Our pastor told a great story last week. He shared his experience having meetings with people and their cell phones. He said the placement of the cell phone in the meeting would determine the interaction. If the person he was meeting with put their cell phone on the table face up, he would have 25%... Continue Reading →
Leaders need to be readers. I recommend reading leadership and business books regularly to sharpen your skills and make you aware of important, new concepts. I’m a huge fan of Audible. I listen to these books on my daily commute. I especially like hearing the books read by the authors. Here are the Top 10 Best... Continue Reading →
It's never easy telling people bad news. As a leader, I have had more than my share of experience telling employees things they didn't want to hear. I once had to announce a plant closure and it was one of the hardest things I ever did. Simon Sinek, author of the best selling books Start with Why... Continue Reading →
Everybody wants to be the boss. They want to be in charge. They want the corner office, the assistant, the parking spot, the title, the salary and all the trappings that go along with being in charge. That is, of course, if everything is going well. Nobody wants to be the leader when things are going... Continue Reading →
Like most leaders, I’m very busy. My role as the CEO of a start-up manufacturing company requires a great deal of time and effort. I’m at our manufacturing plant for 9-10 hours a day and I commute an hour each way. I also work 2-3 hours at home each day. In total, I spend 13-15... Continue Reading →
I had a lot of things on my mind. Our start-up company was growing fast but I felt there was more we could be doing. As CEO, I needed time to think, but with so many tasks that had to be done each day, I had a hard time focusing. I felt that if I... Continue Reading →
When we started our company, we didn’t have an office. It was still under construction. Our landlord gave us a dozen old desks that we set up in the corner of our factory as a short-term workspace. Because of construction delays, we were in the temporary location for more than a year. The factory had... Continue Reading →
As the machinery division officer on a nuclear submarine during the cold war, I had the challenging task of checking the boat for “rattles” before every deployment. This meant climbing down into every part of the hull structure with a rubber mallet and pounding on anything that could possibly move to make sure it was... Continue Reading →
Last week, I went out to the factory floor to see how we were doing building a critical order for a new customer. From a distance, I didn’t recognize the person packing the units at the end of the line. When I realized who it was, I had to laugh. It was our head of... Continue Reading →
I recently had an experience staying in a $68 a night hotel that was remarkable. I was helping my son move and I just need a place to crash for the night. The cheapest hotel in the area was a brand I had never heard of but, it had decent reviews, so I booked it.... Continue Reading →
For several weeks, orders were unusually low. Our growth seemed to be stalled. I was getting nervous. I was starting to think our business had plateaued. Then, on a quiet Friday afternoon, I opened an e-mail that changed everything. It was the largest order we had ever received and it came from a customer we... Continue Reading →
Just West of Cambridge, England on an immaculate slope of deep green grass surrounded by sprawling woodlands lies a powerful reminder of the tragedy of war. The Cambridge American Cemetery sits on more than thirty acres. The land was donated to the U.S. by Cambridge University. It remains the only permanent American World War II... Continue Reading →
