Spitting In The Soup
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
People are always motivated. It’s not anyone’s job to motivate others. People can control themselves. They can do what’s right and don’t need approval or shaming to do so. They don’t need to be enabled. The problem is we don’t have faith in people nor do we know how to effectively teach them to pick up responsibility for things that are theirs to own. When we learn to do so, others can become accountable, caring and fully engaged, making a positive difference in your business.
Why Transparency CAN Become a Bloodbath
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Killers aren’t always assassins. Sometimes, they don’t even have blood on their hands.” ~ Ruta Sepetys, Author I once knew a school teacher who quit her job teaching 8th graders (which she loved) to work for my...
Managing Evolutionary Change
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” ― Albert Einstein “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs...
Upgrading Our Human Systems
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“The time is now. Because in this time of change, the world needs every one of us to stand in our power, reach our highest potential, share our gifts and be the best that we can be. Humanity can no longer accept antiquated...
Hispanic Heroes
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinNote: While this article was written for Autentico and focused on Hispanic leadership, the concepts within are applicable to all people. “You are not lucky to be here. The world needs your perspective. They are lucky to have you.”...
Mentoring: Your Competitive Advantage
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.” Steven Spielberg When we work in organizational culture change, our clients initially focus on...
Like PB&J, Freedom & Responsibility
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.” Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents What would our world be like, (including our...
Choose Helpful AND Harmless
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“It always seems impossible until it is done” Nelson Mandela I often reflect on how many people are “checked out” at work, home, and school; they are suffering and barely surviving, rather than overcoming and...
Transforming Discouragement
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Inferiority feelings rule the mental life and can be clearly recognized in the sense of deficiency and dissatisfaction, and in uninterrupted struggles both within individuals and humanity.” Alfred Adler, Psychiatrist, 1870-1937 The...
Millennials: Canaries In The Coal Mine
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Age is no better, hardly so well, qualified for an instructor as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden & Civil Disobedience A canary in the coal mine refers to a time when canaries...
Be Unconsciously Competent
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” “We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us”. Joseph Campbell, Author Often, we are afraid to make...
Successfully Navigate The Future
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“The most exciting breakthroughs of the twenty-first century will not occur because of technology, but because of an expanding concept of what it means to be human.”John Naisbitt Whether you welcome or resist it, change...
Cover Story: Me Too: Unwrapping Abuse Systems
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“An insight the size of a mustard seed is powerful enough to bring down a mountain-sized illusion that may be holding our lives together. Truth strikes without mercy. We fear our intuitions because we fear the transformational...
Perceptual Blindness
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin “Change blindness in the world of facts and knowledge is a problem. Sometimes we are exposed to new facts and simply filter them out. But more often we have to go out of our way in order to learn something new. Our blindness...
Culture Trumps Strategy But Purpose Trumps Everything
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and...
Why Are We So Stuck?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.”Arnold H. Glasgow This is a challenging time to be American. On the one hand people are talking about recurrent...
Leader-Follower Agility Is Crucial
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Innovation is key. Only those who have the agility to change with the market and innovate quickly will survive.” Robert Kiyosaki “Success today requires the agility and drive to constantly rethink, reinvigorate, react, and...
Teal is the Trend. What Color is Your Organization?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist “Management is, above all, a practice where...
FEATURE STORY on Culture Change
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinThis featured article is published in the St. Louis Small Business Monthly, March 2016 Share...
What’s Love Got to Do With It?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinWhether we want to associate love with our businesses or not, the presence of love or the lack of it, plays a powerful role in our ROI. It affects our profitability, health, employee engagement, teamwork, customer satisfaction; all...
Do You (Really) Believe in Win/Win?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Lead the life that will make you kindly and friendly to everyone, and you will be surprised what a happy life you will lead.” Charles M. Schwab When most people are asked if they believe in and want win/win, they answer with the...
Top 10 Problems Facing Leaders
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinMore than ever, your people are key to the success of your business. When they are adaptable and courageous, they help you overcome problems quickly and competently. The following are some of the top problems often faced by business...
It’s a Matter of Life and Death
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinSuicides and deaths due to addictions are rising to epidemic levels, especially among many considered the most privileged, those with greatest access to opportunity and often the most successful; middle-aged white males. They are...
Walking the Talk
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“It is difficult to inspire others to accomplish what you haven’t been willing to try.” Confucius “It is my responsibility to do what inspires me, in order to inspire others to do what inspires them.” Tsepiso...
Do You Have Faith In People’s Goodness?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. Always pray to have eyes that see the best in people, and a heart that forgives the worst.” Martin Luther King, Jr You may be surprised to...
Teach them to Fish
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Maimonides The Dilemma Many systems and strategies of the past are no longer effective. Schools were originally designed to...
