In 2019, I (Cindy) hurt my back, which put me out of commission for around 2 weeks and months of pain afterward. Along with strengthening exercises, the best thing I could do involved (and still does) daily stretching. I’m not talking about those ‘just woke up from a nap’ stretch either.  The stretc...

OK leaders, I’m counting on you to have done the work to address the last profitability killer we looked at, The Cost of Confusion, by taking the steps to set clear expectations for your teams. Even with the most detailed explanation though, we’re not likely to see our team members meet or exceed th...

It’s our privilege and our responsibility as leaders to help our people become better. Holding a high standard to the core values of the organization is a great start.

The first step in turning team values into team performance is holding ourselves and our people accountable to our actions and atti...

Here’s what I can promise you; we can indeed eliminate the cost of confusion and avoid leaving a ton of profit on the table if we’re willing to provide the kind of clear expectations that produce results! I’m certainly not suggesting that this is easy but by following a few simple steps, we can remo...

As we looked at all the profitability that’s killed through poor communication, I suggested that breaking the golden rule just may be an approach that makes a positive impact. If you’re tracking with me on exactly how that would help, I’d suggest you circle back to that.. Assuming that’s relatively ...

If we really want to have a shot at capturing the profitability that’s killed by confusion in our organizations by providing our teams with the kind of clear expectations they desperately need to produce great results, it will require a very focused effort! We absolutely must become experts in provi...

I know very few people who jump out of bed each morning full of vim and vigor in pursuit of mediocrity. In fact, most everyone I’ve ever know to accept average as the highest level of success and achievement they believe possible has seemed to loathe getting out of bed and to dread each step they ta...

Let’s face it, if we expect the members of our teams to take more responsibility than we do, we ain’t leading them! And if we want our teams to achieve the kind of results that’s only possible by always meeting (and frequently exceeding) what’s expected of them, we absolutely have to make sure that ...

The cost of confusion hits our bottom line(s) in so many ways; increased downtime clarifying details, quality errors (regardless of our industry or process), delayed deliveries, and even lost customers. All of those things kill profitability! When we think about the statement I shared previously fro...

When we focus on turning team values into team performance, it helps us face reality. We want to believe the best of our people and we should want that.  But as leaders, we must define the reality of our team's performance, which takes us to behaviors.  This is all about action and inaction...knowin...

If we wanna stop leaving all that profit on the table, we’ve got to take action. The hard part though, as I just shared, often boils down to what we can or cannot dedicate our resources to - or at least that’s what I hear from folks in leadership roles quite frequently. If we only had money in our b...

Missing expectations can be a significant profitability killer! Don’t take my word for it though, ask anyone who’s ever worked for a publicly traded organization… On May 25, 2023, an interview on Yahoo Finance detailed a 14% drop in the value of Dollar Tree stock after the company missed its profit ...