Build a great company on a powerful foundation!
GALLUP DOES SOME AMAZING WORK.
If you haven’t been following their “State of the Workplace” research, you should. Especially if you care to attract and retain great people, and motivate them to excellence.
That’s why I was excited this week to get the notification of their updated report, available for free on their website.
HOW WELL DO YOU REWARD your employees for aligning with your company’s values?
OK, honestly, how many of your employees actually remember what your values are?
This is a critical question, because your people can only be expected to align with what they remember, and what is reinforced by your systems and culture.
That’s why I found the recent article by David Lee to be powerful: Read the rest of this entry »
JASON BRABSON IS CHANGING THE FACE of non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) in Fort Collins.
You might remember that I wrote about Heart and Soul Paratransit last year, and the progress he’s made has been amazing. If you recall, this business is dedicated to transporting infirm and disabled for medical treatment.
That’s what taxi services, Dial-A-Ride and Dial-A-Taxi supposed to do, of course, but the service is … unpredictable and unreliable.
IN THE 1960s, Paul Simon wrote a song entitled Fakin’ It. Here’s the second verse:
I’m such a dubious soul,
And a walk in the garden
Wears me down.
Tangled in the fallen vines,
Pickin’ up the punch lines,
I’ve just been fakin’ it,
Not really makin’ it.
This really speaks to the imposter syndrome which strikes a great many business leaders.
The truth is that we all feel weak and unsettled inside. We all feel like we’re fakin’ it.
JESSICA VERDERAME IS ABOUT HELPING KIDS, primarily supporting their success in school.
She started out in New York as a substitute teacher, supplementing her income as a tutor with a local franchise of Club Z! In-Home Tutoring Services.
That’s how she got hooked.
She ended up here in Fort Collins as an Elementary teacher and specialist in literacy with the local school district, and decided to invest in a Club Z! franchise herself.
2016 WAS A BRUTAL YEAR for relationships in this country. With so much focus on political divisiveness, we took many steps backward in civility.
It’s time to repair the damage.
That’s why I was so intrigued by a presentation I saw this week from Kathy Ziola at the ICF Colorado meeting.
Kathy has spent many years studying and teaching about Compassionate Conversations. As the head of Communication Works in Denver, she is dedicated to non-violent communication.
THIS IS THE TIME OF YEAR when we talk about planning and goal-setting.
Which is a wonderful thing.
But we have to recognize that longing for a better future and even planning for it is not what creates it. At the end of the day, it’s about action.
ARIANA FRIEDLANDER IS A MISFIT.
In fact, she’s made a business out of it!
I met Ariana a few years ago, and was inspired by her energy and creativity. But it’s always been a bit of a struggle for me to describe what she does.
THIS IS AN AMAZING, wonderful day for Christians. But if you don’t have a particularly Christian business, why is this important?
Because we’re real people. And our employees. And customers.
The human things matter. It’s not like business is a machine we can set in the corner and ignore.
THIS TIME OF YEAR tends to get a bit slower for me. More reflective, thoughtful.
For others, it can be crazy season. Especially if you’re in retail.
But it’s still important to have a time when you can pull back from the details and look at the bigger picture.
The Values-Based Business 