially as guides for your money-making endeavors.

Too Much Promoting Can Backfire

Teach yourself how to market, sell, and advertise the right way. Universities tend to teach the more is always better concept when it comes to marketing. In fact, over-advertising can boomerang and cause potential customers to avoid you and your brand. In the entertainment world, you often hear the term over-exposure applied to celebrities who lose their earning power by getting too much hype.