Brian Schroller
Soundtrack

One of my best friends from college, Scot, used to talk about how he wished he had a soundtrack for his life that would play as he meandered through.  Before digital music, that was a bit of an impossibility, but now, you could almost cobble together some version of that if you liked…

Soundtrack
Brian Schroller
Quitting

We are working with a company on the back end of cleaning up an incredible mess.  Unknown to them, two key employees seem to have “quiet quit” many months before they actually left.  Like a college student going through the motions for an entire semester, fooling everyone but themselves, the report card at the end of the term was a sobering reality to those who didn’t know…

Quitting
Brian Schroller
Cairn

I met with a leader of a large company before their annual offsite. We were scripting the event, and I wanted to help him create an introductory statement of where he felt they were and how he thought they were doing. He struggled mightily to say much good…

Cairn
Brian Schroller
Embody

Sometimes when we work with a senior leader with a struggling area of their business, they are forced to make a leadership change. They level all their efforts on getting a proper replacement. But rather than hastily making the new hire, we often ask them to embody the role of the exiting leader for a season as a first step…

Embody
Brian Schroller
Personified

While filmmakers Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz visited a friend at a camp for people with developmental challenges, they encountered a man with Down's Syndrome named Zack. They talk about being completely overwhelmed by his love and confidence in his identity…

Personified

Culture

Smile

Smile

I stopped at a convenience store just down the street from the golf course where I would be speaking at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon.  I was a little behind schedule, but needed to stop for some aspirin due to a piercing headache.  I never expected I would find a line six people deep at this time of day.

I’ve been working on being more patient with some success, but given the circumstances there was a good chance I wasn’t going to pass this test.  There was a young girl checking people out and another employee standing beside her watching and giving her instructions.

Enrich

Enrich

It is rare that I meet with a business leader where this idea from Lencioni doesn’t enter the conversation.  I describe it as the proverbial “perfect storm” for high integrity leaders.  Not only are you hard-wired to help others (when you help others the mesolimbic pathway allows for dopamine to reward you with good feelings), but it is an imperative of the gospel and simply good business.  Getting our teams to focus on changing other’s lives is a “win” by any measure.

Outsource

Outsource

 

An inspired vision can be cast that both inspires and motivates a team to reach for more. This is not something an outsider can craft and design, but merely cultivate from the team.  A well defined vision provides the destination from where you can craft powerful strategic initiatives and action steps to make sure it is realized.  With our clients, we commit to work for as long as it takes to get them in a strong rhythm for execution of those plans and any other issues that incidentally occur.

At the end of the day though, company leadership is going to make sure all this happens or not. It doesn’t matter how powerful, comprehensive, or well-defined the processes are, success will still be contingent on the endorsement and support of your leadership. That cannot be outsourced.