Likely one of the first American business coaches was a Paxtuxet Indian named Squanto. You may remember the first Thanksgiving story from your childhood. In 1621, the Pilgrims were dying from hunger and disease. Squanto, an escaped slave that understood English, coached these struggling settlers on how to build a farming and fishing enterprise in this new country. Even though ...
My cousin, Jack, negotiated with a hotel manager to host our family reunion. The manager agreed to waive the banquet room rental fee if enough of our family rented hotel rooms. Unfortunately, we didn’t meet his expectations. The manager was inclined to waive the fee anyway, until one of his investors demanded that we get charged for the room. Although ...
Unfortunately, our nation’s history includes seasons when laborers have been abused and oppressed. In the 1880s that was the case as the railroad barons required laborers to work on average 60 hours a week. When one individual feels they’re being abused, it’s hard for that one person to individually overcome their employer’s demands. But when abused workers stand collectively, they ...
Moses was allocating land to each tribe of Israel, but one tribe had no sons to accept the inheritance. The daughters of this tribe felling unfairly treated complained about being left with nothing. God could have just resolved this one problem, but he knew that similar situations would arise. So God solved the problem and established a policy. God ...
When I was a banker I worked with hundreds of small businesses, most of whom never had a budget for their business. They sometimes pulled together projections to obtain a loan, but they rarely used them for comparison purposes later. Although a budget is simply a tool to help you compare your original expectations to your actual results, it ...
Years ago, a banking customer of mine owned a chain of three retail stores. The owner assigned each of his two sons one store to manage while his third store was assigned to Ron, a close friend of his sons. By far, the best managed store was the one led by Ron. I recommended that the owner leverage Ron’s ...
Scooters Coffee franchisee, Tracy Bouwens, shared with our network about her transition from being a stay-at-home mom to owning her first Scooters store. She hired a new employee, gave her a Scooters uniform, and instructed her to start work on Monday. On Monday, the employee arrived but wasn’t wearing her uniform. Tracy considered possible reasons for her disobedience and ...
If you ever doubt the power of words, watch a few of President Ronald Reagan’s speeches. Reagan’s charm in front of a camera, in part, made him a great President. He had a way of telling stories with the right amount of truth and humor to rally people to follow him. Columnist, Peggy Noonan, who worked for President Reagan, ...
If you’ve ever led a team of people, you’ve likely experienced times when one person dominates the conversation. Because they’re talking instead of listening, these workers usually don’t fully understand the breadth or depth of the issues being discussed. The wisdom that the others in the group can bring to the issue is often drowned out by incessant talk ...
In 1 Kings 3, King Solomon was forced to make a tough decision. In this story, two women had babies, one of which died. Both women claimed the living baby was theirs. God gave Solomon the wisdom to offer a brilliant, but unsettling, answer. Solomon asked for a sword and declared that the baby be cut in half. The ...
Equipping Others to Do Work Differently
