Movement Mortgage has adopted one of those sweet-sounding mission statements that doesn’t tell you much about what the company does but that tells you plenty about who they think they are. It goes like this: “We exist to love and value people by leading a Movement of Change in our industry, corporate cultures, and communities.” Those types of mission statements are great, but they always cause me to ask...

How do you know if you love what you do for a living? It’s a simple question that seems straight-forward enough, but it’s not always easy to answer. Many people would instinctively say something like, “I just know” or “I can just feel that it’s right” or “I definitely know the opposite – when I don’t love what I do.” Those aren’t wrong answers, th...

Ever noticed how the drive toward perfection that fuels our success also ends up running right over our happiness? Call it the Perfectionist’s Dilemma. Yes, the pursuit of excellence pushes us toward greatness. But as Dr. Marissa Pei points out, it typically leads us into a cycle of perfectionism, procrastination, and paralysis that never ends in happiness. Pei is an organizational psychologist who’s go...

A Lesson from the Un-Friendly Skies of United Airlines 4/13/17 by Michael Kennedy “Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense.”~ Ralph Waldo Emerson They’re called “Moments of Truth,” those critical points of customer contact that can make or break a business. Every interaction with a company makes us feel either better or worse than before we arrived. These...

It’s important to do business with people we like, but I confess a tendency to let my emotions drive too many of those types of decisions. I conduct what Justin Recla calls “intuitive due diligence,” and if the other person passes my gut-check, I’m eager to roll forward with a deal. That’s not a wise approach, Recla says, and he knows a few things about due diligence. The army veteran and hi...

When you’re building a culture that matters, the mission matters. Researchers with Deloitte, for instance, found that “mission-driven” companies typically are first or second in their market segment, have 30 percent higher levels of innovation, and have 40 percent higher retention levels. Neil Gill faced this challenge in 2015 when he took over as president and CEO of Dogtopia, which offers daycare, boa...

The entertainment industry has mastered the art of self-recognition, but it’s not exactly a model for the rest of the world. It costs more than $20 million, for instance, to put on the annual Academy Awards shindig. Those little golden statues they give away? Roughly $45,000 each. And this weekend the music industry will celebrate itself by taking over the Staples Center, handing out Grammy Awards, and jamming alon...

If you are one of those people who really believes no good deed goes unpunished, then you might find very little value in kindness. I, however, believe most people see kindness as a pretty good thing. But is it essential to the success of your business? Is it more than just a morally good best-practice? Does it have, you know … monetary value? Absolutely. Kindness, you might recall, is part of the love-at-wo...

Singapore boasts the second-most competitive economy in the world, according to the World Economic Forum, so it’s no surprise that their people are highly driven. The first time I traveled there as a keynote speaker, however, I was encouraged to see that their competitiveness didn’t shut the door on what I call a Greater Than Yourself (GTY) mindset. Simply put, the greatest leaders are the ones who make other...

One of the things I learned while writing one of my books, Greater Than Yourself, is that finding a mentor can be difficult — but finding a protégé is even more daunting. And, I would argue, far more important. There’s no perfect way to pick someone. But since we’re in the closing days of National Mentoring Month, this is the perfect time to start figuring it out for yourself. How?...