Leadership Development

Leadership Development

Why The Way We Talk to Ourselves Matters So Much

Breathe.That’s most certainly a suggestion, not an order. If you’re game, go for it again. Breathe. Many mornings, I write that word when I’m journaling. Sometimes I might write it every few lines as I’m getting going. Each time I write it, I take a deep, slow breath (as I did just now). Mindful breathing won’t fix […]

Leadership Development

Leading Every Day with Dignity

There have been a lot of mentions in the news of late about badly behaved anarchists, sinisterly dressed in black, throwing rocks and causing riots. I usually just ignore stuff like this in the news—it’s just old biases continuing to be bandied about as they have since Emma Goldman started public speaking. The other day […]

Leadership Development

Leaders Are Weeders, Part II

In Part I of this post, I wrote a bunch about how I got going on the idea of Leaders as Weeders. This morning, just to get myself in the mood, I did ten minutes of weeding while I was on the phone with my friend Aisling from Fumbally Café in Dublin, just before I started my morning […]

Leadership Development

Leaders Are Weeders, Part I

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 […]

Leadership Development

Pulling Back the Curtain: An Interview with Ari Weinzweig

If you’re familiar with Zingerman’s and our approach to business, you may know that we believe in sharing information lavishly. Whether that’s financial information, what we’re working on, how we’re pivoting in this “new normal”, all of it – we’re sharing.  Check out this informal conversation with Zingerman’s Founding Partner and CEO, Ari Weinzweig & […]

Leadership Development

The 12 Natural Laws of Business During a Crisis

Every day brings new challenges, which is always true. But sometimes – like right now, during a global pandemic – the challenges are coming faster and seem especially jarring. Trying to navigate a global pandemic, a nose-diving economy and a crisis of confidence in our government and social systems can drain anyone’s energy. Talking with trusted friends […]

Leadership Development

Tools For Leading When You’re Not the Leader

What’s the difference between a leader and a manager?  As you consider this question, a clear distinction between the two may come to mind. However, what if these roles aren’t mutually exclusive? After all, many managers are great leaders, and many leaders don’t hold (and have never held) an official title that would identify them […]

Leadership Development

3 Tools to Shift from a Fixed Mindset to a Growth Mindset

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 […]

Leadership Development

The Thomas-Kilmann Model: A helpful tool for examining how you respond to conflict

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, […]

Customer Service

The Leader’s Role in Creating a Culture of Great Service

At Zingerman’s we have what we call a Culture Sandwich – the recipe we use to create the organizational culture we want. Being as committed as we are to Service, we’ve been particularly cognizant of the steps in the Culture Recipe when it comes to creating a culture of Great Service here at Zingerman’s. Of […]

Leadership Development

Mind Your Mindfulness

In the soon-to-be-released Part 3 of Ari’s Guide to Good Leading series, an entire “secret” (or chapter to those not familiar with the format of the books) is dedicated to Mindfulness. Mindfulness Matters, Ari says. Here is how he opens the chapter : “Self-management, it turns out, sometimes starts in strange places. This is the […]

Leadership Development

Zingerman’s Path to Partnership

A couple of weeks ago, Zingerman’s Community of Businesses welcomed a new business and a new managing partner into the fold. This is a very big deal for us. When Paul Saginaw, co-founder of Zingerman’s, addressed those that had gathered, he said “This act is the height of what we had envisioned.” Join us for […]