A great deal has been written about time management. Hundreds if not thousands of systems and apps exist promising to be the best time management tool available. Most of them are more than adequate. Use whatever works for you they are easy to find with a quick trip to Google. However, I don’t believe the…
The Starbucks experience changed for me yesterday, and I’m looking for a substitute. Yesterday morning, as we often do, we had a great walk on a beautiful day in the nature center. After our walk, a visit to our favorite Starbucks store. There was no line at the cashier’s station. Only three attendants were behind…
There are very important things you want to do, need to do, but the time never seems right. Things so important they belong on a different day, month, year, planet. A quiet, harmonious planet, one with no distractions, where we can think clearly. But nobody can get there, and lives, businesses, and dreams need pursuing. Maybe…
We all carry cards, have titles, responsibilities, comp systems and offices that define our formal roles at work. Also, each member in every work group has an informal role, both self-selected and assigned by the group. This selection process doesn’t happen according to any traditional method but develops over time, through the process of discovering…
Each Father’s Day weekend I take the opportunity to speak to all my sons about life. We will do it again this weekend. Several years ago, I wrote the passages below, and they are even more appropriate today. Give your kids a big hug and some sage advice this weekend. To my sons on Father’s…
I agree. I think that sounds right. Sure, we should do that. My sentiment exactly! Except, it’s not so easy to join the action — you know, the things people will ask of you when they see that you agree. It’s far easier to agree than to take a different position — because that would…
So the time was early January, and I had just worked with Bill Strong and his team at Strongfab to finalize their overarching strategy for the year. Their Q1 operating objectives were in place under all the segments of the plan. Starting in January, their primary growth strategy was to enter the automotive market by…
In the rural Midwest where I was born and, I am told, in the rural south as well, the federal holiday now known as Memorial Day was called Decoration Day. Only in recent decades have people there begun to say Memorial Day. I remember well the annual practice of going to cemeteries with my family…
I heard it from three of the five members of the management team during individual coaching sessions. Not all at once but over a few months. I addressed it with Mike very carefully and, not to my surprise he was aware of the feeling. Together we explored the mission critical initiatives he had managed over…
Jack was running his business in the cavernous footsteps of his larger-than-life father. The father loved to make big deals and was very successful for most of his life. Jack’s father was prominent in the community, a philanthropist, sought after by the boards of local charities, and honored as a major contributor. Not surprisingly, Jack…
“The decorative aluminum grill market moved to pre-finished materials and it took us three months to get our designs straightened out and a new set of standard inventory items set for distribution. We have finally made the initial run and sent the stock to the field six months after our competitors. Now they want custom…
During discussions of change I often ask coaching clients how they think Artificial Intelligence may become standard in their business. The answers make it clear that for those of us embroiled in managing business every day not much thought goes into AI yet. It will not be long, perhaps 5 years until several forms of…
Joe needed to increase gross margin. He had stated it simply. “Look, guys. We need to increase gross margin right now. It’s been declining so we need to get it back to where it was last year.” That was four months ago. The whole team had sprung into action. Estimating overestimated. Operations refocused on high-margin…
Bill Strong, CEO of Strongfab Corp., left the house he and Joy had purchased in Elmhurst the year he took over the company from his father ten years ago. Now, both kids were in college, Christine at Coe out in Iowa and Bill Jr. at the University of Illinois in engineering. Bill was now focused…
Patricia Deck, my wife and inspiration, is an artist. She has studied for decades to increase her painting skills. Color, texture, composition and brush stroke are languages and she is fluent in all. Patty can produce wonderful works in oil, acrylic, pastel or water color. However, those marvelous skills cannot alone or even in tandem produce art. When art emerges,…
Because it is sometimes hard for CEOs to navigate alone, I began offering Leadership Team Coaching about a year ago. It has proven to be a very valuable tool for my clients. If you as CEO are feeling that something is missing in your management team performance or cooperation it may be just the thing…
Each year Vistage Florida offers an event we call The CEO Summit. This event is really an opportunity for area CEOs to gather and hear a knowledgeable speaker concerning a business message of universal interest to those of us who run businesses. This year the meeting is March 31st so there is still plenty of…
We are deep into a political campaign to top them all. The very nature of this particular debate process is divisive. Harsh words fall like rain from virtually all of the candidates. We cannot look up without encountering vitriol from all directions. I’ve been a life-long persuader, but for the past couple of years my…
To depart from the usual business stories and athletic metaphors, come with me for a short journey into the performing arts, where teamwork is every bit as important in aesthetic pursuits as it is in more familiar areas. This past weekend, along with over 50 other singers, a dozen members of the orchestra and another…
