Maybe you find yourself in a new team environment and leading a team for the first time, or maybe you have been working with and leading teams forever. Either way, the keys in this article – whether as new information or a fresh reminder – can make a world of difference in morale, productivity, and

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Unless you live under a rock, or are truly adverse to the media or professional sports in the United States, you likely know that the NFL has operated the first three weeks of their season with replacement officials. The back story is that the League locked out the regular officials as a part of the

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Everyone thinks teams are a good thing. Leaders like to form teams. People, for the most part, believe in the value and purpose of teams . . . “All of us are smarter than each of us.” and “1 + 1 = 3” are just two common phrases that reinforce and prove how pervasive our

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Recently, while facilitating a leadership discussion with a group of managers and owners at a conference for the Lumbermens Merchandising Corporation, the topic of engaging the front line employees came up. In effect, the question was asked, ” How do I get a truck driver to engage with the business and think about their work

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During last night’s Republican National Convention, New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, gave the keynote address.  During his speech, he made a point worthy of our consideration as leaders. Relatively early in the speech, Governor Christie said: The greatest lesson Mom ever taught me, though, was this one: she told me there would be times in your life

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Decisions are all around us. Right now you are making a decision whether to keep reading this or not, but the decisions we need to make as leaders go far beyond that, don’t they? It wouldn’t be hard to argue that being decisive, and doing it in an effective way, is one of the most

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If you are a parent, you are familiar with this thoughts and feelings . . . Who is my child hanging out with?  Do I know the parents of those kids? What kinds of influences are they subject to? These are natural considerations of a loving parent.  After all, we know that children are influenced

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Yesterday, while traveling, I received this email from my 20 year old son Parker . . . Just something funny I wanted to say I am currently working on printing cds with your face on them.  After the first one I noticed what I believed to be a small blue smudge on your shirt and

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Meetings are meant to be a time for people to exchange ideas and insights. While there are many components to effective meetings, one factor most people would put on that list is engaged participants. I mean, a good meeting can’t be quiet, can it? Maybe, at least at times. Let’s start with my main premise

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A key concept in economics is scarcity.  In economic terms, it is when people have unlimited wants but resources are limited.  If you look up scarcity in the dictionary, you will find a similar idea: 1.  insufficiency or shortness of supply; dearth. 2.  rarity; infrequency. (Source: Dictionary.com) In practice, when things are scarce, several things

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