Process is overrated and CONDITION is underrated. Many business managers love to masque ineffectiveness and lack of performance with misguided thoughts about poor process. Sound business practices and processes are certainly important, but good processes alone are not sufficient. When great processes are applied in lousy conditions, the results will be lousy most of the time. When [...]

The reason public speaking skills are so valuable is simple. As a speaker you will gain confidence telling your story. You will be more persuasive. Being able to persuade people is the lifeblood of effectiveness for just about everything that you do. If you want to feel good about yourself when presenting to a group, [...]

One of the challenges in keeping up with trends for operational excellence is getting straight talk from people within your own organization. Tomorrow’s problems will most likely not be solved with today’s thinking. Consequently, it may behoove top management to seek opinions from those that will share daring alternatives to the status quo. George Day, a professor [...]

The point of leadership is to show up as an example and have people re-commited to what THEY want to achieve. The Key: What THEY want to achieve. This has less to do with you and more to do with your followers.

We encounter many manufacturing organizations that have vacancies in key positions for months while searching for the right person to permanently fill the job. Whether the vacancy is in operations, sales management, quality control, or others, having a leadership position vacant often results in a performance downturn. We see a trend towards filling these openings on a [...]

There’s a little company in the Twin Cities making a big splash. Tom Trutna, owner of Big Ink, continues to do the right thing for his customers, employees and the environment.  There are a few very simple, yet important lessons we can learn from how Big Ink thinks about publicity. Always be ready for the [...]

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Are you taking enough of the right kinds of risks in your business? During my career, I have had the luxury of hanging around a lot of people that enjoy taking risks. I’ve watched (and experienced) some efforts that had huge payoffs; and many that were nothing short of a disaster. Over time I have [...]

Abby Sunshine – Serious Follower By definition, leaders need followers. Here is a quick test to see if you are a leader. Ask yourself how a trained dog responds to you. Dogs are conditioned to be great followers, but they won’t follow a lousy leader. If you exude confidence, a sense of direction, calmness and purpose [...]

I recently got an email from a client whom I help with coaching his salespeople. He expressed that when he offers to help his people, he feels like they just want him to go away. Here is my take on the apparent rebuff: The feeling that your salespeople want you to go away is probably [...]