For a season of my career, I set up meeting rooms at a large hospital. Every room had to be ready, down to the last chair, before the first person walked through the door.
I worked days, and now and then I picked up a second shift. Same building. Same rooms. Same tables and chairs. Same work. Diffe...
A friend called me late one Friday evening more than a decade ago. At that point in my career, I would have let any other name go to voicemail. I was working 50 to 60 hours per week in my full time role as a safety and human resource manager and every bit as much in the business Cindy and I had star...
The first thing you noticed walking into the cabinet plant was the air. You felt it on your skin the moment you came through the door, warm and heavy. That was by design. Wood never stops reacting to the air around it. Let the humidity drop and a board that was straight yesterday starts to buckle, s...
Building purpose into any career path we help a team member pursue can provide a tremendous amount of fulfillment - for them and for us! Over time, the work we do to delegate tasks that provide them with exposure and build their overall skill set will also help us use our own time more effectively a...
Suggesting that I interview for a different position at least once each year was just one of things Kevin did to actively help me grow and move closer to achieving a purpose that mattered to me during the time he and I worked together on decreasing the safety hazards throughout the entire manufactur...
When we recognize and understand the purpose that drives each of our team members, and we’ve been able to determine how they’re most interested in working to achieve, the work we can do as leaders to help them in that process can become as rewarding as nearly anything else we do! I don’t know that I...
If empowering our team members requires a significant change in our approach, as compared to what they’re used to seeing from us, we’ll likely receive some curious looks and even some resistance - at least at first. We recently heard an example detailing exactly that as we kicked off the second sess...
I’ll say it once more, just in case you’ve drifted off… Leading a team effectively is hard! And so is being a great team member, staying engaged and working toward the organization’s goals and purpose. Just like having a clear purpose helps fuel those of us who have accepted responsibility for leadi...
In August 2015, I sat in a room with John Maxwell for what was the closest I had been to him in the decade and a half that I had been studying his work. If I’m being honest, I was completely overwhelmed. This session was just prior to the event where I would complete my initial certification to use ...
Early on in this look at Leading With a Clear Purpose, I shared examples of close friends who have dedicated (and risked) their lives through careers serving others; military, fire, and law enforcement. In detailing those, I even provided some average starting wages for police officers and firefight...
Over the years, I’ve referenced the preamble to the Declaration of Independence numerous times in articles on our website as well as lessons in our Leading At The Next Level program. Just in case it’s not fresh in your mind, I’ll share it once more here - directly from the National Archives website:...
When we’ve been intentional about really listening to what our team members share with us, there’s generally no shortage of information to process. The key is often in sifting through it all to find the pieces that matter most; to them as individuals as well as for us to understand what makes them t...
