Crazy Enough to Win (For Those Who Love the Game of Business)

Send us Fan Mail I have made this concept easy to understand.  Don't miss the ending.  But first, I need to give you the foundation for this to make sense.  The fundamental attribution error (FAE), also known as the correspondence bias or attribution effect, is a cognitive bias that influences how individuals perceive and interpret the behavior of others. Coined by social psychologists Lee Ro...

Send us Fan Mail In every organization, the pursuit of excellence is crucial for sustained success. However, this pursuit can sometimes be hindered by mediocre employees. Handling underperforming staff is one of the most challenging tasks for any manager or business owner. While firing an employee is never an easy decision, it is necessary to maintain a high-performing and cohesive team. Let'...

Send us Fan Mail Leadership trends continually evolve to adapt to changing business environments and employee expectations. Traditional hierarchical leadership models are giving way to more collaborative and inclusive approaches. Modern leaders emphasize transparency, open communication, and employee empowerment. This shift promotes a culture of trust, innovation, and engagement, as employees feel...

Send us Fan Mail Marriage breakdowns can have far-reaching consequences that extend beyond the immediate family unit. In recent years, research has shed light on the correlation between broken marriages and the development of manipulative behaviors in children. If left unchecked, these manipulative tendencies can manifest in their adult lives, leading to manipulative behaviors in the workplace. Th...

Send us Fan Mail When Alan Mulally took over as CEO of Ford in 2006, the company was in dire straits. It had lost over $12 billion in the previous two years, and employee morale was low. One of the biggest challenges facing Mulally was the lack of psychological safety in the workplace. Psychological safety refers to the belief that employees can take interpersonal risks without fear of negative co...

Send us Fan Mail While toxic managers may achieve varying degrees of success in their careers, their negative impact on their employees and organizations is educational. It serves as a reminder of the importance of a healthy and respectful work environment and the negative consequences that can arise when leaders struggle with priorities. Identifying toxic managers can be challenging because they...

Send us Fan Mail Overall, the line "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" is a commentary on the complexities of life and the coexistence of both positive and negative experiences. The same exists today in the business development landscape. The world of professional sales has changed. For some, it is a time for fantastic success. At the same time, many others are struggli...

Send us Fan Mail Accountability in the workplace can be hard to find, but it’s one of the most important characteristics of high-performing teams and employees. A lack of accountability, on the other hand, can keep companies and individuals from reaching their full potential.  I asked ChatGPT this question:  Why is accountability so difficult for the current workforce? The answer from artificial i...

Send us Fan Mail Are you looking for industry experience when hiring? If so, I plan to challenge your thinking and hope to change your mind when we finish this time together. A friend of mine named Scott Hardegree introduced me to a concept called G.A.S. regarding the people we hire and retain at work. G.A.S. is an acronym for Gives A S@!t . Scott and I are ex-military, so the language is less off...

Send us Fan Mail I watched a documentary about Nolan Ryan last night called Facing Nolan . In case you don't recognize the name. Ryan is the only pitcher in AL/NL history with at least 5,000 strikeouts. Ryan is the all-time leader in no-hitters with seven, three more than any other pitcher.  So, a career that almost did not happen is a fantastic story. But the lesson is much broader and deepe...

Send us Fan Mail Has your team lost the edge it once had?  Are people merely going through the motions at work? Can mediocrity dull the hunger pains for excellence?  Can accepting the status quo doom your team to mediocrity?  Staying hungry for that which provides the most benefit is extremely challenging and often elusive to many organizations.  There are many factors that contribute to lost hung...

Send us Fan Mail Who said the following?  Which generation am I describing?  Work should be rewarding and create fulfillment in my life. I want a work-life balance. I will not be loyal to a company. We see jobs as temporary, not permanent. The answer may surprise you!

