Individual Growth:
To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.
– Robert Louis Stevenson
“What do you think of your team’s execution?” Coach John McKay was asked. “I’m for it!” McKay replied. The expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished that season winless and McKay captured the hearts of coaches everywhere with that comment.
Whether it is in sports or in business, leaders often spend endless hours preparing strategies to insure success, only to see those plans fail due to poor execution. Whose fault is it? Is it the players’ fault? Is it the leaders’ fault? Continue Reading…
I agreed to talk to the boss. Three of my peers approached me about a sales campaign that they thought missed the mark. It was our boss’s idea, but it wasn’t a good one.
Over time, I became the person my peers came to when someone needed to confront our boss. I accepted that role and felt comfortable doing it. I just wish my peers would have spoken directly to our boss themselves instead of going through me. Continue Reading…
“Dave, you are not the messiah of wayward sales people.” My boss had a way of being direct – sometimes with a sting. She knew me and my desire to help others. I didn’t like the delivery, but she was right.
The problem was, once again, I was hanging on too tight to someone who was not making the grade. He was not meant to be in sales, and I refused to accept it. Continue Reading…
A lot of people do not like performance reviews. Many times it is the anticipation of bad news that can cause anxiety in the individual. The fear of the unknown can overwhelm people.
That’s the problem. Nothing that is discussed in a performance review should be unknown.
That is why they are called performance reviews – NOT performance reveals! Continue Reading…
I took a week long vacation recently in Puerto Rico. I got a massage while I was there. As I was lying on the table during my session, I realized the therapist was really not doing a good job.
I longed for the person who I use close to home. She does a great job. She knows my problem areas and gets after them. The guy who was working on me in Puerto Rico was just not cutting it.
The guy in Puerto Rico worked like an average manager. My favorite masseuse at home works like a great leader. Continue Reading…
When everything began to unravel for Pete, I knew I was going to have fire him. I took it personally. Like most leaders, I rarely lose sleep over the technical issues of my job. It is the people who give me insomnia. In this case it was Pete.
I hired Pete. He had all the promise in the world. But, he turned out to be a bad hire. He lied to me. He didn’t work hard and he pulled the wool over my eyes for longer than I wanted to admit. Continue Reading…
This is a copy of the last blog written by a student from the Brook Hill School who went to Uganda over spring break. It also happens to be my 16 year old son, Jake.
I may be biased, but this is better than anything I have ever written.
See what K.I.S.S. means to a 16 year old.
Today’s student perspective comes from Jake:
Time slows down in Africa. Emmy D comes to pick us up at least 45 minutes later than the agreed upon time every day, if we are lucky. Some of the Type A’s around here are annoyed at least somewhat by this, however, when you take a step back, it is quite refreshing. Continue Reading…
“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at its testing point.” –C.S. Lewis
Wow. Opening this post with this quote from C. S. Lewis just heightened my level of attention to a subject that has been watered down through over use and misunderstanding through the years. How do we recover the word Courage from the Buzzword purgatory it’s currently relegated to?
My answer is to define it and to continually discuss it. That is the problem with corporate values statements as well. They are inadequately defined and communicated infrequently.
The topic of courage has generated a lot of interest in recent posts. This is a previously published blog where I define courage and give examples of everyday courageous acts.
When someone does something well, a good coach jumps on the opportunity to praise them. Praise is a great motivator. But misplaced praise can demotivate.
Making people feel good about themselves in a vacuum doesn’t work. In my past, I fell into the habit of always praising people. It hurt their performance and our relationship. Continue Reading…
84% of employees do not believe their company’s culture is widely upheld according to a study by the Aberdeen Group. The startling thing is the numbers are only slightly better for executives who answered that same survey – 81% admitted they are not doing a good job upholding the company culture. These are the people who are responsible for reinforcing the culture!
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