Toilet Paper Syndrome

Today I want to talk about taking charge and assuming ownership of situations. This can mean being responsible for something as simple as replacing the toilet paper roll or something as complex as making sure your customers are absolutely and totally satisfied. I...

Emotion and the Evaluation Process

In our last blog post, we talked about the task most executives dread the most—employee evaluations. In our experience, executives don’t look forward to employee feedback sessions of any kind. So, they tend to procrastinate about them. This is especially true when an...

What’s the Most Dreaded Executive Task?

Meeting every day with professionals in our executive coaching program, I tend to notice patterns in their behavior. The most difficult (and dreaded) task for a great many executives—the one they procrastinate most about doing—involves employee feedback and...

Be Nice to People on the Way Up …

One of my clients recently told me a story that maybe you’ve heard a version of in your own life. I think it’s important enough to revisit. He told me about a salesperson in the banking industry who used to call on his company. The salesperson would come to their...

Scare Up Some Fun

Halloween is upon us! How are you going to dress up? Notice I didn’t ask if you’re going to dress up. That’s because I’m seriously suggesting that you do. Why not? It’s the perfect excuse to step away from the day-to-day and have a little fun—or maybe a lot of fun....

Secrets of Success

We’ve all read, watched on TV or seen on the Internet people who claim to know the “secrets of success.” They often talk about the two, three or four things you absolutely have to do in order to be successful. They tell you that you can get rich “flipping” houses....