Have you ever attended a training class looking for “the silver bullet?” I thought about this as I recently watched a documentary on legendary football coach Vince Lombardi. Lombardi is considered to be the greatest coach of his era. He would conduct clinics for assistant coaches around the league who were seeking the secret to his success. During the documentary,…
Jimmy Johnson was the head football coach of the Dallas Cowboys from 1989 through 1994. He had a reputation for being a no-nonsense, disciplinarian who was tough on his players. Falling asleep during one of his meetings was considered a “career-limiting move.” Everyone knew this. Everyone, except for a backup linebacker named John Roper. During a recent interview, Johnson…
You just had ten forklift drivers respond to your State Inspectors ad. Your $$3,000 Google Adwords campaign only generated a $30 oil change. Your new “A” Technician that started on Monday still hasn’t come back from his lunch break. Each of these scenarios has one thing common. They leave you feeling frustrated. This is problematic because it’s impossible to feel…
What’s possible if you become a master of persuasion? As I ponder this question, I’m reminded of something that happened back when I was a shop manager in need of a new car. The shop was 45 minutes away from home, so I was looking for a reliable and dependable vehicle. The plan was to get…
“My tool guy says that everybody’s slow!” Said “Katie”, the service manager of a local repair shop. She was averaging $12,000 per week in sales which was a 16% decrease when compared to the previous year. Katie went on to tell me: “It’s a tough economy, and we’re in the fall season, but I’m sure things will pick up…
How do you achieve a positive outcome in a negative environment? To answer this question, it helps to understand the concept of home-field advantage. In the sports world, teams that play in front of their home crowd, have a better chance of winning than the visiting road opponent. For example, in the National Football League, a…
What’s the biggest barrier that’s blocking your path to success? As I ponder this question, I’m reminded of a story shared by author Ryan Holiday. In his book The Obstacle is The Way, Holiday shares the story about a King from the ancient times, who conducted an interesting experiment with his subjects. The king purposely…
Have you ever wondered what you could do to get the jump on your competition? The answer came to me as I was watching a video presentation that was conducted by motivational speaker Gary Ryan Blair where he provided the following detailed data on the sporting event known as the competitive high jump. During the…
When I was growing up, one of my favorite basketball players was Earvin “Magic”Johnson, who played for the Los Angeles Lakers. He could look in one direction while throwing an accurate pass to a teammate on the opposite side of the court. But that’s not why I liked him. He had the guts to take the…
Are you getting the results you planned for? I thought about this last week as I embarked on my morning run. One of the specific running results that I planned for was to run two miles in under an eight-minute per mile pace. I even watched a running instruction video to learn the correct posture. While running…