This week I heard a Podcast where Clay Scroggins was interviewed about his new book entitled How to Lead When You Are Not In Charge.   The book is the personal story of the leadership lessons learned by Clay starting from an intern to a Church Pastor.   Don't discount the leadership advice from a pastor!  If you have ever had the opportunity to lead in a nonprofit, you know that this is the hardest leadership job available.

On November 10th I heard Stephen Gaffeny speak at the monthly meeting of the Institute for Excellence in Sales.   Stephen is known as the "honesty expert".   In this talk, he was applying his ideas to sales prospects, but his tools are applicable to executives team and marriages as well.

Change will happen whether you embrace or resist it.   A taxi driver may talk about Uber as an evil force, and the sales person can resist online ordering for fear of her job.   Resisting market forces will not stop them.   Rather than resisting market forces, one may need to update her skills from an order taker to someone who creates a connection with a customer.   The neighborhood baker had to change his offering when supermarkets started selling baked goods.   Change in the marketplace creates the opportunity to differentiate by offering an experience through a human connection.

In my experience, reference checking is one of the best ways to determine a good fit for a potential employee or vendor.   Unfortunately, when I have been asked to provide references as a potential employee or vendor, few have followed up to talk with the reference.    Of the references who were interviewed, the conversations tended to be short.   In some cases, the reference checker might have already made their decision and is just going through the motions.    In other cases, the reference checker might be inexperienced at asking great questions.