Being in a war for the right talent for your team is not a new thing. We have been fighting to attract and keep the best people since the beginning of time. I would imagine the original troglodytes (cavemen) were arguing over who was going to get the best hunters, gatherers, and leaders in their tri...

One of the struggles employees are facing in today’s market is that of having a target to shoot for in success. We bring on new employees, take them through the paperwork, teach them to do a job, and then hope for the best. It has been my experience that hope is a pretty lousy strategy. We have to h...

Einstein once defined sanity as, “doing the same thing over and over again, but anticipating different results.” And yet, we tend to do that as humans. We feel bad eating a certain way, but we keep doing it because it tastes good. We create turnover in our businesses by not investing in the developm...

Years ago, I heard a guy from Canada speak about what it would be like to watch a sports event with no scoreboard present. He talked about how confusing it would be for the coaches and players as they took the field and realized that they couldn’t see who was winning by looking to either end of the ...

The monomyth, also known as the hero’s journey, is a classic narrative structure that has been used to tell stories for thousands of years. It has been applied to various forms of storytelling, including books, movies, and even video games, and is now gaining popularity in the business world.

The m...

Leadership sets the tone for a team and determines whether or not they have clear outcomes. A great leader inspires their people to pursue a common goal while living into a set of core values, key habits, and respectful practices. While there are lots of people who are put in charge, many of them fo...

I hear companies talk a lot about innovation. They often think those who innovate are mysterious or are magically gifted with a creative spark that simply doesn’t exist for the rest of humanity. In my experience, being an innovator comes down to 2 primary keys, and neither of them is magic.

The fir...

We often think of success in life as this grand, complicated plan that needs to be created. That isn’t the case, though. The truth about success is that it comes down to some very simple things.

The first thing is direction. I see so many people that are going through life trying this thing or that...

Performance reviews have undergone significant evolution in American companies over the past few decades. Initially, performance evaluations were focused primarily on individual job performance, with little emphasis on employee development or goal setting. Even within that evaluative focus, the revi...

Over the past couple of decades, I have encouraged leaders to share the stories behind their entrepreneurial journeys. Some have been reluctant, stating it made them sound self-absorbed. Others have been excited, hoping to inspire stronger engagement from their people. Those who have embraced the op...

I have always been fascinated with how we evolve and become the versions of ourselves that we present to the world. One of the great thinkers I have studied for this is Erik Erikson. Erikson was a psychoanalyst and developmental psychologist who is best known for his theory of the eight stages of ps...

I remember that Monday very clearly. I was sitting in a room filled with Gen Xers who had all started working for the same organization. An older gentleman, likely at the start of the Baby Boomer generation, stood in front of us and said, “You people scare me. You scare me because you are so differe...