Quick—can you name a resilient organization? How about the local dry cleaner that trims its hours because they can’t find new staff? Nope. How about the plumber that loses approved vendor status because their jobs keep running late due to an unreliable truck constantly breaking down? Definitely not. Or the company that shuts down after the founder dies?
“Sifting Folly” What a glorious phrase, eh? I was reading one of my favorite blogs (FarnamStreetBlog.com) and this phrase really got my attention. Partly for its eloquence but mostly for what it stands for. The topic was Albert Einstein and why he was so freaking smart. One reason, widely accepted, was his ability to quickly and effectively reduce complex
Criticize with CareEver notice that criticism gets a bad rap, generally speaking? Not the “you’re ugly and your mother dresses you funny” kind, but the constructive kind that portends to improve performance. The problem is that when the criticism isn’t received as constructive, there’s no incentive for the desired improvement to occur. And the whole concept
Ever experience this? Question:”Hi, Honey, welcome home. Please tell me about your day?”Reply:”It was fine. The boss was in a grumpy mood. Had lunch with the team at work. Closed the Penske sale. Planned a big conference call for tomorrow. How about your day?”Sounds like a 1950’s sitcom, right? Perhaps. But it also illustrates the ingredients of
Once upon a time I failed as a leader…Okay, so it happens regularly, but let’s just focus on one of them for now, okay? Here’s a story of a leadership failure, what I learned, and how you can avoid the same mistake.My business, TEAM Solutions, has 3 full-time employees: me, myself, and I. When I have a
Orange, TX, September 13, 2008 — Members of Texas Task Force One and Two come together for a quick field briefing. Both teams conducted search and rescue efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Mike Moore/FEMAAre you a responder who wants to transform from a good communicator to a great communicator? Great response leaders are defined
When I first started instructing for a living (versus as an occasional sideline), I was eager and intensely interested in sharing what I knew. Every moment was a teaching moment! On one hand, that’s swell. But sometimes, not-so-much. Let me explain. During a course where 2 or 3 or more of us would be delivering a course,
… Or should we even reward folks at all? After being bombarded with the ‘everyone earns a ribbon’ strategy, a little balance may be in order. First, here are some simple formulas:1E=1R ($1 worth of effort = $1 worth of pay/reward) 2E=2R ($2 or more worth of effort = $2 or more worth of pay/reward) And so
Building TrustHaving someone’s trust is kind of like having a winning lottery ticket … either you have it, or you don’t. Here’s a simple jump start to building trust, especially when you’re new to the team: Win! Yep, find a few simple and quantifiable problems that are currently impacting your team and solve it. Building trust doesn’t have
