Blog
What did you teach today? What did you learn today?
Winning leaders are teaching leaders When you teach others, you’re open to learning. Over the past week, who have you helped to develop, and what have you learned yourself? Do you see developing others as an important part of your leadership? All people have untapped leadership potential, just as all people have untapped athletic potential. With coaching and practice, we can all get much better at it. Granted, there are clear differences due to nature [...]
A leader is never too busy to do this one essential thing
Sharpen the Saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have—YOU! You may think you don’t have time to exercise, build friendships, or get inspired. In reality, you don’t have time not to. The downtime you spend sharpening your saw will pay you back immediately, because when you resume your normal routine, you’ll cut that much faster. Sharpening the Saw Has 4 Dimensions: Physical Take care of your body by eating right, exercising, and getting sufficient [...]
To be more productive, don’t fall into the trap of multitasking
The trap of multitasking With so much to do it’s tempting to fall into the trap of multitasking—trying to accomplish several things at the same time. Truth is, multitasking is actually misnamed. When you try to multitask, you aren’t actually doing two things at once—you’re rapidly switching your focus between two things. Every time you switch, you have to re-focus on the new task. Because it takes a few minutes to get up to speed [...]
Daily Huddle: the one indispensable meeting you should never go without
You may be surprised when I say that there is one indispensable meeting; one absolutely essential meeting that’s more important than any other—the stand-up daily huddle. I know, meetings can be a real drag. In fact, meetings can be disruptive, wander off topic, have unnecessary people—and can even hurt your bottom line. There must be a million ways to get meetings wrong and only a few to get them right. That said, there is one [...]
GDPR Statement
Introduction The European Union (EU) has taken a monumental step in protecting the fundamental right to privacy for every EU resident with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which will be effective from May 25, 2018. Simply put, EU residents will now have greater say over what, how, why, where, and when their personal data is used, processed, or disposed. This rule clarifies how the EU personal data laws apply even beyond the borders of [...]
How less than ideal conditions are perfect conditions for success
In 2018, Desiree Linden became the first American woman to win the Boston Marathon since 1985. For a little perspective, 33 years before her win, the Soviet Union was still kicking, an actor named Ronald Reagan became President, and Marty McFly became the first person to time travel in a DeLorean. Linden won the marathon in what most would consider “less than ideal conditions.” Temperatures were approaching freezing, it was raining cats and dogs, [...]
Leadership Qualities: What can the cult classic The Sandlot teach you?
Examples of great leaders with leadership qualities can be found even in your own neighborhood baseball diamond. Just over 25 years ago, the world was introduced to Smalls, Squints, Ham Porter, Yeah Yeah, and of course Benny “the jet” Rodriguez in the cult classic Sandlot. Much of the film was actually filmed not far from our headquarters here in Salt Lake City. Sandlot is a perfect coming of age story complete with an incomprehensibly [...]
Is good feedback the secret to improvement?
Did you know that good feedback is the key to improvement? Let me show you what I mean… How many speed limit signs did you see on your way to work today? Can you remember seeing any? Honestly, I can’t remember any either. In fact, if you traveled to work on a familiar route, there’s a 50 percent chance you can’t recall any details about your trip. That’s because you were essentially driving with your [...]
If you’re not developing your culture, it will develop itself
When we talk about company culture or organizational culture, at its simplest level, we’re talking about “How we do things around here.” It can be difficult to be aware and objective about your company culture— because employees adopt your culture by observing you and other co-workers. Sometimes their interpretation of your culture is not what you intended. How we've always done it One of my favorite stories that illustrates this is about a husband [...]
Are you willing to do the one thing that will make you happy?
How many of you feel you’re more productive when you’re feeling happy? Because we’re human, we spend a lot of time—consciously, and unconsciously—thinking about our own happiness. After all, our nation was formed on the right to pursue happiness. I remember few years ago reading the results of one of many studies on happiness. The study reported that the biggest factor influencing whether people experienced true happiness or not came down to one small four-letter [...]