A year or so before I left the manufacturing company I had worked with for nearly my entire adult life, the corporate office launched a campaign that segmented the organization into two distinct business units. Truth be told, this wasn’t anything new; it’s more about branding than...

Earlier, we looked at how important it is for anyone in a leadership role to paint a clear picture of the organizational purpose they’re working toward so each member of their teams could have something tangible to connect with. While that was a broad reference that I only touched on in...

I remember the first time an engineer showed up at the press I was operating to perform a time study. I was terrified! I hadn’t been with the organization very long and had to work as hard as I possibly could just to hit my daily efficiency numbers. I was convinced that this spelled the end...

I hope I’ve done a reasonable job of making a case for why it ain’t (just) about the pay and how important it is for all of us to be a part of something that matters. A strong purpose is absolutely critical; for our organizations, for us as leaders, and for each member of our teams!...

Have you ever seen a professional sports team that’s absolutely stacked with talent but rarely, if ever, wins a championship? The older I get, the less I can tolerate the ever-increasing nonsense that’s seemed to have taken over professional sports so I can’t speak in much...

After a lengthy conversation with a friend who produces high end marketing videos, and procrastinating much longer than I should have, I finally gave in and had some snippets cut from a few professionally produced videos of me and Cindy speaking and began posting them as “shorts” on...

Now that we’ve worked through a big-picture idea covering the importance of leading with a clear purpose and some very specific steps we can take to paint a clear picture of the purpose our organization is striving to achieve, all while staying dialed in our own definite purpose as we push...

I’ve made a few references already in making a case for just how important it is for every leader to have a clear purpose that energizes them. Without having that in place, the challenges we face as we lead our teams can become more weight than we’re willing to carry, and I’ve...

While I never played baseball beyond farm league, I did engage in beer league softball for an occasional tournament and with an actual team one fall season in my late teens and just barely into my twenties. I won’t elaborate on the primary appeal that had, I’ll stick to the actual...

If we’re going to get serious about defining a crystal-clear purpose that drives us to serve the team members who are counting on us through even the worst of times, we need to understand why we do what we do. Before we dig into that though, I want you to think back to when you were just a...

Leading with a clear purpose, whether that’s drawing from the power of having a clear purpose for why and how we lead the team members who are counting on us or through how we provide that same kind of clear purpose for each individual on the team, is often some of the most important work...

If we’re going to earn the kind of buy-in that yields the 57 percent increase in discretionary effort and 20 percent improvement in individual performance detailed in the Harvard Business Review article I referenced multiple times throughout What’s Killing Your Profitability?,...