Years ago, Kathy and I attended a weekend retreat designed to help identify and heal any past emotional wounds. One exercise had us pretend that we were on a ship where everyone had been infected with a deadly virus, but there were just three vaccinations. We were to determine the best candidates to receive the three vaccinations. After selecting three […]

In business, I’ve met men and women who get so wrapped up in their job that their family needs are overlooked. This is easily justified because they feel they’re working to “provide for their family.” In the ministry world, leaders serve the needs of others so much that they sometimes overlook the needs of their own family. Whether it’s in […]

According to a Life Innovations Study, employees lose more than 168 hours of work in the year following a divorce, costing workplaces billions in lost productivity. When our kids were young, Kathy and I established one-on-one time in the evenings with each other. We did not allow the kids to interrupt our time together unless it was an emergency. We […]

The first time I met Gregg, he said, “Rick, if you choose to work with me you need to know my priorities in life. God’s first, my family’s second, and this job is third.” As a person who had been “running from God” for decades, I couldn’t grasp how Gregg’s priorities would impact the way he ran the bank where […]

Recently, at a Casey’s General Store, my wife, Kathy, stopped a young man in an Army uniform and thanked him for his service, then paid for his gas! Kathy then asked this soldier if he’s often thanked for his military service. This polite soldier simply said, “No ma’am.” The lady in front of me then turned and thanked this soldier, […]

According to a past American Express survey, Americans tell an average of 9 people about good experiences, and tell 16 people about poor experiences. The challenge is that out of those who have poor experiences only 4% tell the actual business. Many businesses don’t even know they have a problem. As leaders trying to please God, we should be loving our neighbor in […]

Tom Thibodeaux, a professor at Viterbo University, discussed servant leadership at a conference I participated in recently. Although he had many profound things to say, the one that stood out to me the most was this quote, “Service is love becoming visible.” In business, we discuss and work on improving our customer service, but few ever equate it to love. […]

An Association for Psychological Science article highlighted some startling revelations. It discovered that ostracizing or ignoring a worker can cause more harm than harassing that worker. A research team from the University of Ottawa conducted a survey of U.S. workers and discovered that more than 70% of respondents had experienced some form of exclusion in their workplace. In addition, those […]

Time is such a precious commodity that gaining even one hour can be refreshing. Over the course of the year, Daylight Savings Time doesn’t really give us an extra hour, but this time of year it feels like it as we get to turn our clocks back. One hour of time you will never get back. How will you choose […]

While meeting Roger for lunch, Roger asked me to tell my wife, Kathy, “not to take offense if she hadn’t heard back from his wife.” Roger explained that his wife had taken over the day-to-day responsibility for their family business and was chairing a ministry board that was building a new facility! In pursuit of excellence, Roger’s wife began saying […]