Poor service. It seems to be rampant these days. But why? What’s the main reason? Is it bad attitudes? Is it management? Is it a lack of training? Is it Millennials? They seem to be popular scapegoats for all manner of ills these days. I’m sure you could make a long list and you could … Continue reading Customers or numbers. What do you say?

Telling people what to do is necessary sometimes, but a far more effective long-term strategy is asking questions and empowering self-direction. Isn’t that what we want in our workplaces? Don’t we want people who can think and make decisions? What I’ve found in most workplaces though is fear. So many managers fear their employees thinking … Continue reading Do Ask, Don’t Tell

“It’s time to admit that the playbook that’s guided businesses and CEOs in the last 40 years is broken,” says Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO and founder of Chobani, the popular and successful Greek yogurt brand, in his TED Talk in Vancouver. To that, he adds that the idea of maximizing profits solely to benefit shareholders is … Continue reading A Yogurt-Maker’s Bold Proposal to Change the Face of Business

What turns average customers into loyal promoters of your business? Why do people stick with a brand, organization, or specific enterprise for the long term? In one of their newer books, Leading Loyalty, the Franklin Covey loyalty team answers these questions. If I were to sum up their conclusions, loyalty begins and ends with employees … Continue reading Book Review: Leading Loyalty

Recently, I was confronted with a question as to what my moment was. Huh? What did they mean by moment? Well, what they were getting at was this, there are times in our lives, maybe just a moment, one moment when we get a flash of insight that leads us to our life calling, what … Continue reading Your Moment

What's most important in your business, people, or other things? It’s always surprising to me that the primary reason for business, serving the needs of people (customers), gets sidelined for so many other “priorities.” Take a moment to think about this. The fundamental purpose of business is to provide goods and services that help people … Continue reading What’s Your Priority?

You do know that your work is a service...to someone…right? No matter how you slice it, we all serve others. Think about it. Service is just a simple way of saying, "helping people," and given that, isn’t that what we all do every day? Believe it or not, our work and our lives hover around … Continue reading Service (R)Evolution…If not now, when?

Is your organization living in the past with an Industrial Age management mindset? If so, you may want to consider some changes. Frederick Winslow Taylor’s early 1900’s thinking on hierarchy where the decision-making thinkers are separated from the laboring doers has been the default system for over one hundred years. It’s a very productive system … Continue reading Industrial Age thinking? Think again.

We’ve recently seen two instances of organizations putting their own interests ahead of their customers, and what’s worse is it’s not just customer interests but customer safety. One is the US airline industry and the Boeing 737 Max plane debacle and the other is Major League Baseball’s (MLB) mishandling of ballpark safety issues. In the … Continue reading Business is about people. Isn’t it time we demanded being the priority?

I was on a plane recently where the flight attendant never smiled. He had a scowl on his face the entire flight. It’s amazing how this little thing made me feel like I was an inconvenience. It actually had a significant negative impact on me. I really wanted to ask him what his problem was … Continue reading Why Technical Success Is Not Enough.