In business, so often it’s about knowing which levels to pull, when. You’re probably familiar with the allegory of a shipping magnate whose freighter is loaded with cargo ready for transport, but something is stuck and the shaft on the propeller won’t turn. The shipping magnate’s crew looks the ship over and everything looks normal. […]
You’re probably at least passingly familiar with the hit Blink 182 song, All the Small Things. It’s catchy, has a good beat, and I think we’ve all heard it countless times in the 26 years since its release. This song about the importance of small gestures recently came to my mind during a coaching session. […]
I grew up on the South Side of Chicago in a very Irish, very Catholic neighborhood. The Serenity Prayer showed up in just about every household. Whether it was a plaque on the wall or carved into a soap dish, it was a cultural mainstay of that community. You’ve probably heard this prayer in reference […]
Lately, a lot of my time has gone toward a new training venture. In this process, I’m documenting skills that I’ve used throughout my career to help new business owners get in front of the very hard learning curve. I’m a “hands-on” manager and prone to jump in, which is often the very wrong answer. […]
Right now, do you pivot or stay the course? Hunker down or rise up? The landscape seems to change not by the hour, but by the minute. As the current presidential administration continues to sow chaos throughout the global economy, it’s nearly impossible for business leaders to stabilize their footing for long enough to make […]
Friction is just about everywhere you look. But if you’re the person in charge, it’s your job to minimize it as much as possible. Every transaction, customer engagement, product delivery, etc., is going to have some level of friction. That’s true for anyone who doesn’t operate 100% by themselves. While you can never completely remove […]
I’m a firm believer that wisdom can be found anywhere, and I recently made a new discovery while walking my dog. As the primary dog walker, I tend to take us around three basic routes. The first is a quick around the block, a 10-minute route where he can sniff and do his business and […]
There is always a pile of books on management and entrepreneurship to choose from, and although I don’t find grand revelations in every book I pick up, I do like the search. Recently I discovered a new book, and what has stuck with me is the author’s description of catastrophic thinking, or catastrophizing. The author […]
I was recently having dinner with my wife at a high-end ramen restaurant, and it struck me how much my life had changed. Back in college, I, like many others, lived off of $5/1 packets of ramen. While I’ve since learned that I need to live off more than sodium and starch, the lesson that […]
In any managerial space, there’s going to be talk about change. Sometimes this is recognizing the fear of it that many people hold, but more often, the common wisdom is that organizations need to evolve or die. Organizations set up entire departments for the purpose of facilitating change - as well as buying books, putting […]
