Collaborative Competition…That's Not Possible
The world as we know it wouldn’t exist without collaborative actions and healthy competition. Most of us prefer one of these two ways of thinking and acting over the other, but they are both necessary components of an effective organizational environment. Problems...
Activating Your Communication RADAR™
Are you afraid of giving criticism to others? Could you learn to better craft, interpret, and evaluate messages during performance feedback sessions? Would you like to be calm, objective, and open to criticism during performance feedback sessions? MCS, LLC has created...
Leadership Flashlight
What Flashlight Do You Carry? Finding Your Focus™ What is the difference between a manager and a leader? Imagine that two organizational members are dropped into a pitch black room and both are asked to describe the type of room they are in. Leaders and managers would...
Men, Women, and Newspapers: Know Your Audience
A man in his late 50s constantly cuts out newspaper articles and gives them to his coworkers who he feels would enjoy them. He has worked with this organization for over 20 years and knows all the employees very well, including their personal interests. This man, for...
Check My Attitude? You’re the One with the Problem…
The following scenario recently happened to a good friend. How would you have responded? My good friend Josh is a very successful banker working for one of the largest banks in the country. He worked his way up the corporate ladder and now mentors other bankers often...
Friendship, LLC
How do people navigate the tricky boundary of mixing friendship and business? Most people say that you should never do business with your friends or your family. That mentality is captured in the old proverb, “Blood’s thicker than water, but money’s thicker than...
Workers Need AMMO
A good friend once told me about a successful Texas banking executive who made billions by starting and selling a series of southern banks. In spite of his financial success, he was feared as a businessman rather than respected. He was a shrewd person who held grudges...
Optimism, Pessimism, and Realism
If I read another Facebook post where someone describes themselves as a "realist" I might start pulling out my beard hair, which would really hurt. We live in a cosmopolitan society where lots of different people and opinions bump into one another. Most of us feel the...
Training Hecklers
A few months back I was conducting a training seminar for about 30 law enforcement officials. The title of the presentation was "Mediation Skills in Law Enforcement." After some brief introductions and stereotypical presentation humor, I began to summarize the process...
What do You Know, You’re Too Young? Organizations, Age, and Credibility
During a recent consulting project, an attorney relayed the following quote: When I first began my law career, I lost a lot of cases that I should have won. Now that I’ve been practicing for 20 years, I’ve won a lot of cases that I should have lost. His quote hints at...
