3 Traits to Survive Tremendous Stress & Change | Gary Sheely

From as early as I can remember, a boy named Craig Waterman lived next door to me in a basement apartment with his mother and sister, Michelle. Craig was 9 years older than me, and was friendly and kind. I admired him like a big brother. The Vietnam War raged, and when I was 11, Craig was drafted. A few months later he was killed in action. For me, the war came home in Craig’s place.
This led me to some fairly unhealthy pre-adolescent pondering about what his experience might have been in the firefight in which he died. In my professional life this same fixation settled into a deep interest in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And what emerged as the most significant facet of my interest is what multiple studies have confirmed are the personality factors that protected the 25% of combat veterans who did not develop PTSD. These highly stress-resistant individuals are characterized by 3 traits:

Ultimate Productivity | Jim Stovall

All of us want to get more out of our personal and professional lives. Accomplishing this goal will require us to be more productive in every area. Productivity is simply the process of achieving more results in areas where we… Read more »

How To Make Better Individual Decisions

The latest issue of a national weekly newspaper recently arrived in my mailbox with the cover story: “The World’s Most Admired CEO’s.” The headline prompted me to recall a recent study suggesting that nearly 90% of common stock investors will… Read more »

Employee Retention | Profit and Customer Retention

Imagine the devastation your organization could experience if you lost your best, most well-trained, highest producing employees. How can you prevent that calamity? Take into consideration: Customer service disruptions; potentially losing profitable clients. Opportunity costs incurred: hiring replacements and their learning… Read more »

A New Perspective On Business Ethics: Promote Greater Profits

Early in Xerox’s history, the company’s founder, who was then working in government, returned to Xerox because he couldn’t understand how their newer, better machine was selling so poorly in relation to their older, inferior machine. When he looked into the situation, he found that the commission arrangement for the salesmen was far greater for the inferior machine.
If we desire employees, managers, or executives to behave in certain ways we must ensure that systems exist that reward them for the behaviors and outcomes we desire. In the case of the Xerox salesmen, an outdated commission structure existed that encouraged them to sell their customers an inferior and probably over-priced product – a potentially unethical and unprofitable business activity for both parties.

Cut Your Losses Before They Cut You

The two top executives at Intel some years ago, when their main business was making memory chips, were in a situation where their memory business was in ruins. As the story goes, these two gentlemen were preparing themselves for their… Read more »