As a child, I sometimes crossed my fingers behind my back when agreeing to something I did not want to do. As a teenager, occasionally I promised to join a friend, then abandoned it when a better invitation arrived. Those choices may have seemed small, but broken promises erode trust. In business, where relationships depend on trust, the cost becomes ...
My friend, Brad, recently accepted a new role as CEO of a company that has seen revenue decline 75% over the last five years. He discovered a demoralized and hopeless staff. Brad’s struggling to determine the best way to move the organization forward. There are many hard decisions yet to be made, likely impacting families and morale. Yet, Brad has ...
Used car dealer, Tricolor, cost multiple large banks hundreds of millions in charged off loans recently, reportedly due to fraud. In theory, banks are required to hold the title of every car they finance. In practice, holding titles becomes inconvenient when the dealership has significant volume. It’s not uncommon to see banks choose to trust the dealer by allowing them ...
During most of my career, I held a basic belief in God and his power. But it was only when I was faced with the loss of my job and the frightening prospects of what would come next that my faith truly developed. Scripture calls us to continually examine the depth of our faith. It is not enough to believe ...
Kathy and I hired a contractor whom we respected to do some work for us. Unfortunately, when problems occurred with his team’s performance, we began having trouble with the contractor responding to our concerns. We needed to have some tough conversations, but we were delayed week after week. It seemed our contractor had “stuck his head in the sand,” hoping ...
Recently, I provided counsel to Jeff who is trying to dissolve a partnership that has soured. Jeff’s partner has broken laws, violated Jeff’s trust, and created financial chaos in their shared business. One of Jeff’s options includes signing a new agreement with Jeff’s partner. However, there is legitimate concern about signing an agreement with someone who has already proven untrustworthy. ...
When I was young, the nightly news with CBS anchor Walter Cronkite could be trusted. He held to high journalistic standards of objectivity, which seems to have been discarded by most news networks today. Every evening Mr. Cronkite would finish the CBS Evening News with the phrase, “And that’s the way it is.” However, if he was ending the ...
Bill felt isolated and depressed. As a small-town employer, Bill felt he had to guard his business problems from the local rumor mill, leaving him no place to turn. As a new member in our network, Bill discovered we were available to help. We provided counsel, yet we knew that Bill needed local support as well. The fear of rumors ...
According to a Wall Street Journal article, a survey of more than 500 managers discovered that 75% of them plan on factoring office attendance into performance reviews. The reason for this is that only 12% of managers believe that hybrid employees are productive. When a boss can’t visibly see you at your desk, they will often wonder whether you’re ...
In this series, we’re highlighting the enemies of building trust in your business. The first enemy is hyperbole. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines hyperbole as, “language that describes something as better or worse than it really is.” We all want to favorably promote our products or services, but many resort to extreme exaggerations or hyperbole. Customers are savvy enough to know the ...
Equipping Others to Do Work Differently
