When I was CEO at Thomas Nelson Publishers, we spent half a million dollars to attend an annual trade show. For several years, we invested in this event without stopping to ask whether or not it was the best use of our resources. Everyone assumed it was an essential expenditure. After all, our competitors would […]
Get Free of Goal Shame and Achieve Your Impossible Dream
“Someday I’m going to climb Everest.” In the early 1940s, professional beekeeper Edmund Hillary shared his seemingly insurmountable goal with the world. At this point, no climber had successfully reached the Everest peak. The mountain’s difficulty level echoed loudly through 30 frozen bodies lying on its route. Louder still was the public criticism for Hillary’s […]
How to Beat a Burnout Culture
In 2013, the Romanian hacker Marcel Lazar cracked open email accounts belonging to the members of George W. Bush’s family. Lazar found paintings by the former president of animals, still life, even some self-portraits. Lazar released the images to the media, many people were surprised to discover Bush’s hobby. They need not have been. Presidents […]
Create Transparency and Trust with Cascading Communication
In 2000, I got one of the greatest opportunities in my career. I was appointed publisher over the Nelson Books division of Thomas Nelson Publishers, which was one of the top English language publishers in the world. I knew our team had experienced some financial troubles, but I was thrilled for the chance to lead. […]
How to Avoid Confusion with Clear Communication
Under-communication is a consistent problem in nearly every business. You can solve that by taking ownership of the communication happening around you. I’ve worked with more than my share of poor communicators over the years. One was a boss who rarely shared information and never in a timely way. My office happened to be in […]
Communication Secrets of Remote Teams
If you’ve recently made the switch to remote work, you’re not alone. At least a quarter of U.S. employees worked from home at least part of the time before the Covid-19 crisis. An estimated 16 million U.S. knowledge workers started working remotely due to Covid-19 as of March 2020. That number has likely continued to […]