Not long ago, my neighbor had to have some foundation repairs done at his house. I live in an area of the Texas Gulf Coast where there is long term terrain subsidence. Foundations can shift and begin to crack without intervention. If you are not familiar with repairing a foundation, the crew will dig...
This evening is Halloween; celebrated in many different ways. Of the many best loved traditions in America, the donning of costumes is at the top of the list. Many, many years ago, in times past, adults began dressing in elaborate costumes for Halloween parties, also known as Masquerade parties, long before it became an...
People often ask me about ways to beat procrastination. I usually say “I’ll get back to you.” Just kidding. Everyone procrastinates sometimes, but 20 percent of people chronically avoid difficult tasks and deliberately look for distractions—which, unfortunately, are increasingly available. Procrastination in large part reflects our perennial struggle with self-control as well as our...
Competitive swimmers must stay in a prescribed lane during the race. It’s actually a violation to get out of your lane. Business professionals occasionally have a hard time defining their lane and staying in it. This often happens when an individual is asked to step into a supervisory or management role. Several things might...
We all like Plan “B” options that afford us escapes when things don’t work out. In 1519, Captain Hernán Cortés landed in Veracruz to begin his great conquest. Upon arriving, he gave the order to his men to burn the ships. How’s that for bold leadership? What Cortés did was force himself and his...
As some of you know, I run a contrarian view of the widespread concern for millennials in the workplace. Time and time again I find workshops and speakers touting their newfound wisdom about how “to cope with millennials in the workplace”. Executives everywhere are pondering this epidemic conundrum, or so the pundits tell us....
Though first recognized as a management discipline in the 60’s, change management (CM) is a discipline that rose in prominence in the 90s. I share a bitter-sweet experience with formal change management protocols. Being a pragmatic and common sense kind of guy, my best work has involved making complex things simple for everyone around...
People in management and leadership deal with problems all day long. Plans and projects get started, procedures are written and taught, but things go awry. Challenges present themselves in so many forms. People problems, supply problems, customer problems, and so on and so on. A lot of physical and emotional energy gets spent solving...
If you are trying to grow a garden, weeds are bad, right? When you are in leadership and someone talks about “the Weeds”, you either think about your bad employees or you think about details that feel like they are choking you (as in ‘lost in the weeds’). Both ideas may be true and...
I am excited to announce a new series of guest bloggers joining me from time to time to share their views of management and leadership. My first guest is a long-time friend and colleague, Roger Ferguson, Founder of ISI Human Resources Consulting. We’ve worked together for many years. He is a certified human resource...