A little over one year ago I launched my business coaching and training practice. I felt that I was finally responding to a calling that had been tugging at me for years. Listening to my calling gave me new hope, new energy and a sense of finally doing what IRead More →
I was having dinner with a friend Lee Lingo, Director of Kentucky Association of Manufacturers (KAM) and I used the oft-quoted statement “a rising tide lifts all boats”. Lee pointed out an objection to that and offered a slight correction. He said, “a rising tide lifts all SEAWORTHY boats”. LikeRead More →
When I speak to business owners or VPs of Sales and/or Marketing, our conversations almost always lead to a discussion about their sales and marketing strategies. Often, I find them (especially owners of small businesses), are focusing their strategies in only one area. And, not surprisingly, they are usually targetting customersRead More →
Employee engagement is a popular topic these days. And for good reason. Employee engagement has been staggeringly low for many years (although there has been some improvement in it lately). I will talk about employee engagement in a future blog, but this post focuses on EMPLOYEE DISENGAGEMENT. While engagement canRead More →
Zig Ziglar is quoted as saying “Failure is the line of least persistence”. I believe that is a challenging statement that rings of a great deal of truth. But as my friend Bruce Hinson of Obedient Photography likes to say, “QUITTING is the line of least persistence”. That’s a greatRead More →
There are three ways to learn from mistakes. The best and easiest way is to learn from other’s mistakes. The second is to learn from our own mistakes. And the most painful way is to not learn from our mistakes. And, of course, the irony is that we all we eventuallyRead More →
After working with businesses of all shapes and sizes, I have come to the conclusion that there are five over-arching questions that can dictate whether your business will be successful or not. If an owner can clearly articulate the answer to these five questions, there is a reasonably good chanceRead More →
The past two weeks I shared part 1 and part 2 of a list of how to be a bad listener. These were inspired by a list from the book entitled “The Listening Life” by Adam S. McHugh, McHugh also offers some suggestions on how to be a good listener. Read More →
Someone once said “Integrity isn’t a value in an of itself, but it is a value that guarantees all the other values”. I believe that is quite true. In this installment of the “quality of a leader” series, we will examine the idea of integrity. And for simplicity, I willRead More →
I hope you have dreams. In a recent blog, I wrote about the importance of having dreams. Dreams drive innovation. They are the beginning of great change. Every innovative company began as a dream. But in order to bring a dream to reality, you have to be able to execute. Read More →