I sure can relate with James Madison on a few things, although his academic success and ability to achieve collaboration with even his fiercest opponents aren’t among them… I feel like I can get a good bit accomplished on any given day, but like Madison, the work I do is always much...

“Although Jefferson left the cabinet voluntarily, Washington never forgave him for his actions, and never spoke to him again.” 

The wikipedia article on Jefferson, while detailing his time as Washington’s Secretary of State, shared how staunchly opposed he was to Alexander...

Before we pick up by looking at a couple of Benjamin Franklin’s peers, and specifically their leadership characteristics that you and I still benefit from today, I’ll share one last invitation to join us on Friday, December 8 (likely around 3p or so on Zoom) to get the specifics on...

With all the characteristics that worked in Benjamin Franklin’s favor to earn influence ( and the leadership that comes with that earned influence), he certainly wasn’t perfect; no one is - not even you or me! In his presentation at Grand Valley State University, Whitney mentioned...

As I mentioned before, Benjamin Franklin’s voice as a Founding Father didn’t carry such significant weight because of any particular position he held, although he did make a significant impact in several different roles. His influence was largely something he earned throughout the...

While many think of him with quotes like “a penny saved is a penny earned” or “early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise,” I’m quite fond of the response he gave Elizabeth Willing Powel when she asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a...

Having worked through what felt like a fairly comprehensive list of ways ineffective leadership and poor communication kill profitability in far too many businesses over the last several months, let’s change gears a bit and revisit an idea I introduced in this series in early 2020 - one I...

I’ll share this thought with you one last time:

“Organizations of all sizes invest significant amounts of time, money, and energy on improving their processes with hopes of becoming more profitable. Sometimes this is based on a goal of becoming best-in-class but sometimes it is just...

Early on in this process we looked at two separate profitability killers that nearly always feed off of each other and contribute to just about every metric a company tracks; the cost of high turnover and the cost of constant recruiting. In far too many cases, the responsibility for each of these...

Whether there’s an exemplary top-down approach throughout the organization we’re a part of or not, each of us will be able to achieve better results within our own areas of leadership responsibility when we earn genuine buy-in from the team reporting to us! This particular thing, as...

If the owners or executives in any organization want to have the best shot possible at improving profitability by building better leaders, they will need to be just as engaged in developing their own leadership and communication skills as they are in providing any kind of resource to the key...

I believe the most vivid memory I have of someone in a leadership role answering cries for help was that of President George W. Bush at Ground Zero just days after 9/11. As he was addressing the crowd, someone yelled that they couldn't hear him and he responded, “I can hear you. I can hear...