Send us Fan Mail Most of us have heard the old axiom, begin with the end in mind. Create a vision for what you want and go after it. But what if that is all wrong? What if having a picture of what you wish blinds you to opportunities along the way? Can we be so focused on one outcome that we miss others that appear in our path?  In the classic book, Think and Grow Rich , Napoleon Hill, espoused th...

Send us Fan Mail   Edward took over as branch manager of this bank eight months ago. He is new to town and this branch, but not new to the company. He has been an assistant branch manager with success, and his promotion to branch manager at this bank is long overdue. A previous manager taught him how to run an efficient and profitable business enterprise during his tenure as assistant manager.   G...

Send us Fan Mail No matter how 2022 impacted you, it is not over. Whether it brought you the birth of a new family member or the passing of a loved one, the rest of the year is upon us. We can choose to look backward or forward. I can be sad about the past, or I can look forward to the next season in my life without youth sports. We like to cling to the past and the nostalgia accompanying those me...

Send us Fan Mail I have discovered some powerful reasons why managers seek mediocrity rather than excellence for the organizations they serve. Surprisingly, the challenge for greatness is often "not more difficult" to achieve. It simply requires a different mindset when presented with a problem.  

Send us Fan Mail Preston is already late for work and feels stressed by the fresh Monday morning upon him. He decides to stop for coffee anyway. The five-mile drive to his office seems more like fifty. He is in his seventh month as production supervisor, and it feels like seven years. "How did it get this bad so fast?" he thinks. He used to love his job and his life. He is twenty-nine ye...

Send us Fan Mail A recent study revealed that the key to human happiness is the ability to live in the moment and place less emphasis on the future and the past. Our obsessive preoccupation with the past or future is a significant burden that limits our happiness during life. The study indicates that our stress over past events and our worry about the future harm our current satisfaction. Furtherm...

Send us Fan Mail The Great Resignation  is not turning out like many planned.  People are leaving good jobs and making a huge mistake.  The new jobs are not being advertised accurately, and people are disappointed.  I have discovered the "real" reason the new jobs are not as promised.  You will be shocked to learn what is really going on.  Wait for the ending!

Send us Fan Mail The pandemic and work-from-home accelerated the current employee engagement problem. When you blame employees for quitting in mass numbers, you are the issue. It is not your people or the generation; it is your opportunity to change. It is always your fault as the leader. I constantly hear executives gripe and complain about generational differences, attendance, and engagement. My...

Send us Fan Mail "I will not pay for employees to train while I am paying them to work," said the CEO of a company. It reminds me of the CFO that told the CEO, "If we train our people, they will leave for a better job." The CEO replied, "What if we don't train them, and they stay?" This polarized thinking forms the foundation for organizations' challenges du...

Send us Fan Mail Can we make the wolf persona mainstream in sales? Should I buy a Super Bowl ad to communicate my new wolf sales model to the world? Too big or too lofty a goal? I need to share the model and test interest with the world to answer these questions. A virus mutates to survive, so sales models must adapt to the changing buyer. The 2009 financial crisis gave birth to the challenger sal...

Send us Fan Mail I am a massive fan of David Friedman's work for culture by design instead of culture by chance. He does a fantastic job helping company's transition abstract values into concrete behaviors (he calls fundamentals). Unfortunately, many organizations do not understand what their culture represents to the people on the team. Many CEOs have a large blind spot when it comes to...

Send us Fan Mail As humans, our need for acceptance as teenagers becomes a significant barrier to success as adults. As adults, we must often be different to achieve success. The average worker, singer, or athlete finds success elusive. The acceptance paradox states that the need to be accepted during one stage in life can prevent success in another. 

Send us Fan Mail What is the plural of mongoose? Rod Stewart opined in his famous eighties' song Infatuation, “Oh no, not again, it hurts so good, I don’t understand” about a new love in his life.  Love may not be the emotion leaders experience as we adjust to another generation entering the workforce.  Tragically, many organizations (and supervisors) have not adapted to millennials and are a...