Are you a “lister”? A lister is a person who answers questions with long lists of data or facts.  Here’s a simple example. Suppose I ask, “How is your department doing?” Here is how a lister might respond: ·      Sales are down 10% ·      Our defect rate has increased to 3.2 per 1,000 parts ·      Employee engagement has risen… (read more)

Last night we had the first big snowfall of the year here in Naperville, IL. I always like to use this as an opportunity to provide some reminders about leadership.  Here is a repost with some previous thoughts on snow shoveling and leadership. ——————– We had our first big snow today. As my dogs and I… (read more)

What a crazy year!  Even the PNC Twelve Days of Christmas Index didn’t escape the pandemic. This year, the cost of buying the gifts in the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is down 38% to $105, 562[1].   However, there is an important COVID-related caveat.  Due to the near shutdown of the live entertainment industry, this year’s index did… (read more)

People’s attention spans have been steadily decreasing over time. I’m sure that doesn’t surprise you. Much has been written on this subject.  The response to this issue has been interesting. Instead of showing concern or alarm, we’ve accepted it. In fact, we’ve embraced it. Conventional wisdom suggests that we need to cater to this lack… (read more)

How much of your time is really spent on value-added work?  If you are familiar with the Pareto Principle the best guess is about 20%.  Commonly referred to as the 80/20 rule, the Pareto Principle states that 80% of outputs in a system are generated by 20% of inputs. Look at your own business and… (read more)

Four quick tips for opening your mind…this was part of farewell email that I sent to a group of young professionals that I was mentoring. My final bit of advice to them was to have the discipline to keep an open mind. ————- When someone does or says something that you disagree with (even if… (read more)

It’s been twenty years since I hastily scribbled the Value through information model on a piece of paper. At the time, I created the model simply as a coaching tool for my team.  Their presentations were heavy on information and light on analysis and interpretation. Little did I know that the model would increase so much in its… (read more)

“Engagement has consistently fallen for three years.” This statement was one of three pieces of evidence that I provided to support my recommendation that we needed a new employee engagement strategy.  I thought it was a pretty straightforward. I continued my presentation to talk about our new ideas for engagement. But, the senior executive stopped me…. (read more)

This is a repost from Sept-2016. A recent conversation with a friend made me think it might be time for a reminder. ————————————- Several years ago, when I started my consulting practice, I needed to purchase life insurance. I contacted three insurance agents and told them my need (the type of policy and coverage amount). Two… (read more)

Does your team understand their goals for the year? I bet they do. Most good leaders know how to set and communicate goals. What about expectations? How well does your team understand your expectations? What’s the difference? Goals reflect what you want accomplished. Expectations reflect how you want it accomplished. For example, your goals might… (read more)