Defining moments have a way of changing us.  When considering some of the defining moments in your own life I (Cindy) believe you would agree that we are never quite the same person after a defining moment.  We either move forward or backward - but we always move.

In Leadership Gold John puts it t...

Over the last several years, I’ve seen more and more references - through basically every media channel I pay any attention to with ties to the overall workforce - to the importance of soft skills. More often than not though, these references are generalizations tied to manager and executive level r...

Even when we begin to recognize what’s killing our profitability, start to dial in on the right prescription for addressing it, and come up with some simple solutions that can have a strong impact, we’ll miss capturing a significant amount of our best potential results if we allow our team to remain...

In all the years I worked in manufacturing, specifically with the various lean initiatives that were rolled out, one phrase I heard as often as any other was “What gets measured gets done.” At one point, I worked closely with one particular production supervisor to fabricate and assemble a few dozen...

One of the leaders who comes to mind when I (Cindy) think of defining moments from history is Winston Churchill, England’s Prime Minister who refused to back down from the Nazis during World War II.  He once said, “In every age there comes a time when a leader must come forward to meet the needs of ...

I can remember the phone call like it was yesterday… One Friday evening around 7pm several years ago, a friend of mine called as he was sitting in the parking lot at a high school football game where one of his kids would be playing with the band during halftime. I’m usually exhausted by Friday so I...

Over the last twenty or so years, I’ve developed an intense appreciation for world class chiropractic care. Don’t jump ship on me here… Hear me out! I’m not referring to the Homer Simpson’s of the industry who we’d never need to tell “less yacking and more cracking,” I’m talking about the absolute e...

In March of 2000, as a 23 year old 250 ton stamping press operator (and carpenter on the side), I applied for and was somehow offered a position implementing the latest and greatest Lean manufacturing initiative the company I was working for was pushing down from the corporate office. I had been wor...

If we’re not intentional about actively developing the leadership skills of each key individual on our teams, the areas where we’re likely hemorrhaging profit have very few bounds. Even the leaders who are incredibly strategic in defining exactly how they’ll implement each new skill they learn under...

If we want to have any hope of capturing even the slightest bit of the profit we’re currently throwing away by not developing the most authentic influence we possibly can with our teams and eliminating all that waste that’s so often tied to miscommunication, we need to have an extremely clear pictur...

Before we even begin unpacking any of the specific action steps you or would need to consider to capture even the slightest bit of that profit lost due to poor leadership, I believe it’s absolutely critical to quantify just what we’re likely leaving on the table. I mean, I’ve heard countless executi...

Organizations of all sizes invest significant amounts of time, money, and energy on improving their processes with hopes of becoming more profitable. Sometimes this is based on a goal of becoming best-in-class but sometimes it is just to stay competitive with customers or in attracting talent. All t...