Tag Archives: acknowledge

Stop Defending And Start Listening

In yesterday’s blog I shared points from a Forbes article I’d written years ago on the importance of giving people honest feedback. Today I thought it would be good to share points from a follow-on article I’d written for Forbes on the importance of receiving feedback (The article was titled, If You Want To Improve, […]

Sometimes People No One Imagines Anything Of Do The Things That No One Can Imagine

“Sometimes it’s the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.” I love that quote from the movie The Imitation Game and I love what the meaning of the quote conveys. To me it stands as a reminder of two things: One:  We should never underestimate people. We should never pre-judge another […]

Why The Countdown to Star Wars Has Trumped The Countdown To Christmas

For those who aren’t aware of it, I have a 24 year old son, Dalton, who is absolutely, unequivocally, obsessed with Star Wars and all things Star Wars. Not only has he spent years collecting Star Wars Lego sets, he has made it his life goal to own every Star Wars Lego Set so he […]

The Secret to Change

“The secret to change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” – Socrates A lot of things are changing in our world right now, and whenever there are times of major change, it often results in feelings of uncertainty, fear, and sometimes even dread. But […]

How Delta CEO Ed Bastian Just Proved That Delta Airlines Is Awesome (Forbes Article)

Tuesday morning October 18, 2016 at around 2am I posted a blog titled “Companies don’t have to be perfect but they do need to fix it when they screw up!” In that blog I shared the story of a harrowing customer service nightmare I was going through with Delta Airlines. Toward the end of that […]

Who’s Packing Your Parachute?

“Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience! One […]

Gracias, Merci, Shukran, Danke, Mahalo, Dhanyayad, Grazie, Domo, THANK YOU!

Thank You! Two simple words that are said to be the most powerful words in the universe. “Thank You” is an acknowledgement that you appreciate the other person’s time, kindness, and talents they devoted to doing something. Saying “Thank You” is an expression to of love and kind thoughts. It`s the best way to say […]

Witnessing A Tender Mercy

Tonight something amazing happened but I have to back up so it will all make sense. Yesterday a dear friend of mine came to me crying because she had found out that her Mother, who has a tumor growing on the side of her head, had taken a turn for the worse and the tumor […]

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” So often in life we get so sucked into thinking about every little thing we still want that we totally lose sight of just how blessed we […]

Those Words A Parent Never Expected to Hear

As those of you who follow my blog know, my son Dalton recently got engaged to his sweetheart and we are now in full blown wedding preparation mode. Because they want a short engagement it is like wedding planning central at our house with invitation selections, picking colors for the reception, figuring out venues, booking […]

All We Need To Do Is Apply What We Learned As A Child

We learn so many simple life lessons as a child, yet often times we overlook how those simple rules apply to us as adults. The fact is that those life lessons, if remembered, will help us all our lives, no matter how old we are.  I love the words of Robert Fulghum: All I Really […]

Trust What Someone Has Shown Themselves To Be, Not What We Wish That They Were

There have been a few times in my life where I really believed in someone and trusted them and then came to discover that they weren’t the person that I thought they were at all. It hurts a lot when you discover that someone you thought was a good person just isn’t. And then you […]

Learn To Be Comfortable Saying ‘No’ Or You Won’t Be Available To Say ‘Yes’ When It Really Matters (Forbes Article)

“It’s only by saying “no” that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.” – Steve Jobs Saying “No” can be awkward, uncomfortable, and downright difficult. After all, it is human nature to want to be liked, and what better way to be liked then to make people happy by saying “Yes” when […]

“When something goes wrong in your life, just yell “Plot Twist” and move on.”

“When something goes wrong in your life, just yell “Plot Twist” and move on.” We’ve all experienced times when our best laid plans are interrupted with some unexpected twist that completely changes everything. It can happen with major life situations like losing a job or having a relationship unexpectedly end, or it can happen with […]

“Sometimes it’s the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.”

In the movie The Imitation Game there is a line that really stood out to me, “Sometimes it’s the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.” I loved that quote and I loved what the meaning of the quote conveys. To me it stands as a reminder of two things: […]

Accepting That You’re Perfectly Imperfect (Forbes Article)

I’ve learned many lessons through my years of leading a company, but without question, the most surprising thing I learned was this: The thing you can do that will make you the strongest, is the thing that is most counter-intuitive to do: Be openly vulnerable. I am sure many of you are scratching your head […]

If You Want To Improve, Stop Defending And Start Listening (Forbes Article)

To grow and improve is a desire that most all of us share. Yet, in order to grow and improve we must first be willing to acknowledge our areas of weakness; we must accept who we are in order to become something better. So how can we best recognize our weaknesses? We can stop defending […]

The Open Your Heart Experiment

A few years ago I was invited to hear a talk being given by author Virginia Hinckley Pearce. In her talk she shared with us an experiment that she did that led her to write her book called “A Heart Like His: Making Space for God`s Love in Your Life”. It was awesome. And as […]

Remember All The Good

No matter what ups and downs we have experienced in our lives, there have always been a million blessings.  Sometimes we forget to acknowledge or even recognize those blessings because there are so many other things to easily get distracted by.  And when you have always had certain blessings in your life, it’s easy to take […]

Good Employees Make Mistakes. Great Leaders Allow Them To. (Forbes Article)

As a business leader I found that one of the scariest things to do was to give your people the freedom to make mistakes which will allow them to learn and grow, for the obvious reason that mistakes in any company can be costly.  Scared as I was, I knew that truly great leaders found […]