You know that point when you have realized that, no matter how well you prepared for your meeting, no matter how well you set the agenda and desired outcomes, the discussion has gone off course? I have found that when this happens it is not always because the meeting isn’t structured well or because the
As leaders we need to be able to walk a fine line between forging relationships and familiarity. Sometimes, if we become too comfortable with our culture, we will let our guard down and forget that as leaders, everything we say matters. Many years ago, when I was first starting out in a Management Training Program,
A Metaphor is Like a Catalyst Posted on November 26, 2012 Ask for a metaphor. If you’re the kind of person people tell their troubles to then the next time someone starts sharing a problem with you simply ask them what the best metaphor is. You won’t even believe what they come up with and
In 1995 i joined an effort to re-engineer the major business processes of the company. We had teams for customer service, sales & marketing, operations, pricing … all working to find means to catalyze efficiency and effectiveness. I was on the team looking to re-engineer customer processes. One day my colleague and friend, Bob Ehlers,
“Corporate is too big. All those people are just looking to justify themselves and create work that cascades down into the organization. If there were less people in Corporate, we could focus on doing our real job instead of spending time working on their priorities.” Ever heard that before? While it is true that a
I will be writing periodically about how a single action can be very meaningful – how actions speak louder than words. In 1995 i was asked to start up a customer service center. I was hiring about 80- people, many of them straight out of college. About a month into the operation, my HR manager
Soft Skills Are Anything But… Posted on August 29, 2012 I am on a mission. My mission is to stop calling ‘soft skills’ soft. Whenever I work with an organization, a team, or an individual I hear my work commonly referred to as ‘soft skills’ based and am inevitably asked, ‘Isn’t getting the work done
As a proud member of Peace First’s Advisory Board, I’m thrilled to announce that today Peace First has launched its new U.S. national campaign (will go global next year) to celebrate young people leading change to create peaceful communities. Five amazing young people between the ages of 8 and 22 will each receive a $50,000
I have a group of friends and we go on roadtrips together, and vacation together. One of those friends is Lou. Lou is an engineer Often times we’d get into a situation where we needed something fixed or rigged – plumbing, strapping something on the roof of the car, setting up a campsite. Inevitably, when
When I first started working with social entrepreneurs , it took me a while to get out of my corporate skin… Many of them encourage that their business models get replicated, scaled by others. Many want their business models copied because they aren’t looking for financial profit, but are looking for their social impact ideas