While in college, I worked as a night custodian at an elementary school, where I became acquainted with Jim, the daytime custodian. I was surprised to learn Jim had previously built a very successful business and family, until his secretary began flirting with him. He eventually succumbed to the temptation and had an affair. Jim’s wife divorced him and gained ...
Highlighted by Jessica Kennedy’s Harvard Business Review article, a study of over 11,000 participants revealed that job promotions may make it more likely you will be blinded to the unethical behavior within the organization. Their study specifically found that when an organization wanted to lie, 39% of low-ranking employees would dissent. But only 14% of high-ranking employees were willing to ...
My good friend Rick and I both graduated from the same school with accounting degrees. We also both started with respected CPA firms upon graduation. Rick dreamed of becoming one of his firm’s youngest partners and he began diligently working towards that goal. I also dreamed of being a partner, but soon realized that public accounting was not for me. ...
As the Chief Lending Officer of a small bank, I was trying to clean-up a lot of problem loans made by the previous CEO. My focus was on collecting the business loans we had, rather than trying to make questionable new ones. So, when a guy I knew from high school asked for a new loan, I was skeptical. When ...
Mary Key, of the Institute for Corporate Productivity, recently stated, “Instead of just talking about what their values are, higher-level leaders act on their values.” In other words, leaders who want to leave an impact do what they say. They practice what they preach. More than verbalizing what their closely held beliefs are, they rely on their behavior to inspire, ...
Martin Luther King Jr. inspired millions with his work on the civil rights movement, and he also provided wisdom for the workplace. For instance, Dr. King once said, “Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.” He also once ...
Excellence is a quality that many business leaders strive towards. But the world’s typical pursuit of excellence usually looks different than God’s unconventional view. For instance, the world usually believes that the longer and harder you work, the closer you get to excellence. God’s Word, however, commanded His people to work six days and rest one day. The world tends ...
Once, a serial entrepreneur shared with me how he was able to start several successful businesses without having any experience in those industries. His key was to find the best people who modeled excellence in that industry and then go study their methods. Although the word “excellence” may be lacking in the Bible, the concept of excellence is assuredly modeled ...
In this series, we’re discussing five steps to move from struggling to thriving in business. The final step is to Focus on Customers. Since the pandemic, several restaurants I’ve visited have taken their customer service to a whole new level. They realize their survival is hinged upon retaining and growing happy customers. When a business is struggling for survival, there ...
Four years ago, we bought a living room set including a sofa and loveseat. We were told that the sofa had a lifetime warranty which sounded comforting at the time. Although sofas typically last seven to fifteen years, ours lasted four. Remembering that we had a lifetime warranty, Kathy and I began making calls. We discovered that the lifetime warranty ...
Equipping Others to Do Work Differently
