Category Archives: Culture

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Nothing Great Was Ever Built on Minimums!

I recently attended a conference in Anaheim, CA and one of the presenters, Earl McClellan, made a statement to the effect of “Nothing great is built on minimums!”

It took a minute or two for that to sink in . . .

My mind raced through business cases, famous start-ups, and concepts like Minimal Viable Products (MVPs from Eric Ries). There are so many examples of great movements and uber-successful businesses starting from precarious, humble, and minimalistic origins. So how could this statement be true?

However, after a few minutes of thought, I concluded that I agree with the statement and this is why!

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How To Be Amazing And Make The Sale

Customer first service mantras have been around so long that we are sick of hearing about them . . . until we personally go through a new dismal customer service experience and are reminded how important the customer experience really is!

The truth is that business leaders must not only build a customer centric culture in their organization but they must constantly maintain this culture. It only takes one bad experience to tarnish a company’s reputation which can take years to rebuild!

My Honda Experience

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Be Amazing or Go Home

Seven Customer Service Habits That Create Confidence with Everyone

This week’s book review is Be Amazing or Go Home by Shep Hyken.


Hyken does a stellar job of describing the epitome of customer focus! This book focuses on what “Amazing” looks like to a customer and the personal and corporate habits that each of us need to cultivate to attain the “Amazing” status.

My takeaway from this book is twofold. First, the seven habits of Amazing listed below:

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How To Build Respect In Your Organization

In a recent keynote speech, Bill Hybels stated that the performance of a disrespected worker drops by 50% until the issue of disrespect is resolved. Scarier than this is that 25% of the disrespected workers pass this disrespect on to customers!

That is something to consider!

How many times in the last month have you been treated or seen someone treated poorly by the staff of a retail establishment? Now it really makes you wonder what goes on behind the scenes at these places. How many business leaders are disrespectful to their employees and are indirectly disrespecting their customers, the very lifeblood of their business!

There are way too many examples of disrespect in today’s world! From presidents of countries down to minimum wage employees at fast food establishments. Disrespect in our culture is way to common place! In fact, a business can begin to differentiate itself just by having respectful leaders and employees!

What can leaders do to repair, build, or maintain respect in their work place and start differentiating their business?

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How Elite Executives Beat Burnout

Some studies have shown that 1 in every 3 working adults is suffering from varying degrees of burnout!

Burnout has been linked to coronary artery disease, hypertension, sleep disturbances, depression, anxiety, and increased drug and alcohol use. Besides the huge personal toll, this obviously flows over into productivity and work performance. This costs your business money! Estimates peg the cost of this lost productivity due to burnout in the $10’s of billions per year in North America alone!

According to psychologist Christina Maslach in her 2016 HBR article, burnout arises from: