Our Blog
This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
OKWe may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.
Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.
These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.
Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.
We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.
We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.
These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.
If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:
We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.
Google Webfont Settings:
Google Map Settings:
Google reCaptcha Settings:
Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:
The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:
Can you admit your mistakes?*
/in Sharpening Your Personal Leadership Skills/by Tom DoescherI recently read an article about Lance Armstrong in which the writer said, “NBC’s ‘Rock Center’ recently covered Lance Armstrong’s fall from grace, and they show that the scandal is much worse than merely doping. The lengths that Armstrong went to in order to cover up his misdeeds were much worse than the doping itself.”
Some of you either remember the Watergate scandal or have read about it. Most would say that it was the elaborate cover-up that caused President Nixon’s resignation, not the break-in itself.
So, what is the business application? It’s simple: Tell the truth. We all make mistakes and bad decisions, we say things we regret, and so on. If you want to build credibility with your team, admit it when you are wrong. Avoid sugar-coating problems and making excuses.
Recently I experienced a great example of this ideal. I have a client who is an Air Force major reservist pilot. She invited me to go on a KC-135 refueling exercise (someone had to go with her, might as well be me), and I sat in the cockpit right behind her and her boss. I had my own set of headphones, so I could listen to their communications. They were taking turns at the controls and, at one point; my client determined the aircraft was off course. Her boss, a colonel, was quick to admit it was his fault. So there I was, listening in, and I heard a military superior telling his subordinate he had made a mistake. Wow! Later, my client told me the colonel is a great boss and leader.
My question to you is this: Do you admit your mistakes? Do you have a culture where your team members take responsibility for their mistakes? This is a trait we observe in the best companies.
p.s. For those of you with children, I would say this is one of the best things you can do to build a strong relationship with them.
*Disclaimer: We are not picking on someone when they are down!
Do you really believe what you say?
/in Sharpening Your Personal Leadership Skills/by Tom DoescherI just read an article about Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant entitled “Japan Utility Says Nuclear Crisis Could Have Been Avoided”. I then went to the Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (TEPCO) website, and this is what it says: “TEPCO strongly wishes to be a nuclear power plant operator which has the world’s highest level of safety awareness, engineering capabilities and risk communication ability with society”.
Before I make my point, I want to stress two things: First, I realize the company may have added this wording to their website in response to the accident that occurred in March of 2011; and second, my intention is not to pick on TEPCO.
However, the wording on the company’s website hit a nerve with me. As businesspeople, do we really believe what we say, or are we willing to stretch the truth strictly for the purpose of looking good? My experience tells me that you can’t answer this question with any certainty until you are really tested.
The other day I was talking with a business owner who told me he needed to remove one of the senior executives because of some unacceptable behavior that had violated the company’s values. The owner told me that several years earlier, the expelled executive had been warned about his behavior.
The owner went on to say, “I hated to let him go, since this executive ran a very profitable division and we really need him right now. But it was the right thing do.”
This is where the rubber hits the road. Do you have a situation like TEPCO, where you know there are problems and you should act, but are not? Do you have a senior member of your team who violates your principles, but you look the other way because he makes your company a lot of money? Do you really believe what you say, and live by your principles and values?
Are you holding your team accountable?
/in Ideas to help you build a solid team/by Tom DoescherOne of my favorite books is Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?, by Louis V. Gerstner Jr. In his closing comments, he says, “People do what you inspect, not what you expect.” I was reminded of this thought-provoking advice when I read “What happened to accountability?” by Tom Ricks in the October 2012 issue of the Harvard Business Review. Instead of me attempting to summarize a great article, the following is a link to a 13-minute interview of Ricks about his book.
Listen to the interview and read the article
As a leader/business owner, would you say you’re more like General Marshall or General Taylor?