For 10 years straight, I organized a canoe trip for a group of guys. We had fun times paddling down the Guadalupe River in the Hill Country of Central Texas. The Guadalupe is the most popular canoeing river in the state. It offers some of the most advanced canoeing in the United States. Continue →
Management
The Business 2-Step: Lead First and Manage Second
My long-time friend and mentor, Jim Lundy, and I would often talk about that managing a business was more like triangulation rather than a straight line. Continue →
How to Discover Your Organization’s Purpose
Going once… Going twice… Sold! It almost seemed like an auctioneer had just sold off a big part of my life and work. Continue →
Goals & Controls – A Summary
Business is like marketing warfare. And someone needs to step-up and propose a strategy. Continue →
7 Communication Opportunities For Every Leader
Concerning real estate, you have heard the phrase, “It’s all about Location, Location, Location.” Then may I say that in business, “It’s all about Communication, Communication, Communication!” Continue →
Leaders Must Distinguish Symptoms vs. the Root Cause
Years ago, my moving and storage company set up a highly successful continuous quality improvement program (QIP). It turns out that our ability to distinguish between the symptoms and the actual root cause of a problem was key to having an effective QIP. Continue →
How Anyone Can Identify Cause and Effect
Today you hear a lot about companies using “big data” to run their business more effectively and efficiently. After attending the school of hard knocks for a number of years, I discovered that having the right data is only half of the equation! Continue →
3 Simple Principles To Help You DO Quality- Not Just TALK It
A couple of months after our first Operation QIC® (pronounced “quick” for Quality Is Contagious) company-wide workshop, I had an interesting conversation. I was on the same flight, from Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW) to Chicago, as a friend, who was a plant manager of about 1,000 employees in the aerospace industry. Continue →
8 Simple Questions That Will Dramatically Grow Your Business!
In 1999, a friend told me about a seminar that he had attended. Each seminar participant received a cap with the word ON on the front of the cap and the word IN on the back of the cap. Continue →
If You’re Tired of Fighting Alligators, Drain the Swamp! (How to Work ON the Business, Not Just IN the Business)
My father’s unexpected death in 1973 occurred when I was 20-years-old and a recent university graduate. Consequently, I unexpectedly inherited the leadership position of the small family business of five employees along with a shocking revelation! Continue →