People either inspire you to greatness, or pull you down in the gutter. It’s that simple. “No one fails alone, and no one succeeds alone.” – Jon Bonhotal You’re either inspiring or you’re dragging someone down. You can consider whether that’s true for you, but I believe the idea is valid. Others watch what you do and consider the difference you are making. Do you show up on time? Do you work hard and make a strong effort? […]

One of the influential books in my life was The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey.  Though published in 1989, it’s still in print and judged to be one of the best 10 leadership books ever written.  It’s still in publication over 30 years later. While I highly recommend that you get a copy to read, or download a copy to listen to as you commute, it’s worth sharing a summary of […]

This is a blatant cut-and-paste job on my part of a post by educator Danny Steele. I’ve adopted a couple of thoughts from reading about Teach for America, an innovative teacher training program that recruits non-traditional candidates to teach underserved students in impoverished areas. The thoughts are: “Teaching is leadership.” The teacher is committed to leading students to a better learning experience. “If the student hasn’t learned, the teacher hasn’t taught.” This statement challenges the […]

“A winner says, ‘There ought to be a better way.’ A loser says, ‘That’s the way we’ve always done it here.’” – Steve Spurrier, Hall of Fame coach Things change fast these days. We are confronted with daily challenges. Trucks are in short supply. People are in short supply. Technology allows us to analyze things more quickly. Most of you carry around powerful computers in your pockets. Change means everything must be re-examined. Things that […]

“A player doesn’t do things for one of two reasons only. Either he doesn’t know or he doesn’t feel like it. It’s a leader’s job to make sure they know and to motivate them to feel like it.” – Chip Kelley, UCLA head football coach The responsibility of leadership has been growing. These days the level of preparation people bring to work effectively is different. While we wish folks entered our workspace fully ready to […]

I saw a tweet on George Washington’s approach to leadership, which was: Listen, learn, and help; then lead. Listen. When entering a situation, many of us will try to share our competencies and strengths immediately. We want the new people to know our capabilities. But Washington says to hold your tongue. Open your ears. Spend some quality time getting the lay of the land before speaking up. Learn. Listening sets you up to learn. As you gather […]

I had a “bad” boss once. He was bad enough that it made it easy for me to move on when I had another opportunity presented to me. What made him “bad?” He criticized publicly. He had no problem telling you in front of others when you had fallen short. You felt embarrassed if you were the victim. You also felt embarrassed to watch it happen to someone else. The net effect was the whole […]

“Bet on leadership. Growing leaders build growing organizations.” If you haven’t noticed, PalletOne and Sunbelt have been growing since joining UFP. While I have the honor of having the big title in our organization, it’s pretty clear that we can only meet the challenges and opportunities presented to us by having good leaders throughout our organization. It’s my ambition that everyone who receives a check from us is in a position to receive the extra […]

While at the National Wooden Pallet and Container Association, speaker Mike Paton said that we should evaluate how we match up with our jobs by using the acronym, GWC: Gets it – Your current job aligns with your skills, ability, education, and interest. You “get” what it takes to do the job. Wants it – Your job excites you. You look forward to it. Your participation in your job gives you a feeling of satisfaction, competency, and accomplishment. Capacity to […]

I’ve been listening to a podcast called Flying Coach, which features LA Rams head football coach and NFL journalist Peter Schrager interviewing other NFL coaches.  All the interviews are of younger coaches. Candidly, it’s full of football jargon and could be hard to follow, but these are young people who have reached the top of their game.  Their insights are interesting. A standard question asked of every guest is: “What advice do you have for […]