Ever seen a diagram of a football play? Players are represented by X's and O's, and their movements and responsibilities are specifically and carefully detailed -- block this guy, run this direction, throw the ball there. When everyone executes, the play is successful. Run enough successful plays and you win the game. Win enough games and you have a successful season.

Pole Pole – pronounced Polay Polay – means slowly, slowly in Swahili. Our guide hiking up Kilimanjaro (and later assistant guide if you read my previous blog) kept saying this over and over. Admittedly, I’m not the most patient person in the world – so this Pole Pole thing kind of ticked me off.

If you google – Warren Buffett Pilot Advice – you will be pointed at all sorts of blogs recounting a story similar to the blog post James Clear wrote entitled Warren Buffett’s 2 List Strategy: How to Maximize Your Focus and Master Your Priorities. You can read his whole blog post here.

It is common for individuals in a business not to trust each other. That lack of trust causes teammates to be less open and honest and more guarded in their interaction with each other. As Patrick Lencioni details in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, low trust ultimately leads to poor results, so building a high trust team must be a priority for any business.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a morning appointment with a business owner, and an afternoon appointment with another executive (from a different company). The two meetings couldn’t have been more different. One was excited about her future, knew where she wanted to go and was asking… what if we need to hire more people, where will they sit? What if we have so many orders we can’t fulfill them on time? We proceeded to make plans for these situations and put the plans into action!