Many years ago, I was working for a company in the office furniture industry. Every year we had a convention in which dealers, designers, architects, and end users would walk through our showrooms. After the show was over one night about twelve of us went out to dinner to Alan Hale’s Lobster Barrel on La … More How Remembering People’s Names Delivers Great Hospitality
In my book, Leadership Qualities People Crave, before I get into what effective leadership looks like I present what dysfunctional leadership looks like. We need to face the reality that we all have leanings or tendencies that are not so effective. Things we do that cause harm and damage to the people we lead. Before … More What are your leadership tendencies?
It’s it funny how we expect everyone to understand what we’re saying, but in reality, we don’t. Over the past few weeks my wife and I have once again faced that reality even after 33 years of marriage. We were on vacation and I was talking to her about going to antique stores and looking … More Say What You Mean
One of the Keys to Legendary Service is to treat Customers as if they were Angels! Imagine, if you will, that you knew that one of the customers that came into your establishment was an Angel. How would you react? How would you treat them? What would you do? What would you say? I have … More How’s your Peas?
I rented a car awhile back that was fully equipped with the current trend in warning signals. It would warn you when you were backing out of a parking space and got too close to the curb, or another car. It would also warn you as you were driving and a car in the other … More Blind Spot Warning Signal
You may be a great leader. You may think you’re a great leader. But the key question is, what do the people you lead think? How do they experience your leadership? And, if your first reaction is: “I don’t care what my people think,” you’re not a great leader, in fact you may be a … More How Leadership is Experienced
My wife and I went to a Seafood Restaurant last night. It’s the third or fourth time we’ve been there in the past year. We love it. Great food, great atmosphere, but above all, great service. Both last night and the last time we went we were served by the same waitress. She had a … More Serving Gladly
To compromise is to be flexible. In the business world it could mean to collaborate with others for the purpose of gaining insights. It could involve a sense of ‘give and take,’ in which not all of your ideas are used but you take some of yours and some of the ideas of others to … More Compromise or Compromising?
I’m not a mountain climber in the usual sense, yet I’ve climbed many mountains in my day. You set out to scale the mountain and there’s a lot of excitement and anticipation and maybe even a little nervousness, because most mountain climbing is a daunting job. As you scale the mountain you encounter rougher terrain … More The Other Side of the Mountain
To be in charge… To be the Top Dog, the Head Honcho, the Supreme Leader isn’t that the goal of every leader? To be King, Queen, CEO or President, Senior Leader or Department Head. To be in charge or a group of people, to be in control, to direct their path. Isn’t that the ultimate, … More Kings, Queens, and CEOs
