Category Archives: Leadership

Posted on

7 Simple Steps to Restore Function to Dysfunctional Meetings

Everyone is familiar with dysfunctional business meetings! The meetings where the people around the table or on the conference call are partially, if not completely, disengaged. You have people on Facebook, people texting, trading stocks, surfing the web, day dreaming and even taking cell phone calls in subdued voices like the rest of the people there can’t hear or see what is going on!

It is the most bizarre thing but we have all been there! Check out this hilarious video for some great examples.

I remember attending a meeting where one of the participants literally fell asleep with their head back and their mouth wide open! It was the sort of wacky thing that you would only expect to see on an episode of The Office . . . Except it wasn’t on TV it was in my meeting!

I have been in other meetings where the meeting leader was doing their presentation and a participant’s cell phone rang and they answered it at the conference room table like they were the only one there!

Why do these things happen in meetings?

Posted on

2 Sure Fire Ways to Build an Organization of Growth Minded People

“…your personal growth is proportional to the number of risks you take plus the number of relationships you build.” Jesse Tevelow

It is probably safe to say that most people want to improve their “lot in life” in some way. Whether it is a new house, new car, new clothes, more money, different city, different country, different career, different business or a million other motivators, most people have some sort of drive for personal growth and improvement.

What many people don’t realize is that the likelihood for success of this drive for personal growth is directly proportional to risks you take and the relationships you make. If you want to grow, you must always be pushing boundaries – taking a risk or building relationships or both.

Posted on

Your Business Rises And Falls On The Strength of Your Leaders

It is crucial that you have strong leadership in place if you want your business to succeed.

As John C. Maxwell says; “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” If your leadership team is strong then your business will be well positioned to rise but if your leadership team is weak your business will eventually fall, just like Maxwell states.

This has been proven time and time again throughout political and business history. We have seen it recently in Alberta with the terrible PC party leadership over the last number of years which led to their decimation in the election in 2015. Similarly, the current NDP government leader, Rachel Notley, has seen her popularity nosedive since she came into power and her leadership ability became more public. We are also seeing this played out right now in the leadership race in both the Republican and Democrat parties in the US . . . no one is sure where this will end up!

Posted on

Givers and Takers: What Are You and Why It Matters

As a new feature of Thinking Business Blog, I am posting a brief summary of the business books that I am reading. This will be a very high level synopsis of the book and what I gained from it. I will publish these summaries as I complete the books and not on a predetermined schedule. I trust you will benefit from them.

The first book I reviewed was Procrastinate on Purpose.

The second review was Bill Browder’s book, Red Notice

The third review was Atul Gawande’s book The Checklist Manifesto

The fourth review was Brad Lomenick’s H3 Leadership

The fifth review was Eula Bliss’ On Immunity: An Inoculation

The sixth review is Give and Take by Adam Grant

Grant provides a detailed compilation of research in the area of giving and receiving. The results from this research, backed up by reams of data and an overwhelming number of examples is that there are three types of people; Givers, Takers and Matchers.

Posted on

6 Things I Learned From My Dad That Are Foundational to My Success

“One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.” George Herbert

 

How often do we take for granted the foundational lessons that we were taught as kids not realizing that without those lessons we would not be the people we are today? I know I am guilty of this so, because this Sunday is Father’s Day, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about what I learned from my dad that contributed to my success so far in life.

I grew up on the outskirts of a small town in northern Alberta called Peace River. My parents were both from farming backgrounds and were comfortable with a very uncomplicated and frugal lifestyle. By the time I came onto the scene, my mom was a substitute school teacher and my dad was in the dairy business, neither of which were very lucrative. We never had running water until I was about 10 years old and we heated our house with a wood fireplace as much as we could (but the old furnace did kick in during those cold northern winters!) To say we were part of the lower income bracket is probably an understatement!