The book, The Founders Mentality by Chris Zook and James Allen, talks about the owner’s mindsight. I love this idea of thinking like you were the owner. In that spirit, if I owned the Kohler Co., I would want every one of my leaders to listen to this podcast and to push us to create a culture that is positioned to recognize ‘uniquely better’ and embrace it rather than resist it. Continue reading Uniquely Better
Many of us treat our spouses like our automobiles. We wait until the red light on the dashboard lights up before we pay attention to the slowly building problems. Some of us, like me, ignore the light until serious work is needed to repair the issues. Preventative maintenance can help avoid emergencies in our marriage, and with our car, but many of us simply don’t think about it. Continue reading Check Engine
Have you ever noticed that most of leadership training is for those who are already in leadership roles? What about the aspiring leaders? What about those who have great thoughts, or want to improve their group, or maybe their entire company? I am not a formal leader, but I have certainly learned that I can influence my peers and those above me. Just because you … Continue reading Leveraging Influence
My beautiful daughter wanted to go see the movie Christoper Robin. Mom and grandma were all in, and I was on the fence. I usually would have declined and not even thought twice about what I had given up, but this time was different… Continue reading Insights from Winnie the Pooh
Did you know that Aristotle had a three-part formula for persuasion? Did you know that almost all the great speeches in history use these three parts? So what are these three things… Continue reading Be Like Aristotle
The other day I got a job offer, and on paper it looked really good. However, I decided to turn it down, and the reason surprised me. Continue reading Location, Location, Location
a short story about the power of context Continue reading The most gracious meal
I had the opportunity to watch the movie “Like Arrows” last night with my wife. I will admit it is a strange date-night movie, but we sat in the comfortable red chairs at our local Marcus Theater and enjoyed a glass of wine while we watched this two-hour show. My wife and I both have aspirations of being great parents, and we are wise enough to know that on many days we fall short. Parenting is hard… This movie was an inspirational tale that follows a couple from unexpected pregnancy, to a quick marriage, to a slow path of struggle and then enlightenment, until they reach their 50 year wedding anniversary. I strongly advise anyone who is a parent, or plans to one day become one, to watch this film. Continue reading Like Arrows
Comedian Steve Martin famously gives this advice, “Be so good they can’t ignore you”. If you just focus on getting really good, Martin says, people will come to you and results will happen. Many of you have just received your annual merit increases, and this can be either an exciting thing, or a frustrating time. If you are not making as much income as you feel … Continue reading How to get paid more
giving versus trading… Continue reading Marriage
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