Category Archives: Personal Development

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How To Handle Stressful Situations

As a leader, you’re going to face stressful situations. These situations may pop up and surprise you or you may see them coming from a mile away. Whatever the poison, you have to be ready to deal with stressful situations.

I had a stressful situation recently. How I dealt with it may help you deal with the stressful situations you will encounter as a leader.

Man in long sleeve shirt holding face

Photo by Francisco Moreno

My Stressful Situation

We have multiple servers for our business. One of them hosts our Epicor ERP system. This server is a physical, stand-alone server that has not aged gracefully.

I came into my department and faced off against a frantic co-worker. They hadn’t received orders the day before or so far that morning.

Uh oh… Something is wrong.

My stress level began to rise…  Read more...

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Why You Need To Set Goals

Goals are the thing we aim for. We set a target and we head towards the goal.

Whenever I look at my biggest successes in life, I notice there’s a common theme. The common theme is that I set a goal and I went for it.

Hand with a copper bracelet throwing a dart at a dartboard

Photo by Ameer Basheer

Whether the success has been the growth of this blog, the Reel Leadership articles, or some other aspect of my life, goals have been a major source of the success.

If we know goals help us achieve success, why do so many of us fail to set goals?

Why We Fail To Set Goals

Goals can be scary. They tell us what we hope and dream for. They set something before us that we haven’t yet achieved… but want to.

Goals set us up for future success. Goals can also set us up for future disappointment.  Read more...

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What Are Your Values?

Megachurch pastor has had an affair and his marriage is in shambles. Multi-billion dollar corporation has filed for bankruptcy, corrupt accounting practices to blame. Employees go on strike after 5th employee injured on the job.

We’ve all seen headlines like this. They’re heartbreaking. They’re terrible. And they’re mostly preventable.

boy standing on a ladder reaching for the clouds

Photo by Samuel Zeller

How can I say this? Because, when you live a life of values you know where you stand. You know where the line is. You know where to stop.

Our world has lost sight of values. They believe they’re buzzwords or hyperbole. Values don’t matter, so they say.

But values DO matter. Values tell you who you are, what you’re willing to do, and what you’re not going to do. When you have values clearly defined in your life, you can withstand the storms coming your way.  Read more...

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How To Have Real Conversations

Knowing how to have real conversations has value beyond the corporate world. While knowing how to have real conversations as a leader is important, you also need to know how to bring this skill to your everyday life. Without the ability to carry on conversations, your world will be a much smaller place.

Man and woman sitting, having a conversation

Photo by Mael Balland

The problem is most people don’t know how to carry on a conversation well. They’ll bring up small talk like the weather or what they do for a living (the boring jist of it).

Small talk can derail conversations real quick.

People use small talk to get the conversation going. Too often, people will get stuck in the small talk and not branch out to more important matters.

If you can get conversations down, you will go far. In leadership… and in life.  Read more...

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Rethinking What You Believe

I began my leadership journey due to bad leadership. I had watched bad leader after bad leader continue to do things that harmed the organization and the people who worked for the organization.

It was bad.

I remember seeing one manager hiding away in a warehouse to catch a few minutes of sleep. In another instance, I remember seeing and hearing the owner of an organization berate a team member for something he had no control over.

Man looking at reflection in window

Photo by Laurenz Kleinheider

These are the moments that made me realize things needed to change in leadership. I began a journey to change the way I viewed leadership. I also began a journey to help others change the way they see leadership.

Ideas Evolve Over Time

When I started to learn about leadership, I was green behind the ears. I hadn’t had any true leadership experience. I just knew something had to change.  Read more...