A Pivotal Decision

The weeks and months that followed that heated 5S implementation session encounter involved less direct confrontation but they were far from smooth and rarely achieved the results or impact the corporate office expected. To that end, few were achieving the results even I expected - and I didn’t know...

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When Habits Become Barriers

Less than two months after the let down of not being offered the behavior-based safety facilitator position, I noticed a new opportunity posted on the internal job board. This was for a “5S Trainer” position, one of four throughout the facility, that would have responsibility for implementing a foun...

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Mining Your Foundation for Seeds

I can barely wait to push forward in sharing more about how impactful serving as bouncer for my friend’s sister was as well as how my working relationship developed with the maintenance supervisor who walked by my machine a few times each day. We’re not quite ready for that yet, though. First, we ne...

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Discipline Outweighs Talent Every Time

Even at fifteen years old and riding a bicycle to the job sites each day, showing up on time consistently and giving it everything I was capable of - even when I wasn’t capable of all that much - helped me earn moderate respect from the men I was trying to keep up with. Carrying that same work ethic...

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Earning Respect without a Title

Working from 3:30p to 1:40a, at least Monday through Thursday with frequent Fridays and Saturdays scheduled for mandatory overtime, for most of my first two years in manufacturing was clearly part of God’s plan; I certainly wasn’t doing much planning of my own and that point. Any planning I had a ha...

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Small Wins Through Consistency

Knowing that I had so much untapped potential academically stung a bit, even if that was only subconsciously at the time. If I was doing anything back then to intentionally grow just the slightest seed, it was through my role in the workforce. I produced solid results and had some great opportunitie...

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It’s Your Turn - Let’s Get Started

To this point, I’ve shared intentionally basic high-level scenarios and I’ve purposefully shied away from anything remotely adverse. Not only am I sure you’ve experienced similar situations, I’d bet you’ve been through far worse - and I’ll bet you’ve found yourself back in that headspace as I allude...

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The Real Harvest from Bad Situations

Before I go on, I need to be very transparent with you. As I began noodling around the idea of listing and sharing leadership lessons I’ve learned through my adversities, I was more than a little conflicted; I’m nothing special and I’ve certainly seen people face far more difficult circumstances tha...

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How One Bad Situation Sets Up the Next

I’ve often heard the phrase, “God won’t give you more than you can handle” in reference to adversities we face. From what I can tell, that’s often tied - at least loosely - to 1 Corinthians 10:13. In fact, there’s apparently even a Christian song based on that. All said, I can’t say that I interpret...

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