Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, have you seen the movie? It’s a 1968 family film that stars Dick Van Dyke and a car, a car that has amazing capabilities, the biggest of which is that it can fly. Caractacus Potts – Van Dyke’s character – is an inventor, actually more of a failed inventor, with two … Continue reading An inventor, some children, and a flying car walk into a bar for a leadership lesson. Okay, no bar, but there is a lesson.

Sales is an important job. Without selling, you don’t get your product or service out there. If you don’t get your stuff out there, you don’t make any money. No money, no business. So yeah, sales is pretty important. Sales, however, is a funny word. I so often see it mentioned using words that suggest … Continue reading We need sales wizards, not pushers of products.

When businesses are in their early beginnings, they’re in a fledgling state where things are still being worked out. Processes are being tweaked and products being innovated. The few people who are involved work together as a team. The roles are hybrids, they lack definition. Everyone is contributing and collaborating on a shoestring budget to … Continue reading Are you building a “with” or “for” culture?

So many times when I talk to business leaders, they talk about growth. And it always leads me to one question, why do you want to grow? Usually, I get that “you’re a heretic” look as if I've somehow slandered the flag, mom, and apple pie all at one time. But what is the reason? … Continue reading Why do you want to grow your business, to get more or give more? Your answer is key to whether it happens or not.

How do we listen? It sounds so easy. You just listen someone says. But when I say listening, I mean truly listen. And what do I mean by that? I mean listening to understand. When we are confronted with someone who represents or vocalizes a point of view that we vehemently disagree with, we often … Continue reading Listening: what it really is, why it’s hard, and why we need to do it.

But what is inclusion? I can tell you, in this context, it has nothing to do with different races, genders, creeds, or religious persuasions, it has to do with involvement. Have you ever worked in or are you currently working in a place where your leadership doesn’t involve anyone but themselves in anything. In other … Continue reading Engagement requires inclusion.

In the book This Book Will Make You Kinder, the author, Henry James Garrett, seeks to answer two key questions: Why are we kind? Why aren’t we kinder? Garrett, for those of you who are not familiar with him, is primarily known for his illustrations (he calls them cartoons) of animals who comment on subjects … Continue reading Book Review: This Book Will Make You Kinder by Henry James Garrett

I once played in a ballet orchestra. Those are the folks in the pit below the stage. I remember during a rehearsal of Prokofiev’s Cinderella there was a section where most of the orchestra was playing and I glanced at the basses who were sawing away quite furiously. During a break, I was walking around … Continue reading Listen hard, pay attention. Everyone matters.

I recently read an article that was criticizing the idea of servant leadership. In the article, it mentioned the thought that employees were only, in the final analysis, a means to an end and that leaders were really not there to serve. Let’s look at those two thoughts individually. Means to an end. When I … Continue reading Leaders run things and employees are cogs in the machine. Not!

I’ve recently become interested in design thinking. It began when I heard about something called service design. It piqued my interest so I did a little research and learned more about not only service design but user experience design, interaction design, product design, customer experience design, brand experience design, you name it, there seems to … Continue reading Design thinking should be the future of business.