FT. COLLINS, Colo., Nov. 29 -- PRNewswire

You can improve your love life with business management training. Likewise, expertise in love helps you as a leader. Get better in one area and you'll get better in the other.

Indeed, self-confidence is sexy in the corporate world as well as at home, says executive coach, Debra Benton, president of Benton Management Resources, Inc. ( www.CEOwhisperer.com ) who studied 50 dual career couples.

"Dating is like interviewing. Engagement is the job offer. Marriage is the commitment to full-employment. Divorce feels like getting fired," says Debra Benton, author of best-selling How to Think Like a CEO and six other leadership and professional development books. "During the honeymoon you have the excitement and on the job 'honeymoon' you have the enthusiasm. Normalcy becomes the comfort in love and the routine at work. How you treat people, how you compromise, positive thinking, all help you consummate business deals and whatever else you wish to consummate."

Take business management skills home and take courtship traits to work. Benton's "Love and Leadership Rules" compiled from researching dual career couples are:

Assume acceptance as a human regardless of rank or role. Never put yourself below your partner or your boss.

Ask questions. Know what people need and want. Use humor. No one will fault you for lightening the mood. Touch. Figuratively and literally pat people on the back. Initiate. Don't wait to be asked or prodded. Slow down, shut up, and listen. When you play hard to get they want you more.

Look good. Stand up straight and smile.

"People gravitate to the confident individual in business and personal life. People follow the confident, and, that's what the 'love and leadership rules' stimulate: confidence," says Benton, who has consulted to executives at Kraft, Comcast, U.S. Border Patrol, Citicorp, and Lockheed Martin.

For more information on business leadership skills at work that can travel home: negotiation; persuasion; communication; time management; risk taking; fiscal responsibility; long-term commitment towards a goal; and being a team player ... contact Debra Benton at (970) 484-4687 or email debra@debrabenton.com.

Debra Benton's research and expertise has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, TIME, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review and Playboy. She has appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, the Today Show, and CBS News. Benton is a sought-after speaker and consultant world-wide.