Right NOW is the Most Important Moment of Your Life. Just down the street is an empty vacant lot. It’s been there for a while. It’s close to downtown, so I imagine there’s a ton of potential uses for the property. So, how much is the property worth? When it [...]
Examples of great leaders with leadership qualities can be found even in your own neighborhood baseball diamond. Just over 25 years ago, the world was introduced to Smalls, Squints, Ham Porter, Yeah Yeah, and of course Benny “the jet” Rodriguez in the cult classic Sandlot. Much of the film was actually filmed not far [...]
When we talk about company culture or organizational culture, at its simplest level, we’re talking about “How we do things around here.” It can be difficult to be aware and objective about your company culture— because employees adopt your culture by observing you and other co-workers. Sometimes their interpretation of your culture is not [...]
The Eisenhower Matrix is a presidential insight about productivity: soon after Eisenhower became president, he visited the campus of Northwestern University to deliver an address. What he said changed the thinking about “productivity” forever. He said: “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never [...]
Most of us recognize a leader when we see one. Because, most leaders seem to possess a common set of behaviors. It seems that great leadership is more bold action than intellectual capacity. Here are three of the behaviors I have recognized in great leaders. Great leaders thrive on simplicity. They bring clarity to the complex. [...]
Everyone has two jobs to do: Do your work. Improve your work. How to improve your work In order to improve your work you must eliminate waste. To figure out what waste is in your company, ask the question whether the work or activity you’re doing is valuable to the consumer. In other words, would [...]
As a leader, one of the skills you need to develop is to “go looking for bad news.” Part of your job is to find, and then face up to, the problems and aggravations that routinely occur in any business. If you’re not aware of any problems, that’s a problem in and of itself. You [...]
In his classic poem “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost talks about how the road he was walking on while in the woods separated into two roads leading in different directions. He had to decide which of the two he would take. By taking the one less traveled, his life was changed. Frost’s point was [...]
On a football team the most famous and recognizable player is usually the Quarterback. Most of us can name the quarterback’s of our favorite NFL teams, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Blake Bortles. But a lot fewer of us could actually name the left guard or the long snapper. While Quarterback’s are generally regarded as the [...]
It’s not uncommon to have a phobia. But you may have this one and not even know it. Kakorrhaphiophobia is the fear of failure—and who doesn’t have a little of that, am I right? Interestingly enough, the major symptom of kakorrhaphiophobia isn’t actual failure—it’s paralysis. You don’t do anything because you’re afraid you might fail [...]
If there is one indisputable test of a leader, it’s the results she or he produces. Getting results is one example of good leadership skills. As Henry Ford once said: You cannot build a reputation on what you’re going to do. Intent without action is just daydreaming. People who are leaders get results. I’ve always [...]
How many of you feel you’re not a leader because you don’t have a “leader’s title”? When we think of what a “leader’s title” is, we often confuse it with a “boss’s title” such as manager, director, president, or CEO. But there’s a difference between being a boss and being a leader—to start off, you don’t need [...]