Realize the Gravity of the Situation
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinDan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments recently made a landmark decision to take a pay cut from $1M to $70K annually in order to pay each of his employees the same. His decision has sparked controversy. What Kind of Workplace...
Are You Personally Responsible?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinYou may wonder: what criterion determines if a person is personally responsible? Personal responsibility IS synonymous with authentic freedom, empowerment, creativity, accountability, and alignment. It always brings about positive...
What is Social Interest? Does it Matter?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinThink of people you know and admire a lot. What qualities do you like most about them? How do they make you feel? Chances are they are people who banish inferiority feelings in others and cause a positive experience instead. They...
Are You Feeling Merry or Blocking Your Joy?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Joy is the most vulnerable emotion we experience. In fact, addiction research shows us that an intensely positive experience is as likely to cause relapse as an intensely painful experience.”Brene Brown, Author and...
Are You Building Capacity for Change?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” Jack Welch What is capacity building and how does it affect your ability to make positive...
Could Your Head Be Buried In The Sand?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.” Isaac Newton You’ve seen it happen to others and you may have already experienced it yourself: shocking setbacks in running your business....
Is Your Social Media Socially Intelligent?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinEnhance and Protect Your Brand and Reputation! Did you know, according to Jay Baer, marketing consultant and author, that: 42% of Americans who complain on social media expect a response within an hour? 24% expect a response within...
A Happy Community Works, Plays, & Serves Together
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinA Happy Community Works, Plays, & Serves. Leaders determine the happiness of their workplace community. When you think of a happy community, you likely picture good team players that pitch in, are positive and manage themselves...
Part 1 of 5 – Gathering Requirements
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinYou successfully started your business and now it’s growing. You may be wondering, “Are we as productive as we could be despite the fact we’re hiring more people?” It’s not enough to run and grow your business. Your ability to...
Part 2 of 5 – Human Systems – What Gets Measured Improves
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“I have been struck again and again by how important measurement is to improving the human condition.” Bill Gates What Gets Measured Improves Motivated, successful, and contributing. That’s what you need your staff to be...
Part 4 of 5 – Implementation
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“What you want is within your reach. You can flip a switch and your life can become what you want it to be.” Sam Carpenter, Author, Work the System Cultivating Leaders Problems exist in the gap between what you desire to be...
Part 5 of 5 – Maintenance
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”- Abraham Lincoln My Competitive Advantage Each month, I have provided information on five processes needed to ensure your greatest...
Extraordinary People & Results
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“It is not the ultimate achievement that makes you extraordinary; it is what you become on the way to that achievement that people celebrate. Saidi Mdala, Author of Know What Matters Are you experiencing poor relationships? Seeing...
Your Blueprint for Constructing Success
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” ...
From Compliance to Commitment
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“You get the best efforts from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within.” -Bob Nelson Compliance People used to think of the workplace in terms of the activities and behaviors that...
Cover Story on Culture Change
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed – the culture reflects the realities of people working together everyday.” Frances Hesselbein A Focus on Shifting Company...
It Takes a Village
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Everybody in a village had a role to play in bringing up a child—and cherishing it—and in return that child would in due course feel responsible for everybody in that village. That is what makes life in society possible. We must...
Are You a Leader Others Follow?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” John Quincy Adams Your role is THE determining factor in whether you drive and sustain positive change ...
1. Straightforwardness: Dare I Tell it Like It Is?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinThe most important relationship to manage is with our self. A trustworthy person practices honesty, straightforwardness, respect, receptivity, recognition, keeping commitments, seeking excellence and disclosure, the eight values...
4. Disclosure: Will You Show Us Who YOU Are?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Shame derives its power from being unspeakable.” Brené Brown, Author, Speaker I teach eight values needed to build trust: honesty, straightforwardness, respect, receptivity, recognition, keeping commitments, seeking...
Are You Cultivating Excellence?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinNational research shows 29% of employees are engaged in excellence. They’re eager, willing, and personally responsible. The remaining 71% are mediocre or actively disengaged… Ghandi, Helen Keller, DaVinci, or simply a...
Kinds of People I Need
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.” Harry Truman An important question to consider is, “What kinds of people do I need and...
Longing for the Good Old Days?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“The good old days were never that good, believe me. The good new days are today, and better days are coming tomorrow. Our greatest songs are still unsung.” Hubert Humphrey “Why can’t we go back to the good old days when people...
How do I Make All-Stars?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinby Julia Paulus (referencing Judy Ryan and LifeWork Systems) SBM, March 2010 My biggest all-star employee just left the company to work for a competitor. He was efficient, virtually mistake-free and energetic. When he...
Connection: From Chaos to Community
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinConnection is to humans what water is to fish; a key to our existence and a cornerstone for our behavior. We are social beings and from infancy we make decisions and set goals in response to our social framework. In...