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Category: Leadership
The key to team problem-solving
One of our favorite family traditions for the holiday is making and decorating Christmas cookies. We like to make it a special event, and this past weekend we had our two adult sons and their wives join us in the project. Our goal was to put our creativity into the cookie decorating and afterwards take pictures and make a Christmas card. That was our objective. We weren’t sure how we were going to get to it. That is where team collaboration came in.
Increase profit by reducing tolerations
If you are like most of us, when you look at your personal life, there are a few things in the “toleration” category. Here are some examples:
- Being overweight
- Not eating right
- Office clutter
- A half-finished project
This list can get pretty long. Let’s face it, there are some tolerations we just never get around to attending to.
There are also tolerations in business. Read More…
Excellence means setting and exceeding high expectations
With online shopping steadily on the rise, retail chains nationwide are struggling. As many face this issue, it is common that they turn to improving customer service. I once heard someone say, “Success comes in what we do after we have done what we have been paid to do.” In other words, go the extra mile. Setting the bar high is one challenge. Keeping the bar high can be an even bigger challenge.Read More…
The most important leadership skill…
Early in my coaching career I developed an hypothesis: There is no leadership growth without an improvement in listening skills. So far, this theory has served me well.
If someone challenged me to come up with a list of people I thought were truly good listeners, I would only be able to think of a handful. No, I wouldn’t be on that list (unless my wife wasn’t reading it!).Read More…
The enormous cost of low emotional intelligence
About 15 years ago, I was working in a key position for a worldwide training company. The owners decided to hire a new training director. She was from a large corporation and brought a new flavor to the team. The flavor she brought did not taste good. Sylvia was what is commonly referred to as a “body tripper”.
At first, Sylvia was friendly and gracious to everyone on the team. Then, once she got situated in her position, she began to change. She became aloof, ignored people, wouldn’t listen to anyone, and it wasn’t long before virtually everyone resented her. I said, “virtually”. There were a few people she was very nice too. They were all in top management. She had them snookered. Top management didn’t see what we saw.
Read More…