It seems managers hate hiring more than they hate hiring mistakes. Hiring is a deadly combination of mission-critical and poorly executed. People avoid it like crazy. It’s uncomfortable, time-consuming, and they just want to get it over with. Many businesses create all of their problems through regular hiring mistakes. I’m going to let you in…
Amazon bought my customer loyalty again. I recently bought a compost tumbler from them. It was a bit smaller than I’d thought. I might need a second. Putting it together sucked: sixty-two screws and two hours. I had to undo and redo forty minutes of work because the instructions were so bad. I was almost…
One of the most common complaints I hear from business leaders is a lack of employee responsibility. Employee engagement is a huge issue in many businesses, and it’s often invisible. Employee engagement studies estimate it costs the U.S. economy $370 billion a year. I’ve noticed in the last ten years, airlines stopped apologizing for flight…
“Is this going to be on the test?” a student inevitably asks. The question used to make my blood boil, and I didn’t understand why until years later. It is in many ways the birth of employee disengagement and mediocrity, which plague workplaces, and the world, today. It’s not the student’s fault–they’re having an intuitive…
Critical Thinking Creates Results “I can’t trust my people to make big decisions.” “My employees aren’t engaged.” “No one cares as much as I do.” Coaches and consultants hear these frustrations often. These are symptoms of a complex problem that has a simple solution. Here’s a true story. Evan, an executive in professional services was…
This article is about dealing with excuses. Don’t have time to read it? Yeah, that’s probably an excuse. C’mon, you’ve got five minutes, especially because: If you spend time dealing with excuses, this article will save you hundreds of hours a year. Also, in this article is a free tool with six simple principles that,…
Imagine you’re a personal trainer: you help people get in shape. A new client calls you and tells you their problems: they’re tired a lot, their clothes don’t fit, and they don’t feel comfortable going to the beach because of how they look. You tell them you can help, and schedule the first session. The…
2016 was a huge year for my client, Brian, and I want to honor his transformation. Brian and his wife, Kim, own a landscaping and snow removal company. They came to me in July of 2014 with a list of serious problems in their family business. They were both working about eighty hours a week.…
Have you ever given brilliant advice to someone who couldn’t receive it? Of course you have. I want to tell you about one of my biggest mistakes. I’ll also share with you one of the secrets of getting good help. We all need help, but don’t often realize we can make ourselves more helpable. As…
I know. You’re tired of hearing about New Year’s Resolutions. But I promise you something new here. We’re going to turn the whole thing on its head, and that’s always fun. What if everything you’ve been taught about goal setting left out the key ingredient? And that’s why your eyes glaze over when you hear…