Transparency is a Leader’s Best Friend

A Person Wearing Hat Holding a Tablet with Sky Image in Front of His Face

As I was walking back from the gym one morning just before 7AM, I passed by the local boutique food store and noticed the manager standing in the middle of a circle, with all of her staff around her. It looked like every employee was present. I had noticed her doing this several times before…

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Connecting With Customers

A Big Head Image with Numerous Thumbnail Size Images of People

The idea that a business needs to treat its customers well and understand their tastes and habits is so obvious it seems hardly worth stating. But oddly enough, many big companies fail in this area. Fundamentally, you’re in business to utilize the assets you have to generate a positive return on the investment made by…

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Email and Texting: The Illusion of Efficiency

A Man in White Shirt Looking at His Smartphone

On a recent flight back to New York from Chicago (two and a half hours) I turned my phone back on after we touched down and found that I had received eighty-seven email messages and five voicemails while I was in flight. I shudder to think what will happen on my next flight to Tokyo.…

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How to Get People to Ask Questions

Sketch of a Person with Bulb in Place of the Head and Lots of Question Marks Around it

One of the elements of a truly engaged workplace is the asking of questions. The fact is that most people are afraid to ask questions; whatever natural curiosity we had as children tends to get discouraged in most large organizations. Leaders assume following the status quo is the right way to go and are not…

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