It doesn’t take a genius.

How can something so basic be so instrumental to employee engagement and retention?  Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark .

Hilaire Belloc was a dynamic leader--a historian who became part of history himself. He studied the Duke of Marlborough, a commander who lost ZERO battles. And it convinced him that there are four qualities of a leader. How do you measure up?  Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark .

Safety razors, old coffee-making methods, vinyl records and the Squirrel Nut Zippers have something to say about what kinds of customers and employees you are seeing. Special thanks to 4th Level Roasters ... D&V Barbers ... and Mark's blog where these  kinds of  thoughts have been percolating for a while. (This wasn't meant to be an episode. But an off-the-cuff discussion of authenticity is pr...

Have you struggled to make a change because you weren't clear on what you actually wanted to accomplish? This easy exercise helps you gain meaningful clarity on what the future should look like.  (Mark learned it from Master Certified Coach Bryan Brown of Coaching To Lead . Check him out!) Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mi...

Instead of asking direct questions, you make confident, open-ended statements that invite response, insight or clarification. Isn't that breaking the rules? No! And it has a particular set of advantages--tune in for more.  Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark . 

Guest genius, Dom Genova, returns to explain how a creative entrepreneur survived a stifling culture to launch a successful car dealership that won awards for ethics.  Dom’s success as a car dealer boiled down to ensuring his customers didn’t get taken advantage of by the car biz. Now he has a book to help others .  Also check out Dom's podcast and radio show, the No-Nonsense Roundtable . His gues...

Sometimes, it DOES take a genius. Meet our friend, Dom Genova. He is an expert at customer experience, marketing and entrepreneurship.  Dom’s success as a car dealer boiled down to ensuring his customers didn’t get taken advantage of by the car biz. Now he has a book to help others. And it’s good!  Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you!...

Fascinating research from Decision Dynamics reveals why some employees seem to lose motivation after a while--and why great employees become mediocre managers. Are you leaking solid talent?  Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark . 

From their new book: Silence is golden--and awkward. But do it anyway! Mike and Mark explain why silence works, why it's hard to practice ... and how you can break through to using this key skill for the inquiring leader.  This episode is from Mike and Mark's new book, " The Inquiring Leader "--buy it here!  Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear...

From their new book: Mike and Mark take aim at one of the biggest lies in leadership: "Great leaders are born, not built." Learn how to flex your leadership muscles of inquisitiveness in this episode. (Want more articles? Here are a scholarly explanation of dialogic leadership  and a short piece from Mark explaining how slowing down leads to learning .) This episode is from Mike and Mark's new boo...

If your team always agrees with you--but never takes action--this episode's for you. It's time to stop settling for input ... and start asking for ownership. From Mike and Mark's new book, " The Inquiring Leader "--buy it here!  Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark . 

From Mike and Mark's new book, " The Inquiring Leader :" It's easier, more efficient, to be the Answer Guy--the leader who gives all the direction and tells people what to do. Or is it? There are limitations to directive leadership. ...  Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark . (And buy the book here !)

From Mike and Mark's new book, " The Inquiring Leader :" A manager's "impossible choice" was solved with a powerful question. All four types of powerful questions help a leader clarify the situation, analyze what's really going on, gain awareness and plan for the future.  Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark . (And...

From Mike and Mark's new book, " The Inquiring Leader :" How five different leaders used questions—not counteroffers—to retain employees ready to resign. Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark . (And buy the book here !) How to retain employees without a raise Coaching conversations to reduce turnover Best questions...

From Mike and Mark's new book, " The Inquiring Leader :" The real-world story of a general manager who slashed "time-to-line" from 38 days to 5—and saved $1.2 million—because of a single question. Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark . (And buy the book here !) Leadership questions that drive performance How to lea...

We conclude our series on fostering a culture of continuous improvement by talking about how it needs to be ... continuous! You need regular check-ins that look at progress through three different lenses. And there are pitfalls to avoid when you do that.  Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark .

Champions: It's a corporate buzzword ... and it is a crucial element for anyone hoping to develop a culture of continuous improvement.  3M, Pixar and Intuit all have lessons for us to learn about how to--and how NOT to--engage champions for your initiatives. Are you punishing your champions?  Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email...

There are four things you need to have for a pilot to be a success--even if it fails. In our ongoing series on creating a culture of continuous improvement, we discuss how to pilot your innovative ideas. Google, HubSpot and SpaceX have lessons for all of us.  Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark .

In our ongoing series on developing a culture of continuous improvement, it's time to start filtering all of those ideas you've collected. If you are overwhelmed, take a pruning lesson with this episode: There are many prioritization techniques and time management strategies, such as the Eisenhower Matrix and the MoSCoW method. Improve your strategic decision-making by focusing on high-impact acti...

In our series on developing a culture of continuous improvement--as Seth Godin says, "being better at being better"--it's time to share how you FIND those improvements. How do you create an idea bucket ... with a tap? Mike has lots of experience getting teams to share their ideas.  Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and M...

If talking about corporate values makes your eyes roll, this episode is for you. A culture of continuous improvement requires that you uncover your DNA: your values.  Defining them--and the stories behind them--lead to an organization that can live them out. The hosts share several exercises you can use to uncover those values.  Hat tip to " Co-Active Coaching ," " Start with Why " and two-time gu...

If you want to "be better at being better," you need a vision. Mike and Mark share tools they use to help individuals and organizations develop a culture of continuous improvement. All you need is a penny, a blank sheet of paper and some crayons. ... Herb Mast's "Intentionality for Leaders."  Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email...

Are you improving your organization? Not good enough! You have to, as Seth Godin says, " be better at being better ." Continuous improvement, kaizen, is the name of the game. We talk about the signs that you're settling for less than that--and habits to improve your continuous improvement culture.  Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you!...

Discovering and developing your strengths is the best path to reaching your potential--and there is a powerful way to use them with a team.  Mark's brother joins the podcast to explain CliftonStrengths , a.k.a. StrengthsFinder. Luke Ramsay was Gallup's third certified Strengths Coach in the state and has given more than a thousand assessments.  Email Luke here . Purchase "Born to Build" here .  In...

A high-school drop out who became a chemistry major ... who had a career in IT ... which led to a long, successful career in training and development? Meet Mark's dad, Martin Ramsay of CEATH Company .  Mike and Martin have a wide-ranging discussion about how Martin combined so many streams, found clients, used experiential learning, and traveled the globe using innovative tools that helped clients...