Are you a de-escalator?
Imagine someone on your team sends a mass email to you and the rest of the team that seems to challenge you or your ideas. What’s your response? Or, imagine that your four year old has disobeyed you for the 34th time since lunch. They’re pushing all the right buttons, and you feel like you […]
The Break Room Doesn’t Lie
I was speaking recently with one of our plant managers when they shared a tremendous insight: “The break room does not lie.” What they meant by this statement is that in order to understand what is really happening in their plant, they needed to go to the break room and listen to their team. To […]
“Your bid is not competitive?”
If you’re in the business world, you’ve been turned down by a customer claiming that your bid just isn’t “competitive.” What exactly does that mean? Does it mean: They can buy it cheaper elsewhere? Everyone else is cheaper? That our competitor has better quality than us? That they deliver faster than us? That they’re more […]
3 Changes I Recently Made to Meetings
Most people dread going to meetings. I think this is the case because there is too much wasted time in meetings. So, I will get to the point. Here are three changes I recently implemented to meetings: 1. I am cutting the length of every meeting I lead in half. Here are the reasons why […]
Confession: The Need to Counterbalance
The amount of information these days is absolutely staggering. At the risk of completely exposing myself, here are inputs – information of various kinds – that I typically interact with daily. Each day starts with the Bible around 515 a.m. A business or leadership podcast while I am getting ready. LeaderBox book during breakfast (I am […]
80,000 Variations
An article a few years back claimed that Starbucks offers more than 80,000 drink combinations. At Starbucks, you can apparently have your cake, and eat it, too. But, you can’t negotiate the price of any of those 80,000 variations. In fact, the price for your grande, half calf, no whip, 2% peppermint mocha is not […]
Who Needs Encouragement?
If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you probably get tired of me whining about our collective need for encouragement. The fact remains that we all have an inner-critic that does not tire easily, especially when what we are attempting is not easy. Avid reader of this blog, and friend, Mark, […]