CEO Blog Archive - PalletOne Inc.

Recent Articles

Embracing Bad News: The Path to Courage and Teamwork

If you ever watched the classic movie The Godfather, you might remember this quote: “If your car could take me to the airport, Mr. Corleone is a man who insists on hearing bad news immediately.” The speaker, Tom Hagen—the Godfather’s lawyer and confidant—learned that holding back rough information wasn’t the best idea. “Bad news” is bad news. While we might wish that bad news never comes up, the best way to handle it is to confront

Howe Q Wallace February 27, 2025

Define Yourself by What You Love

“Define yourself by what you love.” – Tim Minchin I recently watched a commencement address by Australian comedian Tim Minchin at the University of Western Australia, where he shared nine unconventional yet wise life lessons. You can watch the full speech here. One of the key lessons he shared is captured in this quote. Tim challenges our common tendency to focus on and vocalize our dislikes—whether it’s things we disapprove of, find irritating, criticize, or simply

Howe Q Wallace February 27, 2025

High-Character Leadership: What You Do Counts

I listened to a discussion on the importance of high-character leadership to a company’s success and learned some interesting insights. One, companies with high-character leadership earn more and persist longer. Two, almost all leaders claim to conduct themselves with high character—but saying you are high character and acting with high character are different things. The companies that truly have high-character leaders are those whose teammates and stakeholders affirm this in independent surveys. In this study,

Howe Q Wallace February 17, 2025

Embracing Purpose: Who You Are Becoming Matters

“Who you are becoming is more important than who you have been.” – Unknown Do you have a sense of purpose? I was reading an article recently about living a “good life.” A study tracked a group of men from their late teens until they died. Some subjects went on to live a good life, while others fell short of expectations. In sorting out the difference between the good and the sub-optimal, researchers identified seven

Howe Q Wallace February 10, 2025

Choosing the Path of Courage: Lessons in Leadership

Everyone travels a road. Every trail has forks. Every fork has choices. Usually, one is well-traveled. The other is not. You get to pick. In his poem “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost says choosing the one “less traveled” can make an enormous difference. To me, choosing the less traveled path means: I have courage. I’m willing to do what others won’t. The adventurous will have a richer life than those who follow. Once you

Howe Q Wallace February 6, 2025

Keep the Momentum: Drive Continuous Success

“In life, when you have momentum, you have to keep it. When you lose it, you have to build it.” — Ryan Day, Ohio State’s national championship-winning head coach. Do you stay alert to momentum? As you begin each day, it seems you have two options. You can build on the momentum you ended with the day before, or you may have to take action to get it going. There’s no such thing as staying

Howe Q Wallace February 5, 2025

From Stacking Lumber to Building Expertise

Traditionally, at a pallet plant, an entry-level job involved stacking lumber. Stacking lumber repeatedly for a full shift is demanding. It requires physical strength and stamina. In my years, I’ve seen many enter the role only to leave it quickly, saying the work is hard, mindless, or a dead end—offering no clear path forward. I was listening to Jenny Cavnar on a podcast. She is the first woman to serve as a play-by-play announcer in

Howe Q Wallace February 3, 2025

Building a Lean Culture: Mindset and Action

“Lean” thinking creates a willingness to try new things. We have taught 6S, which focuses on safely reorganizing and establishing ways to maintain our spaces. We have conducted Kaizen events, which are intensive efforts to quickly transform a place or process. As you engage in these practices, we hope it changes your way of looking at the world, especially at work. We hope that when you see disorder, your mind says, “That’s not lean.” We

Howe Q Wallace December 26, 2024

The Power of “Why” in Lean Practices

Asking “why” is one of the key strategies for achieving better “lean” practices. If you are new to the company, you may see us doing something one way, and it seems like there is a better way. The tendency might be to step back and remain silent. Most new people assume that the long-term employees have been doing it longer and probably know what they are doing. But that isn’t always the case. It is

Howe Q Wallace December 24, 2024

Lean and Safety: A Better Pace for a Safer Place

A team member recently wrote to me about a previous safety note, sharing thoughts on our May safety results and their connection to more than just our attention to new team members entering the plant. “I truly believe that Lean is having a major impact on safety. Through the last several months of Lean, I’ve noticed that everyone works at a different pace than before. Before Lean, we worked in what could be described as

Howe Q Wallace December 3, 2024

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Articles About Leadership

THE JUICE IS WORTH THE SQUEEZE

“Everything you want is on the other side of ‘hard’.” – CJ McCollum, NBA player McCollum is a story of overachievement. He was undersized. Played college basketball at a non-descript school. Was a long shot to be an NBA player but worked his way to being a first-round draft pick and was a solid star in his 10th year in the league. I heard him describe his approach to the game and his development on a podcast called

Howe Q. Wallace March 25, 2024

HAPPENING TO THE WORLD – A SATISFYING WAY TO LIVE

PalletOne leaders “happen to the world.” What does that mean? A PalletOne leader is confident. Each situation creates an opportunity for service and contribution. We are talented and put those talents to work. We see those around us as having talent. We seek to unlock it. We realize that we can be called upon to take the initiative to improve things at any moment. We act when the situation calls for it. We inspire through

Howe Q. Wallace March 25, 2024

SUFFERING AND CHALLENGES

“Weep, trust, pray, think, shift, hope, grow. Ways to handle suffering.” – Tim Keller Tim Keller was a preacher from New York City. He passed away in 2023. I followed him on Twitter because he tweeted profound thoughts like the one above. You don’t exit life without tough things happening to you. It’s a fact. None of us are exempt. In specific order, Keller gave us seven verbs to consider when challenged: Weep – It’s

Howe Q. Wallace March 22, 2024