I love bicycling. I’ve been cycling for over 34 years and have cycled about 100,000 miles. I love July because that’s when they hold the Tour de France, the Super Bowl of cycling. The Tour is an annual 21-stage cycling race primarily held in France. This year it covers 2,276 miles from July 5 through July 27 with 2 rest days. You can enjoy following the last remaining days of the race (Continue)
Use 1-2-3 to Double the Effectiveness of Your Team
Recently I read about a survey of workers in the United States, who were asked if they could work harder on the job than they currently were. 85% of those surveyed said that they could. And more than half claimed that they could double their effectiveness “if I wanted to.” (Continue)
Ben Franklin Revealed the Key to Learning
Ben Franklin said, “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” The 1-2-3 approach reminds leaders to involve their team when making important decisions. Every leader can develop a more effective and efficient team by asking three simple questions. (Continue)
The Iceberg of Ignorance
In his acclaimed study “The Iceberg of Ignorance”, consultant Sidney Yoshida concluded: “Only 4% of an organization's front-line problems are known by top management, 9% are known by middle management, 74% by supervisors and 100% by employees..." (Continue)
How to Sap the Enthusiasm from Those You Lead
“You won’t believe what they did to us at work today!” I’m sure that you have heard this comment before. You may have even said it yourself. Decision-making is a continual activity within any organization with lots of leaders involved at all levels of the organization. I’ve discovered that poor decision-making can sap the enthusiasm of your people and create poor results for your entire (Continue)
Four Excuses that Destroy Effective Leadership
Think of how you might feel if you arrived at work one day and your work-station had been moved. You didn’t know it was going to happen, and you don’t know why it happened. Then you learn that your senior manager had decided they wanted to ‘rearrange’ the seating so it would be easier for them to remember your names, or your faces, and where you sat! (Continue)
Skip the RedBull and Energize Your Team with 1-2-3!
A few years ago, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced that they were going to dramatically change their program for purchasing services from our industry. In advance of implementation, they issued a set of “business rules” – hundreds of pages of them! Although these changes surely overwhelmed some of our competitors, we used the 1-2-3 decision-making process to energize our team and tackle (Continue)
Build Your Team Using the 1-2-3 Approach
Years ago, I experienced first-hand the value of 1-2-3 decision-making. The general manager of one of our companies had done analysis that showed that expenses for repair and maintenance of our trucks had been rising steadily to the point that it made more sense to buy new trucks than to keep throwing money into older ones. (Continue)
Three Questions for the Lonely Leader
“It’s lonely at the top” is a comment you have heard from leaders. Are you really leading if you are alone, in isolation? There was a time that I was the lonely guy at the top of the organization. Eventually, I learned three powerful questions that helped me lead more effectively by tapping the potential of my team. (Continue)
Decision Making – from Mr. Idea Man to 1-2-3
For years I was the “Mr. Idea Man” in our company. But that’s my job...isn’t it? As the leader of the company, I thought it was my job to generate the ideas and map-out how to implement them. Eventually, I learned that there was a better way to lead my team - a way to increase innovation and manage change at the same time. (Continue)
