Learn From My Mistakes: Confrontation
The other day I was walking through our plants and noticed that a few presses were running slow. In our business, a slow cycle hurts profitability and delays orders. It should always be addressed. Yet, when the Plant Manager walked up to me and asked how things were going, I did not mention the slow […]
Learn From Our Success: Believe
My leadership in 2020 quite possibly pivoted on one, single conversation. While there were countless important conversations in 2020, one outweighed them all. It outweighed all the others because had it not happened, the door would have been shut to possibility. The conversation was one I had on ZOOM with my Executive Coach. It was […]
5 Actions I am Taking For Civility
The last week has been momentous for America. Naturally, I found myself having several conversations during the week about what was transpiring. Therefore, I am pivoting from my original post for this week and writing this post on January 8th. To be sure, what follows is not about politics. In fact, I started taking these […]
3 Not So Obvious Reasons Why Manufacturing Matters
According to the National Association of Manufacturers, manufacturers accounted for 11.39% of the total output of the economy, and employed 8.51% of the workforce in the year 2018. Another 2018 study done by PRNewswire-USNewswire found that family-owned businesses create 78% of new U.S. jobs and employ 60% of the workforce (obviously this accounts for more […]
Going Out With A Bang – The Annual Quit List
The New Year always brings endless possibilities for more. As a go-getter, I am always fired up to set new goals and take new ground. But, one can only take on so much. To that end, as a leader I want to always evaluate the tasks I am asking team members to do because I […]
20 Minutes of Learning
Various studies have been done the last several years on how much time employees waste on social media in the workplace. One recently from a “staffing firm” found that workers waste an average of 56 minutes per day using their mobile devices for non-work activities. I am sure that you and I do not have […]
Special Post: Health, Humility, and Faith.
Occasionally, I pause from leadership topics to write a more personal post. This is one of those. What follows may seem fictional, but I can assure you that it is not. My ask is that you share this post with someone if you think it will give them encouragement. My story begins with a small […]
Thanksgiving 2020
2020 has been a year unlike any other, except, there HAVE been years like 2020. Wait, how can that be? In reading John Barry’s, The Great Influenza, I discovered how the influenza pandemic of 1918-1920 was horrific in ways unmatched since. Racial, and even political divisions, have also been greater in our history – years […]
Leadership Essentials – Predictability
This last month I have focused on some of the essentials of leadership: accountability, vision, and courage. There are countless other traits necessary for a leader to be someone worth following —integrity, positivity, humility, to name a few—yet today, I want to wrap-up this mini-series with something that I think is often overlooked: predictability. In […]
Leadership Essentials: Vulnerability
Craig Groeschel ends each podcast charging leaders to: “Be yourself. People would rather follow a leader who is always real rather than a leader who is always right.” Authenticity is vital to leadership and the only way to be fully real with others is to be vulnerable. I make this assertion because vulnerability is the […]