Appreciate Others

History of Boss Day

2023-10-07T14:11:38-05:00October 16th, 2023|Tags: , , |

In 1958, Patricia Haroski was working as a secretary for her father’s State Farm agency. She wanted to honor her father on his birthday, October 16th.   Furthermore, she decided to honor all bosses as well. According to Wikipedia, she registered a holiday with the US Chamber of Commerce called Boss’s Day.   The holiday hasn’t been widely accepted, however, partly due ...

Responding to Other’s Misfortunes

2023-09-30T17:29:44-05:00October 12th, 2023|Tags: , , |

Years ago, I had a bank customer named Floyd. Floyd never spoke poorly about anyone else.  One of Floyd’s employees stole Floyd’s trade secrets and started a competing business, even after Floyd had helped obtain this man’s release from prison.  Despite the wrongs this former employee committed, I was surprised when Floyd’s only comment was, “Well, he must be pretty ...

Three Keys To a Winning Culture: Amplify

2023-08-27T10:34:20-05:00September 6th, 2023|Tags: , , |

Former Chick-fil-a executive, Mark Miller, discovered three words to help any organization build a stronger culture. The second word is Amplify.  Once you’ve painted a picture for your team of your aspirational culture, the next key is to amplify the vision. Telling stories, rewarding those on your team who are modeling your aspirations, and emphasizing your values repetitively are ...

Religion and Your DEI Strategy: Part V

2023-07-28T10:41:51-05:00August 11th, 2023|Tags: , , |

A Harvard Business Review article entitled, “Where Religious Identity Fits into Your DEI Strategy” provides seven practices to help companies embrace religious diversity. The fifth practice discussed was to provide meaningful and flexible accommodations for employees’ diverse religious practices.  Practical recommendations were explored like, when you create time off policies, consider floating holidays to accommodate different religious holidays. Also be ...

Religion and Your DEI Strategy: Part IV

2023-07-28T10:24:48-05:00August 10th, 2023|Tags: , , |

A Harvard Business Review article entitled, “Where Religious Identity Fits into Your DEI Strategy” provides seven practices to help companies embrace religious diversity. Their fourth recommended practice is to know the law.  Many are fearful of religious activity in the workplace due to a misunderstanding of the law. The so-called “separation of church and state” argument is often misunderstood and ...

Religion and Your DEI Strategy: Part III

2023-07-28T10:04:24-05:00August 9th, 2023|Tags: , , |

A Harvard Business Review article entitled, “Where Religious Identity Fits into Your DEI Strategy” provides reasons and seven practices to help companies embrace religious diversity. The third practice highlighted was to develop religious literacy within your organization.  As our society becomes more diverse in religious beliefs, even smaller businesses can have many different faiths represented in their workplace. Team ...

Burnout Epidemic: Part VI

2023-08-06T12:43:14-05:00August 6th, 2023|Tags: , , |

The Harvard Business Review discovered six key reasons behind the growing level of manager burnout. The fifth reason they discovered was a lack of fairness.  When I was in banking, I worked extremely hard one year to land millions of dollars of new accounts. At my performance review my boss informed me that he was only allowed to give ...

Affirmative Action Amended

2023-07-24T16:56:58-05:00August 3rd, 2023|Tags: , , |

Although the Supreme Court recently ruled against affirmative action related to universities, their decision will likely impact the diversity, equity and inclusion practices of businesses soon.   For instance, the Harvard Business Review believes that to “reserve hiring or promotion slots for underrepresented groups, instructing managers to use race or sex as a tiebreaker…, or tying demographic targets to manager compensation, ...

The Pareto Principle

2023-07-14T11:20:58-05:00July 25th, 2023|Tags: , , |

The Pareto Principle claims that 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes. In business, this usually means that 80% of your results are gained through 20% of your people’s efforts.  Those people who diligently perform the work are the ones who seem to carry the load for the rest of the organization. They are the unsung heroes that ...

Navigating Multiple Choices

2023-07-09T17:57:08-05:00July 21st, 2023|Tags: , , |

If I personally need insurance or financial services, I know lots of great people. The difficulty for me is selecting which person to hire.   With multiple good choices, I find it challenging to navigate the hard conversations I must have with those friends with whom I don’t choose to do business.   Each circumstance leads to an ultimate decision that I ...

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