Years ago, a young boy rode his bike across town to see the Governor of Iowa, only to arrive as the Governor drove away. Determined, this young boy followed the car, shouting for the Governor to stop. Surprisingly, the Governor stopped and spent several minutes encouraging the young boy. While serving on a panel with former Governor Branstad recently, Lieutenant ...
In an interview with Coach Tommy Bowden, we were discussing how to work with football players who were not living up to their full potential. Coach Bowden said that it was important to get to know each player well enough to know “which buttons to push.” Some of his players responded well to an encouraging word, others needed strong directives. ...
A recent discovery of mine is that nepotism isn’t just the hiring of a family member. Instead, according to the dictionary.com definition, Nepotism is “Favoritism granted to relatives or close friends, without regard to their merit.” For small business owners, family members are often a source of trusted labor. But to non-family staff, even diligent efforts to treat family members ...
Some of the deepest emotional wounds come from fathers. Children want desperately to be loved by their father. When they don’t feel loved, their pain can spill over into careers. Sometimes children become workaholics to win their father’s approval. Other times they underperform because they’re convinced they will never win their father’s approval. Fortunately, we have a heavenly Father who ...
Kathy and I met a young couple recently who had moved to our area from Oregon. They both work in information technology for different employers located in Oregon. They desire to start a family and decided that the Midwest was a better location for them. When I asked about their employer’s willingness to allow them to live out-of-state, they said ...
In 1978, four men broke into a home in Kansas City and killed three people. For over 40 years, Kevin Strickland has been incarcerated in a Missouri prison for those three murders, which he didn’t commit. Two men admitted their guilt, but both were adamant that Strickland was not with them. The only evidence that convicted Strickland was Cynthia Douglas, ...
As business leaders navigate bringing their people back to the office, it may be hard for businesses to develop a one-size-fits-all policy for remote vs office work. My friend, Paul, collaborates with an architect firm. Paul said, “Many businesses can work remotely, but these architects are collaborating on designing a building. Remote work has been disastrous for them.” Another friend ...
When my father was discharged from military service, he needed a job. Dad didn’t have a high school degree, so when he had an opportunity to work at General Motors, he leaped at the opportunity. 30 years later, my dad retired from that same job. Over those years you couldn’t find a more loyal employee to General Motors. My father ...
Many years ago, I had an employee who told me stories of how other people in our building had criticized or slandered me. She was very convincing and specific. It began causing friction between me and a handful of people who had previously been friends of mine. Eventually, I discovered, through conversations with others, that her comments were blatant lies ...
When Kathy and I married, we rented a reception facility from one of the wealthier men in our county. On our wedding day, I went to check on the reception hall and found a man dressed in work clothes setting up chairs. He looked like a custodian. When he told me his name, I was stunned! I blurted out, “Aren’t ...
Equipping Others to Do Work Differently
