MentorWords

My in-box is a Petri dish of engaged workforce issues. I see inquiries ranging from business owners wanting advice on how to cultivate engaged workforces to employees wanting to know how they can influence their bosses to include them, and everything in between. At some level, even the most autocratic boss recognizes that employees who [...]

Since the majority of us are either just finishing or just beginning our Sabbath, or possibly using some part of the weekend for the restoration that a bit of meditation can bring, I thought it might be a good time to do a whirlwind ethics review.  You say it’s been a while since you took a [...]

I received lots of email on yesterday’s post, mostly breaking down into two camps – Camp A says it’s impossible to have a management team that develops trust and open communication, because politics will always get in the way, and Camp B says management teams aren’t the problem – indecisive and/or authoritative leadership is. Of [...]

Business theorists love to argue about the difference between management and leadership. I agree with Jim Collins’ assessment that one of the steps on the way to becoming a strong leader is to first have command of excellent management skills. Some people never go beyond manager to leader, and that’s fine, because being a manager is worthy [...]

Buying or making one product and selling it at a good margin does not a business make. Well, that’s not entirely true. If you’re George Steinbrenner and you can sell the Yankees for $1.5 billion after buying it for $10 million – even if it was some 35 years ago – that’s not a bad [...]

We bought a new used car for our son the other day, his first. I set the lowest budget I could set while still finding something safe, and started prowling the newspapers and Craigslist looking for my ideal buy. After weeks of distraction, escalating distrust of other humans, and a really scary fully armed guy [...]

First of all, this blog maintenance thing requires a lot of discipline. I don’t know how people do it every day, and sometimes I manage to forget all about it until I get an email telling me there’s a comment posted. Some days have themes to them. It doesn’t matter who you talk to, the [...]

You may remember Malden Mills, the maker of Polartec who suffered a catastrophic fire in the mid-90s and made headlines for spending millions protecting its employees and the town from economic disaster. At a time when American business was becoming known for looking for every possible opportunity to move their plants to Mexico and China, Malden [...]

I spent yesterday at a local spa, working out the kinks, of which there were a lot more than I realized. I started going to that spa when they opened six or seven years ago, and back then, the owner gave me a tour. It was the kind of tour all of us would give [...]

OK, I’m on a toot here about thinking styles, but it’s what’s on my mind and catching my eye lately. I was reading an article about hedge fund managers, and Jim Leitner from Falcon Management said “the propensity to challenge conventions is one of the things that differentiates a hedgie, and it’s something that humans [...]