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Bird nest-small

Life and Death Leadership

Is tearing up a bird’s nest an act of cruelty or kindness? Last year my wife and I noticed a couple of birds flying up to the dryer exhaust vent above the kitchen window. My wife correctly guessed that they were building a nest so I went outside to check it out. After I came […]

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Customer Service for Breakfast article by Charles Marshall

Customer Service for Breakfast

For  just  a  moment,  forget  about  productivity.  Forget  about  making  your  company  more  money.  Forget  getting  a  better  performance  review. To  me,  good  customer  service  isn’t  really  about  any  of  those  things.  To  me,  providing  good  customer  service  is  about  the  person  that  I  want  to  be. Think  about  the  last  time  you  were  provided […]

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The Turtles-2

What if Your Customer Has a Point After All?

Sometime back in the early seventies, I was getting in our family car in a Kmart parking lot when I looked down and found a badly weathered eight-track tape (ask your mom) on the ground next to the car. The tape was in bad shape but closer inspection revealed that it was The Turtles’ Greatest […]

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Kilt

A Salute to Pants

It’s that time of year again when it has become necessary for me to switch from shorts to pants, and I couldn’t be happier. I had almost forgotten the comfort, warmth, and security that wearing pants provides. It’s just like getting a hug of sunshine, but without the searing heat and life-threatening melanoma. The reason […]

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George Clooney in O Brother, Where Art Thou? article by Charles Marshall

Handle the Heat Like George Clooney (Director’s Cut: longer article)

With a little prodding, you can get my friend John Hicks to talk about the time he got to act in the Coen brothers’ classic movie, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” After John saw their first movie he was hooked, so when he learned they were shooting a movie practically in his backyard, he rushed […]

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How are you training your customers? Article by Charles Marshall

How are you training your customers?

Have you ever noticed that so much attention is given to training employees, but so little to training customers? You are, at this very moment, training your customers. Every time you interact with your customer in your business, you are communicating something about yourself and your business. In every interaction, no matter how small, your […]

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5 reasons to quit quiet quitting article by Charles Marshall

4 reasons to quit quiet quitting

I can hardly get through the day without bumping into a Reel or TicTok video lauding the benefits of quiet quitting. Even worse, there are other videos that give you point-by-point instructions about how to do it. The quiet quitting philosophy argues that if you aren’t getting the recognition and monetary reward to which you […]

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Marva-lous Customer Service picture

Creating Marva-lous Customer Service

Maybe it’s time to re-think your goal of customer satisfaction. My family and I spent the entire day driving through a torrential downpour to get to an important event three states away. Both of our kids were cranky and miserable which meant my wife and I were cranky and miserable. We all were ready to […]

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George Bailey and Uncle Billy

It’s a Wonderful Life Leadership Lesson

If you haven’t seen It’s a Wonderful Life, stop what you’re doing right now and go watch it. Then call your parents and ask them why they omitted this crucial piece of awesomeness from your upbringing. I watch it every year and, if the other members of my family are to be believed, I always […]

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