When you hear the word holiday, what comes to mind? If you’re like most people, shopping, parties, sales, and catalogs rank near the top of your list — while more shopping, parades, a day off, and football follow closely behind. Wouldn’t you think that holidays would be more meaningful to us? The truth is, many… [Read More]
Win-Win Business Relationships
Formal contracts don’t make successful relationships, people do. It requires a willingness to create a foundation on which trust, loyalty, and commitment can be built. Remember, every relationship is unique and must be treated as special. The basic rule is that you get what you put into the relationship. A partnership is successful to the… [Read More]
Call Me . . . Maybe
Would you use voicemail to fire someone, recite your marriage vows in an e-mail, or end a romantic relationship via text? –– Of course not. But unfortunately, these communication media are used inappropriately every day. The fact is, each form of communication — face-to-face conversations, telephone calls, social media, e-mails, and texting — has its… [Read More]
Be Humble: Don’t Let Success Go to Your Head
Their stories are all too common: After years of hard work pursuing the American Dream, these self-motivated high achievers reach the pinnacle of success that’s so richly deserved. And — you guessed it; they let success go to their head. Whatever happened to being humble? These folks think they’re so special. They buy expensive “toys”… [Read More]
Friends Forever
Friends Forever
There’s More to Friendship Than Friending
When I was young, my friend let me borrow the red crayon from his new box. So I let him ride my bike. When we got older, my friend defended me in a snowball fight and sat with me at lunch so I wouldn’t have to eat alone. Years later, when we were in high… [Read More]
ACTIONS Speak Louder Than Words
The car with a religious bumper sticker just cut me off. The parent makes the rules and then routinely breaks them. The leader just asked everyone to scale back and then spends like there’s no tomorrow. The politician says, “Trust me,” but we quickly learn that his promises are empty. The truth is, talk is… [Read More]
The Values on Which Trust Rests
Trust must be carefully constructed, vigorously nurtured, and constantly reinforced. Trust is established over time, gradually, through a long chain of successful experiences. Building trusting relationships is a process that can best be described as stacking layers on a foundation one at a time in such a way that each layer bonds on top of… [Read More]