Near Lunenburg, Nova Scotia on Prince’s Inlet, rests a dilapidated excursion boat. I understand it was used in the 1940s and 50s as a whale watching craft. We are here again this year on a painting vacation staying in the home of a friend. The house overlooks the water of Prince’s Inlet. This small bay…
This week at the annual Chair conference in Orlando I received the Red Scott Award. I was astonished. Didn’t see this coming and in fact never expected to win the award. First, the Red Scott award began only two years ago. It is given to the Florida Vistage Chair that best represents the spirit of…
This works! No travel, no meeting room rental, no meeting refreshments to blow your diet. Everything else is there. The GoToMeeting platform allows all the video and audio, file sharing, recording and flexibility necessary. These peer groups escape the bounds of geography. Participants need only a broadband connection and a webcam. Online meetings make discussions…
In a coaching session with one of my CEO clients yesterday, a wonderful thing happened. Something bubbled up that can make life easier. We reviewed a new high-potential opportunity he’s pursuing. As we inventoried the factors involved, it became clear that his company is the logical supplier of the services required. Moreover, since he already…
At this time of year I encourage all those I work with to be thoughtful about what they want to put energy into in the coming months. Those conversations nearly always end with statement of several business or personal goals since I often serve as their coach or business advisor. This is great because it…
For the past two weeks I have posed the same question to several members of my Vistage groups here in south Florida with fascinating results. That question is, what if the economic situation has masked a paradigm shift in your industry? Most of us only really know that revenue has fallen, often sharply compared to…
When you are the Leader Expect to Win Lead with Passion, Pride and Clarity Set Challenging Goals and Bring Them to Life for Your Team Be on the Front Line When the Going is Tough Hold Yourself and Your Team Accountable Celebrate Success When you are a Team Member Expect to Win Bring Passion to…
When it is not the same as it used to be, not as strong, not as promising, not as rewarding, not as fulfilling, not as grand as we had hoped, dreamed, believed, expected. We, having free will, may let hope subside, regress, disappear all together. Or We, having free will, may restore hope, restructure, re-envision,…
Transformation is among the things that do not happen without intent. Only change measured in large metrics is transformation. Transformation exacts a toll in human effort, which is given freely and willingly. Transformation favors many rather than few. It begins with a germ of truth spoken quietly. In the early stages it is very vulnerable…
At the Vistage International Chair and Member Conference I attended last week, nearly 1000 people with similar ideas lived together in a bubble for four days. Since the Gaylord Texan Resort is covered by a gigantic glass structure filled with fanciful canyons, waterfalls and dessert landscapes the illusion was complete. Most of us never went…
Sunday morning. Ukrainian Village, Chicago. A neighborhood built as a residential center for and by immigrants in the first decade of the twentieth century. Thomas Street. Years ago, I bought a brick two flat in the height of the fix-n-flip boom. Easy profit from cosmetic repair. Quick sale to follow. My son John was project manager while…
To my kids and grandkids: Guys and Gals, Both of us have new iPhone 4s devices. Patty’s white and mine black. That’s pretty much all we know about them from a technical standpoint! If we miss a call it should come as no surprise. In fact we may be looking for the phone which certainly…
Once each year Father’s day leaves a philosophical door ajar just long enough and wide enough to push a bit of fatherly advice through. I am taking that opportunity. Here’s what I wrote this morning with the three of you in mind. It applies to everyone in my opinion, but many cannot see. I am…
Herb Meyer served as Special Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence and Vice Chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Council during the Reagan administration. He came to Florida recently to speak to the Vistage CEO Summit and presented, “What in the World is Going On? – A Global Intelligence Briefing for CEOs” I attended…
Each July I take a break from my regular duties as an executive coach and leader of Vistage CEO groups in south Florida. We go looking for life balance in activities outside our routine. In July of 2009 my wife Patty and I traveled throughout the Middle West and stopped to see friends in Henry…
Business Performance Assessment If you are in a business for profit here is your challenge: Marshall the resources to create a solution for market needs. Market your solution/product and sell it at a price that delivers reasonable profit. Do it every day! External factors make this challenge doubly difficult. The deepest recession in eighty years,…
I have heard the “we can’t because” answer way too often. Everyone is already working overtime. The data is not perfect. We are not sure that’s the right way to go. There is no budget for that. We tried that before and it did not work. Everyone is on vacation in the summer. We can’t…
My Grandpa was a metal monger. In his day his muscles bulged as he shod horses or fixed wagon wheels or forged plow shears. His Oshkosh overalls were covered with the residue of his trade though they never seemed dirty. Forge coals reflected in his steel grey eyes through round metal rimmed glasses pitted and…
