Those are the words I said to one of my clients, an older and accomplished professional who was experiencing some difficulty in deciding what to do next in his career. My question to him? Where have you enjoyed success in your career? When he had time to reflect and respond, I explained. I use the...

Here’s the situation: You are the general manager of a store that has three departments. Your store is one of more than a dozen similar sites the company owns and operates. You receive a call from the customer service department at the main corporate office. A customer has called to complain about something that happened...

Rachel was a relatively new employee at a retail outlet. She was given the requisite week’s training in the training room and sent to the sales floor. Part of her job was to restock merchandise that had been returned. She had been on the job but a few days when an item was returned that...

I watched an enlightening program yesterday on the Battle of the Bulge. After successfully breaching the “Atlantic Wall,” as the Nazi defenses were called, Allied forces had the German army on the run. By December, 1944, things were going very well for the Allies and very badly for Hitler. It was the concerted opinion of...

Hope is not a strategy but it is an essential attitude. One of the best employee associates I ever had was a retired Air Force Lt. Colonel. I have always loved working with military people. Their training firmly builds within them a “can do” mentality and a fixation on mission objectives. This one was no...

When the definition of power includes the “ability to exert influence” there is probably no basis greater than the subject of today’s post. People love advice form perceived authorizes. Take, for example, Ann Landers. Ann Landers is a pen name invented by Chicago Times columnist Ruth Crowley in 1943 and taken over by Eppie Lederer...

A man got on a crowded bus carrying a heavy briefcase. There were no seats, and he had to stand near the driver, holding on to a pole next to the driver’s seat. He held the pole with one hand and the briefcase with the other. After a while, the bus driver looked at him...

The mantra goes like this. We have a staff of employees, associates, and subordinates for three purposes: To extend our reach – to make it possible for us as leaders and managers to get influence more people and thus get more done. To multiply our effectiveness – the principle of reproduction works here. We impart...

The tasks of evaluation, decision-making, and determining action are constant for leaders and managers. We must, from start of day to its close, gather information, qualify that information, and prescribe appropriate responses. This requires intelligence and I mean that in the broader sense of information and intelligence gathering not just in the “smart” sense. Leaders...

With nothing to do but wait while we stood patiently in line at the local Post Office, we happened to see that there was but one “If It Fits It Ships” box in the rack. For those readers outside the United States, the Post Office here has a product  that lets a shipper send a...