In the fifth lesson of our Emerging Leader Development course, I share a story detailing how a friend once introduced me and Cindy to some of his business partners. With a somewhat puzzled look on his face after a few seconds of trying to come up with a reasonable description, he simply said...
I’d just about bet that unless you were involved in some aspect of the building process or can actually see your home’s foundation, you don’t know if it consists of 8” cinder blocks, 12” cinder blocks, poured concrete walls, or built directly on a concrete slab. And...
My first full time gig in construction started about a month after I turned fifteen. Earlier that spring, my dad asked if I planned to get a car when I was old enough to drive. “Of course I do!” was my immediate response, and he went on to let me know that I’d probably want to...
We started this look at how values serve as the foundation for every organization and how things can go wrong when that foundation isn’t in place. From there, we worked through the importance of clearly defining our organizational values, and how doing so can truly rally our team members,...
To build a reputation that drives results, one that each person who ever hears about us will connect with our core values, being intentional in our approach to providing world-class service and being sure to detail why we’re willing to do it is part of our responsibility as leaders. But...
Make no mistake, there’s a huge difference between touting how amazing we are and in explaining how or why our actions tie back to our values. We’ve all been around folks who have a title that carries some level of authority, and seen them pound their chest about how important they...
Even when we’ve done everything in our power to model the core values our business is built on, we can’t just assume that everyone who cares about those values will automatically connect our behaviors to the reputation we’re working to establish (or maintain). It’s up to...
During a conversation Cindy and I had with Carly Fiorina several years ago, she emphasized the importance of taking a “clear-eyed look at our existing state” if we wanted to have any hope of achieving our desired future state - personally, professionally, and with the entire team...
Prior to me starting at that manufacturing facility in early 1996, and for the first fifteen years I worked there, one of the largest and most reliable sources for identifying new candidates was a referral from a senior employee. As you can likely imagine, the referrals from the best employees...
So who ultimately cares about the core values we model personally or in our organizations? Everyone does! The reputation of our company is indeed built on the values we exemplify day in and day out. For far too many individuals and businesses, the answer to that third question Jeff Henderson...
An article called “Workplace culture and its impact on corporate reputation” from a UK-based group Igniyte, an organization dedicated to managing corporate reputations, opened with this:
A company’s reputation is all about how other people view the brand. Their perception...
I opened Leading With A Clear Purpose with a story detailing the conversation I had with a lifelong friend who shared how one of his businesses no longer provided him with fulfillment while his other, albeit much more physically demanding, kept his heart full all the time. The business that was...