Are the people who pay for goods and services "Customers," "Patients," "Students," "Residents," or "Guests?"

Are the people working in an organization "Associates," "Team Members," "Partners," "Employees or "Cast Members"?

The debate about how to best address customers and employees consumes valuable time, energy and money in many organizations. Yet, merely changing nouns or verbs won't ensure a culture dedicated to world class customer service or create a motivated and engaged workforce.

(Read More: Killing the 'Sacred Cows' That Are Killing Your Company)

Cultural etiquette, politeness, and good manners are passed down through societies from generation to generation.

Etiquette refers to the cultural guidelines for what is appropriate or inappropriate and polite or impolite. It gives a culture structure, integrity, grace, and finesse—all of which are uniquely adapted from one culture to another.

Fortunately, simple business and social etiquette are often based on basic common sense. Although etiquette styles and fads may come and go, the fundamentals of global etiquette remain essentially the same.

Guest Author Blog by Jake Breeden author of, "Tipping Sacred Cows: Kick the Bad Work Habits that Masquerade as Virtues."

Sometimes collaboration hides a lack of accountability and balance masks an unwillingness to make a decision. Collaboration and balance are two virtues that can combine to cover up some nasty virtues. Leaders must take a hard look at the virtues they are proud of to make sure no vice lurks within.

Guest Author Blog by Debra Kaye author of book, "Red Thread Thinking: Weaving Together Connections for Brilliant Ideas and Profitable Innovation,"

How many times have you thought, "I wish I'd thought of that!" or wanted to know how to successfully connect to a winning concept? Great innovators create new ideas by making connections between seemingly unrelated experiences and observations to uncover surprising, unique insights. Now you can have the genius quotient, too.

My new book, "Red Thread Thinking: Weaving Together Connections for Brilliant Ideas and Profitable Innovation," proves insights are no accident. It helps you tap into your own resources and knowledge to help create big, successful, fresh ideas or improve on existing ones.

Here are just five examples.

American salespeople, Swiss mechanics, and Chinese factory workers all are more productive if they are hopeful.

In an effort to learn more about the universality and nature of the hope-productivity link, I worked with a team of researchers to meta-analyze more than fifty studies on hope and work.

We were able to quantify hope's contribution to productivity. Other conditions being equal, hope leads to a 14% bump in workplace outcomes. Drawing upon my research and findings from studies around the world, I found that there are five characteristics of hopeful employees that make them more productive than other people.

GUEST AUTHOR BLOG by Francesca Gino author of "Sidetracked: Why Our Decisions Get Derailed, and How We Can Stick to the Plan."

I know of a product manager working for a software start-up who spent many hours preparing for an important meeting. His goal was to gather his team's opinions on what features to include in the new release of the company's software product.

During the meeting, however, the product manager showed such enthusiasm for his own plan of action that his team members assumed he was unwilling to listen to their ideas.

His strong confidence sidetracked him from his initial plan of welcoming the team's suggestions.

(Read More: Are You Cursed by Your Own Success?)

GUEST AUTHOR BLOG by Gerard J. Tellis, author of "Unrelenting Innovation: How to Build a Culture for Market Dominance."

Today's companies face a paradox.

The creation of a radical innovation brings with it success, market dominance, and profits. But that very success generates complacency and arrogance, which blind the firm to the next big innovation.

Indeed, firms are in greatest danger of failing when they are at the peak of their success.

My coauthors and I call this the incumbent's curse – cursed by one's own success.

Adapted from "CAN'T BUY ME LIKE: HOW AUTHENTIC CUSTOMER CONNECTIONS DRIVE SUPERIOR RESULTS." Published by Portfolio/Penguin. Copyright (c) Bob Garfield and Doug Levy, 2013.

Secret. Panera. Patagonia. Schwab. Krispy Kreme. Method. Louisville Slugger. Zappos. There are many a shining example of purpose-driven companies. But how does one isolate that brand purpose— the idea that inspires what you do and informs every action you take by getting to the core of why you do it?

GUEST AUTHOR BLOG by Elizabeth Grace Saunders author of, "The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment: How to Achieve More Success With Less Stress."

Let's face it. In today's economy you know that you're fortunate to have a job so you can hesitate to admit when you feel overwhelmed. You don't want to come across as incapable or ungrateful so you just suck it up and hope that things will get better soon. The only problem is when they don't… and you realize if you don't start to set some boundaries that you'll burn out.

(Read More: 10 Most Stressful Jobs of 2013)

GUEST AUTHOR BLOG by: Gregory P. Shea, PhD, and Cassie A. Solomon co-authors of,"Leading Successful Change: 8 Keys to Making Change Work."

Leading a major change effort in any organization, let alone a large and complex one, presents a first order challenge, often among the most difficult of any executive career. In fact, the numbers show that up to 75% of change efforts fail.

But the risk of failure gets even worse (and more expensive) when it comes to mergers and acquisitions.

(Read More: M&A 'Almost Necessary' Now: Santoli)