Meet our ROCC stars from Two Men and a Truck

This is a picture of Mary Ellen, Melanie, Brig and Jon–the family that founded and runs Two Men and a Truck, International. Their story is amazing and is prominently featured in our new book, “Trust is Everything: Become the Leader Others Will Follow.” Mary Ellen founded the company and trusted her kids to [...]

Hold onto Trust in Changing Times

The first thing to go when times get tough is trust–we tend to hoard information and resources and keep all of the decision making close at hand.  All of these actions reinforce distrust–people wonder why you aren’t sharing information and then they don’t share information either.  People wonder why you won’t share resources and then [...]

GM to Cut Spending Further, but No New Growth Plans Announced

This from today’s Wall Street Journal:
General Motors Corp., battered by a steep decline in U.S. sales, said Tuesday it will raise $15 billion in liquidity by 2009 through potential asset sales, cost cutting and other financing measures as the auto maker attempts to weather a tough downturn in the U.S. market.
Amid the bleak operating environment, [...]

Google Tries to Ignore Economics, Employees, and Public Opinion

Well, well, well.  It appears that Google is indeed like most other companies, and not an entity unto itself.  It thought I could ignore 1) the Law of Supply and Demand, 2) its own employees’ opinions, and 3) public opinion.  It definitely couldn’t ignore 1).  We’ll see how long it can ignore 2) and 3).
According [...]

Another ROCC Star, Dr. Kevin Lobdell

Aneil and Kevin are in Toledo, Ohio today, giving a talk entitled “Quality Improvement and Transformational Change:  The Role of the Trusted Leader” to physicians, staff, and health care managers at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center.
Kevin Lobdell, M.D. is Director of the Adult and Pediatric CV Critical Care, and is Associate Director of the Cardiothoracic [...]

Are You Too Busy to Do What’s Important?

This from a recent Wall Street Journal article by Carol Hymowitz:

Far more than their predecessors, top executives face many demands from many different people. “Where CEOs a decade ago may have had five choices, they have 100 — and because they’re under more scrutiny, they’re more pressured to be visible and make themselves available,” says [...]

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

In my teaching, I emphasize the need to overcome the status quo.  That not only applies to your organization, but yourself, as I said in today’s Wall Street Journal:

Pay attention to metrics. Lackluster progress reports and not hearing feedback from a supervisor is a good way to tell if your work has become routine. Aneil [...]

We Got the Beat!

Make that the Michigan Business Beat.  Karen was interviewed last week about our book on the WJIM’s Michigan Business Beat program with Chris Holman.  Chris was especially interested in our discussion of Two Men and a Truck, International.  Here’s the podcast of Karen’s interview last week which was broadcast on June 14.
And yes, Maggie and [...]

Some doctors build trust, some don’t

We are sparse on our posts this week because we’ve been in and out of the hospital with our 13-year old daughter. This experience gave us plenty of time to examine the ROCC of Trust in many doctors (and would-be doctors) to see if they are practicing what we are preaching.
The most disturbing example [...]

Leadership and the Internet

Karen is teaching digital marketing this summer term and the focus is how organizations can create more conversations with its stakeholders.
In this issue of Business Week, Jack and Suzy Welch respond to the question of how the internet will change leadership.  They basically decide that more dialogue is a good thing if managers respond to [...]