I was on a phone call earlier this week with a client who has 40 employees. He told me about the sudden resignation of one his long-time managers. Here’s the story he shared with me.

“Last week at our quarterly management meeting, one of my key operations managers turned in his resignation. As we discussed the issue, he said all the extra pressure was too much for him to handle. I was thinking to myself, we haven’t even given him any more work to do. All we did was clarify expectations and improve our communication...   

The Core Focus clearly defines your company’s sweet spot – work you love to do and are best at. Used properly, it helps you stay laser-focused on the stuff you do that most consistently delights your customers, makes you money, and allows you to have the most fun. To get it right, you’ve got to resist the temptation to try being all things to all people, and to ignore “shiny stuff.”

This sounds easy, but is often very hard, and surprisingly costly. One of my clients admitted this last week – and the story was so good I asked him to write a guest blog on the subject. Enjoy…

Trust in Teams Is Fundamental For Their Success

But what does trust really imply? Here Patrick Lencioni, best-selling author, consultant and expert on building winning teams, discusses the importance of trust and the difference between predictive trust and vulnerability-based trust within a company.

When we first met, one of my clients was struggling with significant turnover. They had been operating with the mentality of hiring fast and firing fast. Whenever they had an opening, they hired as fast as they could to fill the void. After all, they had customer orders to fulfill and they needed people in place to do it. The problem was that not everyone was the right person for their company—they really didn’t share the company core values or fit into the culture.

I’m a bit of a nature lover so for my weekly “Clarity Break,” I wake up early on Sunday mornings and walk in nature. One of my favorite things to do is to be peaceful and observe the proven processes of how nature works. It’s disciplined, has a rhythm, it is repeatable and scalable.