I’ve been thinking about constraints lately. After several years of strong economics, our industry fundamentals are changing rapidly. When faced with a difficult challenge, I can easily get stuck in a binary way of thinking – either/or, black/white, win/lose. But to successfully navigate the challenges ahead, we need to broaden our approach to problem-solving and…
I remember getting my first performance review. I was 23 years old and had been an Airborne Rife Platoon Leader for about six months. I thought things were going great. Our platoon was performing well and had earned a reputation as being one of the better units. I was learning a ton and felt like…
A few weeks ago, I met with several of our wholesale customers. It was a phenomenal meeting which allowed for a lot of discussion. One of the topics of conversation was around communication and the disconnect between what information and market intelligence we’re providing them and what they want more of. As they explained, I recalled a sales…
Brene’ Brown, tells us, “Joy is the most vulnerable emotion.” I had heard her mention it a while ago, but I never fully understood it from a business perspective until recently. Our company has a funny year-end, which allows us to plan for crop years from an agricultural input perspective. As a result, our fiscal…
In the late 1990s, I served as an airborne rifle platoon leader with the US’s Southern European Task Force, the US’s quick reaction force for Europe and Africa. At the time, Africa was in a tough spot, with any number of African countries either actively engaged in civil wars or on the verge of…
Where is the line between professional and personal? Between work and politics? If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that trying to completely separate our work life from our home life often doesn’t work. When one is not working well, the other tends to struggle. In many ways, this is a good thing,…
I’m a news junkie. I’ve missed many morning workouts because I started scrolling through my iPhone news feed from my bed at 5 am and looked up a “few short minutes later” to realize I’d scrolled my way through my workout time. These days, my news habit isn’t just bad for my workout, however, it is bad…
I found myself in an unfortunate place this past week, on an early morning flight from Nashville to Seattle in order to get to the hospital to see my father who was unexpectedly fighting for his life. Dad put up a brave fight but died peacefully on Friday afternoon. M. Wayne Blair of Bainbridge Island, Washington was…
Late last Thursday, after a good day with our leadership team focused on finishing the year strong, I was one of a number of recipients of an email from a teammate at one of our sites expressing significant concern about how things are going at GreenPoint. It was several pages and was blunt. They had…
My thoughts this week center around belonging – about why and how we create a sense of belonging throughout our organizations and teams. Belonging is one of those touchy-feely words which can often make some nervous (the whole “Real men don’t talk about their feelings” so many of us are spending time trying to unlearn),…
