I was meeting a friend the other day, and we ended up having a great conversation about the question, “Is it worth it?” He had been working longer hours than normal after committing to too many projects and speaking engagements – all of which he found enjoyable and meaningful. After one too many late nights, his wife asked him, “Is … Read More

In my previous blog, I noted that during our recent staff development day, we reviewed our current values and ended up adding a new one. It’s important to highlight that everyone – ranging from myself as the CEO to a new employee of two months – was involved in discussing and agreeing to our values. Organizational values should be something … Read More

We recently had an off-site staff development day with our leadership team and employees. I’ve always struggled with the idea of moving away from the office for these sorts of events. For one, why do we need to go off-site to do what we could do in the office? I mean, we have space to meet there, which also would … Read More

I am always thinking about work – at random hours of the night, at weddings (terrible, I know), and as I’m “listening” to my wife. Name a place or occasion when I’m not supposed to be thinking about work, and I am. It’s my nature; my wheels are always turning. Why am I always thinking about work? Because I am … Read More

It’s Friday night. For many, the work week is done. You decide to go to a restaurant for a nice evening meal, and you notice one of your employees is there with a group of friends. She doesn’t notice you, and because she’s deep into conversation, you decide not to interrupt to say hello. The hostess happens to sit you … Read More

One of my hobbies is gardening. Every spring I plant a vegetable garden, and for a while I attend to it daily. I water the plants regularly; I keep the weeds away by carefully tilling the soil and mulching. About a month into the growing season, my garden looks like an image from Better Homes and Gardens magazine. And then … Read More

I often get asked, “How does one go about changing culture?” To change culture, you must first truly understand your current culture. Only when you have a clear picture of who you are now can you decide who you’d like to be in the future. Take some time to observe your culture as if you were an outsider. Look at … Read More

One of the keys to developing peak performing teams is to ensure that people on the team think and operate differently. By think, I mean how we process information. For example, in my leadership role at ACHIEVE and CTRI, I am a very intuitive thinker, whereas one of our other leaders is a more logical thinker. Because of our different … Read More

Organizational leadership should consciously and consistently be focused on developing employees. When organizations are only as strong as their leaders, they risk struggling, or worse: becoming irrelevant when those leaders are no longer with the organization. In many ways, exceptional leaders should always be working to make themselves dispensable by developing teams that perform at their peak. These types of … Read More

When the majority of people in a workplace show up to work engaged and excited about what they need to do, sustaining and maintaining high levels of motivation in the workplace becomes a “self-fulfilling prophecy”. In organizations with high levels of motivation, there is an infectious energizing spirit that overtakes everyone. People feed off each other in a positive way … Read More