While Terry Francona was the manager of the Boston Red Sox during the late season collapse in 2011, and he contract option wasn’t renewed afterward, I’m not placing the blame exclusively on him. Quite frankly, I thought John Lackey was a goon long before that. And while Francona held the “manager” t...

Building a successful culture that perpetuates based on our foundational core values will indeed be one that produces wins for everyone involved, but winning won’t be the sole motivation for the great people we attract to our team through this process. High standards, consistently exceeding expectat...

In The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, John Maxwell emphasizes that “growth compounds and accelerates IF we remain intentional about it.” Compounding interest, in growth or in our finances, can work for or against it. If you’re not completely certain this is true, have your banker run some numbers sho...

Leadership isn’t just about making decisions or hitting targets—it’s about showing up with the confidence to inspire, influence, and navigate challenges. The truth is, not every leader feels confident all the time. That’s okay. What matters is recognizing where you can grow, taking action to build y...

While under what was likely the most intense pressure I had ever experienced to fill open positions, I remember a conversation with one of the managers I was supporting where he told me that he needed seven people with a very specific skill set by the following week. It just so happened that I had a...

In The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell explains The Law of the Mirror by simply saying “We attract who we are, not who we want.” I had never seen a more obvious example than the organization I just referenced; initially as I became familiar with the company and even more so as the su...

Make no mistake, turnover is always going to happen. Part of our responsibility as leaders is to plan for that. And in planning for each type of turnover we’re sure to experience at one point or another - be that a retirement, a termination due to unacceptable performance, or someone leaving for a c...

Earlier when we looked at how we can rally our team around our core values, I briefly mentioned a long-standing organization that once had world class talent leading each separate department but had experienced some significant turnover in critical roles. While some of this was due to planned retire...

Now that we have an outline in place for basing our organization’s foundation on core values - the simple practices we’ll need to provide for acting on those values, the consistent example we’ll need to be in living them out, and the sustainable expectation for how our values are part of everything ...

In the final lesson of our Emerging Leader Development course, Cindy opens by challenging participants to consider the real driver behind why they’ve accepted leadership responsibility. She goes on to compare things like power, position, money, and prestige with influence, growth, opportunities, and...

To sustain the effort required by our high expectations, accountability must be built into our culture - at all levels. But detailing what our team members need to do and how that needs to happen is only part of that process. Even the most ingrained habits supporting the simplest behaviors can still...

Setting high expectations for modeling our core company values is a must. That said, getting our teams to perform at that level on a routine basis will only happen if we’re willing to establish a culture of accountability. Make no mistake, I’m not suggesting this is based solely on enforcing discipl...