Posted: July 28, 2014 | Categories: Self-Improvement, Team Building

In the world of sports and business we sometimes hear the term, “Crush the competition”.  We want to be dominant in our lead.  The reality is, in most situations, the best is better by only a slight edge.

A few years ago I was reading the annual PGA player rankings in Golf Digest for the year.  The listing included the top 100 golfers in terms of earnings.  Also included were their stats regarding average strokes per tournament.  I was surprised to discover that the person in first place averaged only .76 less strokes per round than the person in 56th place.  That number is small, but the difference in earnings was over $1 million dollars.  The person in 1st place had the slight edge.
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Posted: July 25, 2014 | Categories: Management, Self-Improvement, Time management

My father worked for many decades as a project engineer for a major oil company.  He became a renowned expert in pipeline controls, and actually worked for three years straight as a consultant during the construction of the Alaskan Pipeline.  He was smart, intuitive, and the best problem solver I have ever known.
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Posted: July 11, 2014 | Categories: Leadership, Management, Team Building

We are paid to solve problems.  Selling is commonly defined as problem solving.  Management is problem solving.  A technician is a problem solver.  Here is the intriguing part:  If solving problems is what most of us are paid for, why does “We’ve got a problem” hit us like a sour note?
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Posted: July 9, 2014 | Categories: Management

As an executive coach, much of my time is spent working with companies to build a top-performing championship teams.  There are many elements to a #1 team, and the one I would like to talk about today is absolute clarity of roles and expectations.  First things first.  Before implementing this step, it is assumed you and your team have a clear vision, you are excited about it, and you have the “right people on the bus”.  Without this, there is no getting off the launching pad.

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Posted: July 1, 2014 | Categories: Self-Improvement

Nearly 50% of all college grad students seeking a PHD fail to achieve their goal.  What stops them short?  They don’t complete their dissertation.  Just the thought of something so big can be overwhelming.  So what happens?  They avoid, escape, and procrastinate working on the project.  After all, they have a year.  What is the rush?  The time passes, the days dwindle, crunch time comes, and they give up.Read More…