I was part of a small group who listened to a former NFL player describe the day when, while an active player during the season, his wife gave birth to their baby. He was scheduled to be at practice that day and when he texted the famous head coach, the coach replied, “Show me a ..read more

What makes a book on leadership and organizational culture good, versus one that sucks? It is, not ironically, the same thing that makes leadership and work culture not suck. By taking a hard and compassionate look at what you want to accomplish, defining what is good, aligning action off from the theoretical and into the ..read more

A few weeks ago an article in Forbes expressed how leaders can use power for good in their organizations. Leadership and power can carry a positive influence with the right heart attitude. But when corrupted by self serving interests, power and leadership become terrible partners. Understanding the basic types of power that can occur in ..read more

If you were to consider what defines a “fearless” workforce, what would be the defining characteristics? These traits most likely would come to mind: Overcoming obstacles Creating new solutions Bold communication These characteristics are effective behaviors against external challenges. Yet more importantly, they are even more critical against internal challenges that keep an organization fearful ..read more

Last week we looked into how the empty customer chair should work in customer-centric organizations. By implementing the premise properly and with the right intentions, companies can see a tremendous shift into their ability to gain trust in their customers. Now what if we tried to implement a similar method for employees with the empty ..read more

Over the years I’ve seen many people talk about a conversation they’ve had where they have reached an impasse. Whether it was selling an idea, gaining business, or trying to gather intel they would seem frustrated with the final answer(s) by the person they were talking to. Invariably they walk away with “so-and-so is doing ..read more

For years an empty seat in company meetings has been the symbol to remind leaders and employees about being customer centric. Starting with Jeff Bezos with seeds planted in years leading up to him implementing the idea at Amazon, leaving an empty chair at each meeting – whether physically when in real life or digitally ..read more

You hear it from bosses and parents many times. “Now make sure we behave ourselves when (regional leadership)/(grandparents or minister) comes to visit us.” “After all, we need to look good in front of them.” When anyone is worried more about looking good for the sake of optics, rather than doing what’s good and right ..read more

It’s very easy to slip into a path of negativity in your leadership. It’s a basic tenet of people to slide into negative outlooks and behaviors unless acted on from some outside agent, or disciplined from within. In the current state of our world, with Covid-19 lock-downs and their resulting economic impact, racial police brutality ..read more

There is a saying that I am particularly fond of: “Your only competition is yourself.” And there is another saying as well: “You’re only as good as your last performance.” By combining these two sayings, it should give us each a sense of the one thing we need to accomplish every day. Are You Getting ..read more