True confession. When I was young, I often didn’t listen well. I would spend much of my listening time thinking about what I was going to say in response to the person who was sharing with me, rather than intently listening to them. I was more concerned about my thoughts than theirs. One of the…
Jim Collins, in his book “Good to Great”, discusses the importance of having the right people on the bus, and in the correct seats. This is no-more-true than at the top of the organization. We need to have leaders on our teams who have the correct skillsets for their roles, but who, just as importantly, embody the values,…
Have you ever worked for an organization whose cultural walk didn’t match their talk? This can be a maddening experience. You may have been attracted to the team because of the values they publicized or the awards they received. Your personal values and culture probably resonated with the team you were joining, and you were anticipating…
I just had lunch with a banker I used to work with. He always impressed me with his preparation for our meetings……industry data, future-looking financial forecasts for our business, great questions to get me thinking about our company’s future. He wasn’t just my banker. He was a valued advisor to the president and part-owner of…
“I have a very talented employee who I make exceptions for because they don’t always model our values. I don’t know if I could replace them. What should I do?” I have been in this situation numerous times and have had clients facing this dilemma as well. Have you ever been in this position as…
A helpful place to start in answering this question is to first answer another…..“who are you as a person?” As an example, for myself, I’m a Christ Follower, Husband, Dad, Grandfather, Entrepreneur, Leader, and Encourager. When I was 25, my answer to this question regarding my work was very different from when I was 45. If…
OK……this may be a bit of an overstatement. A better way of saying this may be that I love what happens to relationships and organizations when conflict is exposed. Let me explain. When I was younger, I tended to avoid conflict. If a conflict arose, I would try to avoid it or gloss it over….