Tag Archives: Employees

Admitting You Were Wrong Doesn’t Make You Weak – It Makes You Awesome

It takes tremendous fortitude to utter the words “I was wrong, and I am sorry.” I love that word: fortitude. I could list the dictionary definition, but why go to that trouble when there’s Microsoft Word’s handy one-click synonym function, which in fortitude’s case gives us: strength, courage, resilience, grit, determination, endurance, guts, and staying […]

Remember Who You Are And What You Stand For

All through my growing up years as I would run out the door of our home, my mother would yell the phrase “Remember who you are and what you stand for”. I would guess I have heard that phrase literally thousands of times as a child. Most days she said it I would roll my […]

When You Lie Down With Dogs You Get Fleas

Throughout my career I have encountered many people in the business world:  Some are honest and good, and some are not.  The most important thing to recognize is this – when someone shows you who they are through their actions and their behavior – BELIEVE THEM!  If someone has shown a track record of honesty […]

How Not To Feel Lonely As A CEO

Today I spoke at an executive luncheon for CEOs and executives from different companies. It was a Q&A format so there was a lot of questions asked about the different things that CEOs deal with. Talking with them I was reminded of the stresses they were carrying on their shoulders and I could remember feeling […]

Labor Day: A holiday to celebrate how hard you work!

Happy Labor Day everyone! I hope you had an awesome holiday today. For those who are wondering what Labor Day is about, don’t feel bad…I myself have celebrated Labor Day holiday my entire life but never really thought about why we had the holiday or what the holiday was about. I always just thought of […]

You’re Never Too Old To Wish Upon A Star

This week I have been sharing life lessons I learned during my family trip through the Mediterranean on the Disney Magic cruise ship where we visited Spain, Italy, France, and Monaco. To wrap up my posts for this week I will share the biggest life lesson I gleaned from my trip – “Where there is […]

Successful Companies Don’t Just Have A Brand Identity, They Create A Total Brand Experience (Forbes Article)

Successful companies don’t just have a brand identity, they create a total brand experience. A total brand experience causes people to FEEL their brand, and I can’t think of a finer example of a Company who has mastered creating a total brand experience then Disney.   Several years ago I was asked to come out to Disney […]

It’s far easier to create good habits in life than to break the bad ones once they have formed

Bad habits. We all have them. And around this time of year many of us even start thinking about setting our New Year’s goals to help overcome them. Can you just imagine how amazing it would be if we had never formed our bad habits in the first place? Life would be so much better! […]

Can Compassion Contribute To Success? (Forbes Article)

Compassion. It is a word we often hear talked about when it comes to religion, but it is not a word used often enough when it comes to discussing what makes a business successful. Yet compassion can directly affect the bottom line. The Dalai Lama expressed it best when he said, “Compassion is not religious […]

You Set The Tone

I was talking with someone the other day who was sharing how much fun they had at a Halloween party our family threw in our driveway. I was thanking them for coming to the party and I agreed with them that it was a really fun time. They then made a comment that really stuck with me […]

A Little Appreciation Goes A Long Way. Why Gratitude Is The Gift That Keeps On Giving. (Forbes Article)

Appreciation is one of life’s greatest motivators, so when we take the time to let people know that we value them, it inspires them to continue doing even more. That is precisely why gratitude is the ultimate gift that keeps on giving. “A person who feels appreciated will always do more than what is expected.” […]

Put Yourself In The Running. Even If You Don’t Get Chosen, You Will Get Noticed (Forbes Article)

If there is something you want badly enough my advice is: Put yourself in the running. Even if you don’t get chosen, you will get noticed. As the CEO of a fast growing company I was constantly looking for great people to fill management positions within the company. Even though growth is a huge blessing […]

Express and Live A Life of Gratitude

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” – William Arthur Ward Tonight I have been thinking a lot about Gratitude. My life has been a huge whirlwind the last several months. Some things I have experienced have been amazing and some things I have experienced have been […]

Remember Who You Are And What You Stand For (Forbes Article)

“All through my growing up years as I would run out the door of our home, my mother would yell the phrase “Remember who you are and what you stand for”.  I would guess I have heard that phrase literally thousands of times as a child.  Most days she said it I would roll my […]

When Someone Shows You Who They Are, Believe Them

Throughout my career I have encountered many people in the business world:  Some are honest and good, and some are not.  The most important thing to recognize is this – when someone shows you who they are through their actions and their behavior – BELIEVE THEM!  If someone has shown a track record of honesty […]

Life is Complicated Enough. Keep Your Software Simple. (Forbes Article)

The most impactful lesson we learned as a software development company was this: In the world of software systems, less can be a whole heck of a lot more, and more can often lead to a heck of a lot less. This point can best be illustrated by a personal example: While serving as the […]

Happy or Sad, Good or Bad, Love It or Hate It, It’s All in How You View It (Forbes Article)

As a business leader, one of the many lessons I learned was that employees often viewed the world around them in ways that were completely different from what was actually going on. I observed time and time again employees who interpreted something one way when the reality was actually totally different. I learned that when […]

CEO Perspective on Treating Employees Well (and other tips)

I was interviewed on Real Recognition Radio by Roy Saunderson and S. Max Brown and the episode aired earlier today.  During the interviewed we discussed questions such as:  Are there differences in the way men and women lead? What makes a great leader?  How important is communication in a company?  How to build a culture? How to […]

People Do Business With People They Like (Forbes Article)

People ultimately choose to do business with people they like, and everyone likes someone who appreciates them. I once read a quote by the ever so brilliant writer known as Anonymous. It states, “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”  […]

Coping In A Toxic Work Environment (Forbes Article)

Recently, I had the occasion to observe a group of employees who were working in a toxic work environment.  I witnessed the decline of self-esteem in each one of them as they endured month after month of poor leadership and dysfunction in their workplace.   I was truly amazed at the change to the countenance of […]

People CAN Change Their Past – Put Mistakes Behind You. (Forbes Article)

People often think they can’t change their past, but I disagree. Perhaps we can’t change every mistake in our past, but we have to remember that the past is a moving target. Every day that goes by us becomes a part of our past history. Whatever we do today will become a part of our […]

Admitting You Were Wrong Doesn’t Make You Weak – It Makes You Awesome! (Forbes Article)

It takes tremendous fortitude to utter the words “I was wrong, and I am sorry”.  I love that word: fortitude. I could list the dictionary definition of fortitude, but let’s be honest, why go to that trouble when Bill Gates blessed us with Microsoft Word’s single click to see its synonyms, which are: strength, courage, […]

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 […]

Five Incredibly Important Lessons to Live By (Forbes Article)

Five incredibly important lessons to live by in your career and in your business: First – Only do business dealings with people of character and integrity.  And no matter what, never ever let yourself break that rule.  It will never, ever, be worth it.  Not ever. Second – All the contract language in the world […]

Great Employees Are Not Replaceable (Forbes Article)

One of the greatest lessons I learned during my time as a CEO was that great employees are not replaceable. It isn’t the technology or the product that make a company great, it’s the people. And companies who see their good employees as “replaceable” are wrong. Good employees are not replaceable. Let me clarify what […]