Leader to Leader

I make it a habit to scan LinkedIn on a regular basis to keep up with what is happening with good clients, potential clients, and colleagues. I recently saw that a very good client and friend had made a major career move.

A couple of months ago, my son and his family invited Kathy and me to spend a weekend at “the cabin” in Hayward. It only took us a microsecond to say, “YES!”

As business reopens across the country, many organizations are facing a choice: Should they allow employees working from home during safer-at-home orders to continue that way, or should they bring them back into the office at least some of the time? There are good arguments on both sides.

There is absolutely no doubt that there is a plethora of manure out there in our real world today: coronavirus, riots, protests, lootings, shootings, business shutdowns — the list goes on and on.

The founder of my organization, Dale Carnegie, said that we are creatures of emotion, not logic. Unfortunately, his statement rang all too true this past weekend.

The situation we’re dealing with as leaders and as individuals is unprecedented.

Well, here we are about one month into “safer at home.” An incredible lot of things have happened in the last month.

Being in the business of coaching people and organizations to higher performance levels for over 30 years, I have had the opportunity to see a multitude of changes over the decades.

Early in my career, I will never forget meeting “James.” Right after we got together, I called him “Jim,” thinking the informal was more personal. Not so much. He immediately responded that James was his name. OOPS! I never made that mistake again.

A team needs to be aligned on any team project before proceeding, and unfortunately, it doesn’t happen very frequently.