Dad | The Prizefighter & The Preacher
I've written several columns about Mom, but what about Dad? Dads never get any credit, yet they offer unique insights into the world and how we should live.
I've written several columns about Mom, but what about Dad? Dads never get any credit, yet they offer unique insights into the world and how we should live.
If you want to poison the well where you work, allow a Certified Jerk to roam free. Mollycoddling is a pernicious and infectious organism you need to expel from your organization. Smart people can often be prima donnas, but the brilliance of some people is often more blinding than enlightening. Fortune…
Hope isn't a strategy. Action IS! For most of us, Spring is the time of the year when hope springs eternal. The sun is out ... the flowers are blooming ... and this year it seems we're finally emerging from the worst pandemic in our lifetimes. But maybe your initiatives…
While I am spending a little downtime with my family, I wanted to share with you a timeless article from our Leadership Library. If you want to poison the well where you work, allow a Certified Jerk to roam free. M ollycoddling is a pernicious and infectious organism you need…
Hope isn't a strategy. Action IS!For most of us, this is the time of the year when hope springs eternal. We’re revved up for an exciting new year, determined to change all of the things that didn’t work last year so we can pound the ball out of the park…
Can we develop an incentive plan to drive superior performance? You can be pretty sure that's the question someone was trying to address when your key incentive program was created. At the time, the answer may have been yes. Since then? The chances are that question has never been asked…
NOW is the time for tough decisions?“Now is the time for tough decisions,” said Michigan’s governor, Rick Snyder, on the occasion of Detroit’s bankruptcy filing.Did he say “NOW is the time for tough decisions”?Maybe for the weak-kneed, lily-livered city fathers who’ve been putting lipstick on this pig for years, but…
“Lary, give this customer a call. We’ve just received an unauthorized return, and I want these shoes sent back.
“Funny how the green shoes don’t fit and the red ones fit perfectly.”
It wasn’t uncommon for the chairman of company North (you may remember him from the 2nd article in our Culture Series, How Are You Paving the Road to Superior Performance) to stop by my office with a message like this.
His remarks were actually a code:
“The red shoes sold well but the green ones the customer bought aren’t selling … so now they’re claiming they don’t fit so they can return them. We’ve had no other such complaints. Tell them we won’t accept them and refuse them at the door if they come back.”
I made a note to contact the customer, figuring I’d call them after lunch when I would be more likely to catch them three time zones away.
No e-mail back then.
Nothing in life travels in a neat formation accompanied by bugles and cavalry.
A lot of it shows up filthy and unkempt, prominent in the mess we’ve made around our foxhole.
These lessons are typically the offspring of hubris, naivete and ignorance … or from overlooking the land mines hidden beneath our feet.
We’re sharing valuable and practical leadership tips and tools to help you BECOME a better leader.
First, you must start BEING a better leader … implementing NOW the changes necessary to adopt the proven strategies of successful leaders. You might start by building on the communication matrix and making sure you’re defending the castle to get done what only you can do. Make some time so you’re thinking past today.
The week just ended is my favorite sports week of the year. Some of you will say, “Nah, you got your calendar mixed up. Baseball season opened the previous week.”
Of course, I could say, “but the home opener for the Giants was that week” and then you’d say, “OK, so you’re a big Giants fan. I get it.”
A few of you may suspect that’s not the reason. Not that I don’t love the World Champion San Francisco Giants and all … but honestly? That didn’t even occur to me as I braced for the greatest sports week of the year.
There are a lot of reasons why I love the week that just ended. (more…)