After a bicycle ride, I turn my jersey inside-out to launder it – in order to minimize wear on the fabric. I have ridden my bicycle about 3,000 miles a year over the last few decades, so you can imagine how many cycles (on the road and in the laundry) it's had to endure! I have found that, in the case with running an organization as well as with washing my cycling clothes, Continue →
Magically* Transform Your Customer Service
How to Teach Employees the Nside/Outside Principle (With Props!)
In order to introduce the Nside/Outside (internal customer) principle to our employees, one member of my leadership team and I had to get crafty! Continue →
3 Questions Great Leaders Ask to Prevent Dysfunction
Recently my wife and I went to watch our four- and six- year-old grandsons play indoor soccer. Continue →
Who is Your Internal Customer – and Why You Should Care
About 20 years ago, I experienced the largest failure that I have ever encountered. I had invested about 4 million dollars to develop a new service – and I eventually had to shutter the whole operation. – Ouch! Continue →
3 Steps to Extraordinary Customer Service
On Saturdays, my wife and I enjoy doing our early morning long bicycle ride or long walk, cleaning up, and then going to our favorite grocery store. Before we begin shopping, we usually enjoy a delicious, cooked-to-order omelet in the store’s deli. We like this grocery store because of how well everything speaks to us as guests (that’s what they call their customers). The shopping carts, Continue →
6 Reasons Why Your Customers Are Leaving
My good friend and I regularly have lunch at a nearby deli. We enjoy the food (and ice cream), and as you can imagine, during our long discussions, we always have an answer to solve all of the world's problems! Continue →
What’s More Important – Managing or Leading?
I have written several blog posts about the differences between leading people and managing things. This post is a summary of the series where we highlight our conclusion that BOTH leadership AND management are necessary to produce healthy and thriving organizations. Continue →
Do You Focus on Efficiency or Effectiveness?
Boy, did I “open a can of worms”! At a recent family dinner, I posed a question for some fun discussion. I challenged everyone to come up with word pairs that are almost always said together, and they have the word “and” between the two words. Continue →
Participative Management Yields Powerful Results
Have you ever noticed when you read or hear something, you may learn some interesting information or knowledge, but when you experience something, you gain understanding? How much better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver. Proverbs 16:16 ESV Continue →