Designing Love (and Purpose) Into the Organization

As leaders, the systems we create to help us manage our own routine and workload are critical - especially if we’re going to have a real shot at keeping even the clearest purpose top of mind. But we DO NOT have the luxury of stopping there! Building similar routines into our entire...

Continue Reading...
It’s a LOVE Thing, but What’s Love Got to Do With It?

If we’re going to keep a clear purpose that truly drives us to lead effectively at the top of our minds on a daily basis, understanding how we’re wired certainly matters, but our best long term results will be from pursuing something we love! As I said before though, the idea of...

Continue Reading...
Simple Steps for Providing a Clear Purpose

If we’re going to earn the kind of buy-in that yields the 57 percent increase in discretionary effort and 20 percent improvement in individual performance detailed in the Harvard Business Review article I referenced multiple times throughout What’s Killing Your Profitability?,...

Continue Reading...
Why Our Organization Needs a Clear Purpose…

Just for the sake of setting a foundation, let’s assume we - as the leader of our team - have an incredibly clear purpose that gets us out of bed each morning, ready to charge hell with a water pistol! Let’s also assume that having that kind of clarity personally allows us to be able...

Continue Reading...
Recognizing the Right Candidates to Promote

Since we now have a solid understanding of how a poor promotion can kill profitability, let’s dig into what we need to look for when considering existing team members for a leadership role we need to fill in our organizations. I’ve seen firsthand just how valuable an internal...

Continue Reading...
The Costs of Unaccountability - How Much and Where?

Let’s consider what Shannon Howard shared right off the bat in Holding People Accountable: Where Most Leaders Fail once more:

When accountability is lacking, performance, company culture, and morale suffer. When employees are not held accountable for missed deadlines, bad behavior, or poor...

Continue Reading...
Discretionary Effort & Individual Performance

But Wes, you’re not hearing me… It’s just not in the budget and that’s just the way it goes with turnover, we’ve got to keep our focus on doing the work that pays the bills! I know that feeling all too well… Heck, that was the reality I lived with every day...

Continue Reading...
LA via Omaha...

If you were a fan of the late Charlie Daniels, the subject line of this message may ring a bell. While I often reference my taste for guitar solo-laden tunes by 80’s hair bands, I always enjoyed CDB (the Charlie Daniels Band), not to be confused with all the hype today around CBD - although...

Continue Reading...
It Takes FOUR Laps to Make a Mile...

Now that we’re more than one week into the new year, are you still on track and moving toward any goals you had set to make 2021 your best year yet? As Cindy and I pulled into the gym parking lot early this morning, there were still several extra cars - but not as many extras as last...

Continue Reading...
Control the Effort We Put In!

As we consider each area that we can take responsibility for controlling that we’ve worked through to this point, there’s one thing that ties back to every single one… And without being very intentional about how we control this final thing, the control we’ve assumed for...

Continue Reading...