World class business coach, writer, speaker, and all around good guy Verne Harnish regularly reminds anyone who will listen that, “Leaders are Readers.” I agree. My life, as you likely know, revolves around books. Today, though, I want to expand on Verne’s wise statement with a bit of wordplay and some real life lessons that have […]
Many organizations see training as something that happens at the beginning of employment. However, really great organizations recognize training is important at every stage of an employee’s tenure with their company. Perhaps the thought of continuously training your employees leaves you feeling overwhelmed and thinking, how do I find the time to train? This is […]
Eugene Ionesco once said, “It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.” So here’s a question: What if we didn’t think hierarchically? What if we stopped insisting on ranking almost everything from best to worst? What if we weren’t worried about “who was the greatest”? Buried near the back of Part 3 of the Guide to Good Leading […]
A quote from Beat poet Gary Snyder: “There are two things that are really educational. One is being with a bunch of really smart people. The other is being all by yourself.” The regimen that I wrote about in a recent newsletter about the power of picking up the phone—making a couple of random phone […]
When I was 22, I was engaged to be married. My fiancé called the wedding off two months before ‘the big day’… invitations were printed and more. When lamenting to my therapist, I’ve never failed at anything in my life!, he astutely pointed out, If you get what you need out of this relationship, how […]
Interpersonal conflict is something that happens often at work. We don’t like to talk about it, it’s not always the most fun to deal with – but it’s a fact of life. Conflict in general is a fact of life! In fact, conflict is often the basis for transformational change – for businesses, for teams, […]
When you start a new job there’s always a lot to learn—right? That has certainly been my experience, and every manager I’ve ever talked to about staff training has agreed. So when we’re interviewing prospective employees, it makes sense to evaluate not only the skills and knowledge that they bring to the table, but their […]
When you participate in a customer service training seminar at ZingTrain, you will explore how to define great service for your business. Find out why this is an essential first step in the process of improving customer service here and contact ZingTrain to find out when our next customer service training sessions will be offered. […]
Have you ever caught yourself saying, “once things calm down a bit, I’ll …(fill in the blank)”? I don’t know about you, but those “calm times” I keep waiting for don’t ever seem to arrive. So if I don’t just make time for whatever it is I want to accomplish, it’s never going to get […]
How do you welcome new hires into your organization? Do you hand them an apron and point them in the general direction of the deli counter? Do you have them attend several days of classroom training before they ever talk to a customer? Do they learn about your organization’s history and vision from someone in […]
Does this scenario sound at all familiar? “OK, I’m supposed to teach you how we make a sandwich. It’s really simple – I’m sure you already know how to do it. But anyway, just watch me for a while, and then I’ll give you a chance to try.” A few minutes later: “Any questions? I […]
A draft vision for a small Thursday evening Farmer’s Market we host out in the parking lot of Zingerman’s Roadhouse. It’s the longest day of the year; the sun is at its pinnacle of warmth and light. Throngs of people are milling around the Roadhouse parking lot on this Thursday afternoon, amazed and excited at […]
