Archive for March, 2011

When You Fail, Does Your Influence Increase?

Friday, March 25th, 2011

You may notice that I did not say “if” you fail, but “when.” All of us will even­tu­ally dis­ap­point the expec­ta­tions of a fam­ily mem­ber, a team­mate, a cus­tomer, or a friend. We will make a poor deci­sion that may even cause our char­ac­ter to be called into question.

When this hap­pens, we are faced with a crit­i­cal moment. The oppor­tu­nity for our influ­ence to rise or fall.

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How Big is Your Story?

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

Last week my wife and I had the priv­i­lege of attend­ing the 90th birth­day party of Chick-fil-A founder, Truett Cathy. There were more than 1000 peo­ple in atten­dance at this cel­e­bra­tion of his life and legacy.

Most of you are prob­a­bly famil­iar with a part of Truett’s story. You may have read that his com­pany started in 1946 with one restau­rant. You might know that they have more than 1300 restau­rants, run by some of the most service-minded lead­ers in busi­ness today. You might be aware that he lives and leads accord­ing to his faith.

What you may not know is just how big his story is.

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Do You Have a Target For Your Kids?

Friday, March 4th, 2011

You prob­a­bly have spe­cific tar­gets for your busi­ness which are fully devel­oped with strate­gies, objec­tives and goals. But do you have a clear and writ­ten tar­get for your life’s most impor­tant “direct reports”….your children?

Who will they be at age 10? Age 18? Age 25? I’m not talk­ing about what inter­ests they will pur­sue or activ­i­ties they will engage in, but rather the kind of peo­ple they will become.

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