If you’ve managed people for long, you will eventually have someone who is not meeting your expectations. Determining the next steps can be challenging. When someone is confronted with poor performance, some will get defensive and immediately assume that the problem is yours, not theirs. Their arrogance or overconfidence can prevent them from being willing to correct their issues, making […]

Stephen M.R. Covey in his book, Speed of Trust, wrote, “Trust is equal parts character and competence… You can look at any leadership failure, and it’s always a failure of one or the other.” Leadership failure comes when a gap exists in character or in competence.  Character and competence working together build trust amongst a team and give the leader […]

There was a surgeon who came in occasionally to the bank where I worked. He would park his new Mercedes by the front door and brag about his car to our staff. He wore lots of jewelry and flashy clothes and loved to talk about his success. One day this surgeon met with me to request a loan. I discovered […]

My good friend Rick and I both graduated from the same school with accounting degrees. We also both started with respected CPA firms upon graduation. Rick dreamed of becoming one of his firm’s youngest partners and he began diligently working towards that goal. I also dreamed of being a partner, but soon realized that public accounting was not for me. […]

As the Chief Lending Officer of a small bank, I was trying to clean-up a lot of problem loans made by the previous CEO. My focus was on collecting the business loans we had, rather than trying to make questionable new ones. So, when a guy I knew from high school asked for a new loan, I was skeptical. When […]

When I began my banking career, I spent time investigating bank frauds. One of the frauds I worked on was that of a bank president who determined his significant pay wasn’t enough. This president began producing false travel expense reports, claiming that he was driving to headquarters, four hours each way, multiple times a month. His spending habits, however, continued […]

Stephen Covey in his book, Speed of Trust, says, “The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is today.” In business and in life, the fruit is the best part of planting seeds. Yet, fruit takes time to grow. In order for fruit to grow, it takes watering, tending, pruning and waiting. The […]

As the new Chief Lending Officer of a community bank, I was charged with controlling the lending activities of the former CEO of the bank. Fred had made so many bad loans that he was required to report to me on any loans made. One problem we encountered was that Fred would make loans to people who were already bankrupt. […]

According to Wikipedia, St. Patrick’s Day originally celebrated the priest who returned to Ireland in 432 AD to bring Christianity to his homeland. Ireland had been a polytheistic culture. One way Patrick introduced them to Christ was by using the 3 leaved shamrock to describe the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. He made a difference by communicating in cultural and […]

When I was 19, I was working construction to pay for college. One of my peers invited me to go somewhere with him after work. On our way, he stopped where we usually filled up the company truck and he filled up his car and charged the gas to the company account. When I asked about his action, he said, […]