You are stranded on a desert island and only get to take 5 albums with you. What are they? Greatest Hits albums are cheating. Since the Five Friends are all huge music lovers we loved doing this one [...]
The Five Friends share ideas to make your business better in this special video version of the Five Friends blog. See what Scott McKain, Larry Winget, Joe Calloway, Mark Sanborn, and I have to [...]
From Mark Sanborn: The quick answer is that my greatest inspiration comes from my faith, family and friends, in that order. While true, that answer is incomplete. On a practical level there is a fourth [...]
“Our organization isn’t working as well as it needs to be. Things aren’t bad. They used to be much better. The just aren’t that way now.” Every leader has, at some point, felt that everything [...]
From Scott McKain: My buddy, former Vietnam POW Charlie Plumb, called me last week. “Since you’re in town, why don’t you come over for dinner? My friend Dick, you and I can grab something.” Sounded [...]
Uncertainty is everywhere. In fact, the list of potential disruptions reads like the script from the Ginsu Knife commercials of the 1980’s—just when you think you have identified all of the potential challenges, someone says [...]
A prospect recently asked my fee for a one-hour speech. Their response to my answer was, “I thought plumbers and electricians were expensive.” With absolutely no disrespect to those who work in the trades, my [...]
Billy Crystal gave voice to what we all have felt: “Change is so hard.” Change, by definition, causes at least some level of discomfort. If it happens easily and overnight, it isn’t really change. That [...]
What does the future look like? It is difficult to be 100 percent certain, but here are six trends that I believe will be a big part of our lives and work going forward: Customer [...]
From Larry Winget: If you have lousy employees, it’s because you are a lousy employer. Your employees will be no better than you ar Fix yourself first. Your employees only reflect back to you who [...]
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. The old clichés really are the best aren’t they? Especially when applied to the annual ritual of establishing [...]
My friend – and one of the Five Friends bloggers – Mark Sanborn wrote an excellent blog post last week titled “Why You Might Want to Stop Being a Thought Leader.” The premise is that [...]
Years ago I visited the transportation museum at Fort Eustis, Virginia. There was a wall as you entered that contained campaign battle ribbons dating back to the earliest wars and military conflicts for the United [...]
The death of Michael Brown and the subsequent events are a tragedy. Everywhere you look someone is blaming an individual or group for the anger, hurt, riots, looting, building burning, and feelings of injustice that [...]
Random acts of wow are wonderful. Do them. But that’s not where you’ll win or lose the game. Don’t think that some once-a-year special thing that you do ever takes the place of being the best at what matters most consistently.