Grown men in tank tops usually aren’t my jam, but… can they teach us something about leading?

Grown men in tank tops usually aren’t my jam. So when Pat McAfee made his appearance on Gameday this year to replace a former Georgia football player that looked really good in a suit (more my jam), I was like what the heck?  I watched him for a minute, determined he was there to sensationalize, pull in a different type of audience, and create some new dynamic I wasn’t into. I thought I’d lost a little bit of respect for the Saturday morning football institution, even if Corso is still there picking his favorite team, glorified mascot head and all. 

How to Get Millions Back in the Workforce

a kid with multicolored hand paint

During the pandemic, it was estimated that between two and three million women left the workforce. While there are signs that women are returning towards pre-pandemic levels, there are still a variety of sectors, especially care workers, that have not recovered and signs don’t point to an optimistic outcome.  Why?  Women are largely those that leave the workforce to provide care for children and or the elderly. Providing care makes it difficult for women to work, especially in more traditional sectors where workers must be present and work hours that don’t align with school and care options. This is especially

The Economics of Union Activity

Supply and Demand. The first lesson of Economics, or at least I remember it that way. The most important lesson of economics as I remember it.  Maybe I’m remembering it wrong, but I think the issues of the supply and demand of labor need to be reinforced when we think about anything and everything that is going on in our world. And one of those things is union activity.  The issues at Starbuck, Amazon, UPS… the list goes on and on about union organization and in the media seems on the surface to be about wages, benefits, and the overall

3 Lessons in Effective Training from Inmates

My family and I had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica this summer to serve with Voz de Liberta (Voice of Liberty).  They are “a non-profit NGO that is dedicated to sharing the message of hope to prisoners, former prisoners, their families and victims throughout the country by providing comprehensive assistance.”  It was amazing to see the work they are doing, in particular in the APAC (faith-based) prison they run.   Through my time there, I found that the prisoners taught me a thing or two about how to do training well:  The experience in Costa Rica flipped the way

How to conduct an effective one-on-one meeting

I’ve been experimenting with the Ink and Volt One On One Pad to help me organize my thoughts.  I organize around these 4 four pillars:  I use our Insightly software to refresh my memory on what everyone has going on with the first two (the software calls these “Projects” and “Opportunities”) before the meeting. I record these things on the Ink and Volt pad.  I also take a look at each person’s task list in Insightly before the meeting.  Doing this always makes me keenly aware of how on top of it everyone on our team is.  They are always