One of the joys of travel for me is meeting new and different people. On our recent European trip, the first half was with a tour group from Collette Tours. Colleen and I had never experienced traveling with a tour group, and now we’re hooked! We highly recommend Collette Tours and are looking to do…
Category: Soft Skills
Time Out!
It’s hard to believe people are talking about winter already. After all, we just celebrated Independence Day and winter is still 162 days away. Yet that’s exactly what happened as I heard an inspirational thought during the International Dale Carnegie Franchise Association meeting in Vienna this summer. Weather-wise, winter can be challenging for many of…
Time Out!
What a great European vacation! Colleen and I spent over two weeks just seeing things we had only read or heard about, and now we have a completely new perspective and appreciation. Now that we are back, it seems as though we never left, and yet I am changed forever. First, thanks to Tom Mangan…
MidWeek Mentor
Twice I’ve run the entire Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail. It is a beautiful, scenic, challenging, technical, single-track, 70.5-mile trail with about 12,000 feet of vertical gain that goes from Ohiopyle, PA, to Johnstown, PA. LHHT is unique in that it has permanent markers at every mile. When people learn I run ultramarathons, the…
Three Ways to Capitalize on a Setback
George A. Custer famously said, “It’s not how many times you get knocked down that count, it’s how many times you get back up.” If you’re not a U.S. military history buff, you’ve still probably heard plenty of motivational quotes to the effect that, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try again.’ For most people,…
Mid-Week Mentor
“Why?” I’m told it’s a child’s favorite question to ask. My friends who are parents often seem frustrated when their young children won’t stop asking “Why?” over and over. No doubt answering why they should eat their vegetables or put away their toys gets old, particularly when each answer is greeted with yet another “Why?”…
Four Characteristics of Star Employees
The identification of star employees is essential to every organization’s success. Managers must know who their top performers are for succession planning and mentorship purposes, otherwise they risk losing top talent. If you’re curious to know if you yourself are a top employee, check out these four indicators. Speak-up confidently. Sometimes, employees refrain from offering…
Time Out!
The pronoun “you” triggers an emotional response. It is powerful when you are sharing or giving a compliment such as, “Jack, you are thoughtful in your decision making.” The pronoun “you” becomes destructive when taking corrective action. For example, “Jack, you are wrong in how you process payroll.” The top-down or autocratic leader who is…
Time Out!
How can we unlock the abilities of others to get things done? I heard it all from my coaching encounters this past week — safety, quality, productivity, cleanliness of the shop floor, compliance of basic company policies like showing up on time, and a firing due to sexual harassment. Then I had a call with…
Five Habits of Extremely Popular People
If you’ve ever wondered what it is about popular people that makes them so magnetic, here are five of their key habits. They are present. These days, it’s common to walk into a meeting just before it officially starts to find most participants nose-down staring at their laptop or smart phone screens. Or perhaps a…