A Brief Q&A

Q: How do you build a motivated team? A: Hire people who are already motivated. Q: How do you build an energized and creative accounting firm? A: Hire energized and creative accountants. Q: How do you create a dynamic and responsive customer service team? A: Hire dynamic and responsive customer service professionals. Recruiting and hiring

Poem for a Sunday Morning

Dear Mona {Naomi Shihab Nye} Dear Mona, do you know how your old stucco building marks the spot of Something True? Your hand-lettered red sign rises up like a crooked, friendly flag. I can guess the menu: bean & cheese, potato & egg, maybe a specialty of your own making, avocado twist or smoky salsa.

This is the World

Welcome to the world of reality — there is no audience. No one to applaud, to admire. No one to see you. Do you understand? Here is the truth — actual heroism receives no ovation, entertains no one. No one queues up to see it. No one is interested… True heroism is you, alone, in

Hidden Treasure

According to girlscouts.org, “Going for the Girl Scout Silver Award—the highest award a Girl Scout Cadette can earn—gives you the chance to show that you are a leader who is organized, determined, and dedicated to improving your community.” According to my daughter’s research, self-esteem in girls takes a steep drop (30%) between the ages of 8 and 14. Motivated to

Boring, Predictable Humans

One of the most glaring mistakes of modern corporate leadership is the use of metrics to motivate performance. “Our vision for the coming year? To make a gajillion dollars!!” No. Do everyone a favor. Tell a story instead. Of course, we all want the gajillion dollars (and for it to be equitably and appropriately shared)

Big dreams, Small steps

Big ideas, big dreams, big accomplishments, big goals…they are just so compelling, so fun and interesting and exciting to think about. What if? What could be? What’s possible? It will all be so much more (fill in the blank) when that happens! We fall in love with the idea of the end state, not so much

Short and Sweet

Clear, compelling and brief is the recipe for inspiration. Give them all you’ve got, just make sure you leave them wanting more.  

How to Motivate Your Employees

You can’t, so stop trying. That’s step number one. Motivation is an internal dynamic, a choice based on a wide range of individual forces such as personality, values, perception, emotions, attitudes and stress. You can inspire but you can’t motivate. Knowing the difference is crucial to effective leadership. A leader’s job is to create the

The Best of Both

I have a client whose expectation of his team is that they will do their jobs with exceptional skill while constantly striving to be even better human beings. There is no trade-off, no convenient acceptance of sub-par performance for a “really great guy” and no acceptance of toxic, or even stagnant behavior for someone who

Poem for a Sunday Morning

TICKET This is the ticket I failed to spend. It is still in my pocket at the fair’s end. It is not only suffering or grief or even boredom of which we are offered more than enough. {from Say Uncle, by Kay Ryan} For as simple as it is, this poem packs a punch. It’s a punch