Posted: August 6, 2014 | Categories: Leadership, Self-Improvement, Team Building

Have you ever come up with a great idea to solve a problem only to have it shot down right away?  If this happens to us enough, we could become discouraged and hesitate to share a future idea.  Good teams respect the principle of “idea fluency”.  Everyone should feel comfortable and confident in sharing their ideas.

If we have a good idea that we believe will solve an important problem, we need to prepare ourselves to sell our idea.  That requires that we work through these four basic problem solving questions that have been time tested for over 100 yearsRead More…

Posted: August 5, 2014 | Categories: Sales, Team Building

In car racing we hear the pros say, “You win in the pits”.  The skill and speed of a pit crew can often be the determining factor in winning the race.  They practice, practice, practice.

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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 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: May 6, 2014 | Categories: Leadership, Team Building

I think locomotives are fascinating: Here are one or two engines pulling a string of heavy cars seemingly a mile long. (I’ve never measured it). I enjoy watching a train begin to move.  It is a great example of overcoming inertia.

In leadership and building teams, it is also important to overcome inertia and build momentum. The leaders that succeed in this area are good at putting “wins on the board” quickly.

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