I have a current coaching client that was, in her words, facing the most daunting challenge of her career. She felt like the course of action that had been assigned to her by her CEO would create hardship for the current customers and team members of the business. On the one hand, if she is successful with this plan, she moves up to be President of one of the subsidiary companies. On the other hand, being honest and trustworthy to team members and customers puts her in a posi

Lately, I have been focused on strength. I have a very close friend who is going through a period of time here he needs strength. I have a coaching client who is needing strength to move forward with her side gig, which I believe has greater potential than her current business. My grandson got a burn on his leg yesterday and he needs the strength to make it through the school day today without thinking about his pain. We all need strength from time to time. But where do we fi

I have great news to share with you this week! I’m so excited to share that I’m finally writing a book. Below is the book summary for a little sneak peek: "The Spirit has been very busy making a story out of my life.” I didn't plan to write a book about faith. I planned to build companies, lead a global profession, raise two sons, and grow old with the woman I met on the same day I had my heart broken by someone else. Then came cancer. Then open-heart surgery. Then a five-yea

I am working with an executive right now who thinks kindness in the workplace is a form of weakness. He is convinced that kindness establishes a “country club atmosphere” and it doesn’t belong in a well-run company. He said, “People will take advantage of that and then you will have total chaos.” He also said that it is something extra that people don’t expect. We have a lot of work to do because I believe that kindness is not extra. It is what makes people stay, grow, and th

I met with a client this week. He is very unhappy with his life in general, but he is clinging to what looks impressive. He just doesn’t know it!! He has a very impressive business, a fantastic house, some amazing cars, and a very large investment portfolio. He is driven by quick progress, obvious success, and clear proof that things are working. He is so totally focused on what looks large and impressive that he totally misses the small things. This week I asked him, "How bi

I have heard people say the phrase "Isn't it a coincidence?" more and more lately. However, I realize that a coincidence is a higher power than me putting things together. A while ago, I was in the eastern part of Michigan not far from the Great Lakes working with a manufacturing client. It was a family-owned business and was referred to me by a fellow professional who knew that our firm had done a lot of work with manufacturing businesses. So, why the referral you ask? It in

One of my coaching clients recently told me that life in general is so distracting, so busy and so intense that she doesn't know how to relax. I asked her to describe what happens in a day, a week, and a month. I won’t list everything that she listed, but what I will tell you is that she is buried in her phone, computer, meetings, and taking kids to where they need to be all day long, every single day. Even her workouts at the gym are precisely timed to maximize her workout w

I have been asked many times to speak to groups about hope and how to bring more hope into the world around us. This week I met with a new coaching client, and his first words to me were, "Ted, I have lost all hope. My wife has filed for a divorce, and she has applied for full custody of the kids." I wish I could say that this is an unusual scenario in the world that we live in, but in the business world it is so easy to get our priorities in the wrong order. It is easy to fo

For whatever reason, my coaching clients and my consulting clients have all been talking about baseball lately. I love the game having played it for over 20 years and coached for equally as many years. There are a lot of similarities between coaching a baseball team and coaching a client. In fact, there are a number of lessons learned in baseball that are transferable to business and life in general. Last weekend was a huge baseball tournament in the Minneapolis area. My olde

How do we fill people around us with hope? The world around us is full of people who are suffering from grief, depression, anxiety, worry, strained relationships, etc. How can we lift them up? Last weekend I watched my youngest grandson play in a baseball game. After the game, I saw him across the field talking to one of his teammates. When he came over to where I was sitting, I asked him what they were talking about. He said, “I threw a ball from short to first base, and he

Much of my business consulting and coaching has been focused on making businesses run more efficiently, improving teams, making processes more streamlined, increasing performance, etc. But this week, I received a different request. It was, “My family is a mess. Help me make it better. I have been so focused on growing the business, building net worth, and accumulating assets that I have totally lost track of my family. When I do spend time with them, I feel like a total stran

Today I was trying to isolate in my mind my biggest lesson as CEO of two large financial advisory practices. It is well known that authority gets it done. There are all kinds of traditional, authoritative, hierarchal business structures that are widely used and commonly known. But what builds loyalty? Because it seems to me that I hear too many CEO’s today complaining about lack of loyalty. And they tend to blame it on newer generations. I hear statements like, “This is a Gen

Last week, I worked with one of my most successful clients. From the outside looking in, I am sure that others are envious of them. He has several very successful businesses. He has several homes around the world. He has a collection of automobiles. He has a huge portfolio of investments. He has a beautiful, loving family. So, what, you ask, could I do for him? What was his question? He told me, "I just feel empty; I don't know what I am striving for anymore." Then he asked m

Today is about external success vs. internal exhaustion. I see it as an epidemic out there. One of my most successful clients told me something today that shocked me. He said, “I am exhausted by my life.” Not because anything is going badly. His business is doing extraordinarily well. It is growing. It out pacing the benchmarks of others in his industry. Personally, he is financially thriving. He is well respected in his industry and in his community. He is in great shape, an

This week as I consulted with two clients, I was struck by a very common issue with business today. We are controlled by our success, our wealth, our status, etc. I say we because I have been there myself and I can tell you from experience, that you deny that is the case if and when you are confronted with it. This week was no exception. I was hired, in both cases, to tell them what I saw wasn't working with their company. After my initial review, I determined that the system

After four decades of consulting with leaders of businesses, I think one overarching issue has emerged in today’s business world. Leaders are struggling to make fast, high-quality decisions in an environment that is more complex and uncertain than ever. It is not surprising because I see it in life in general. We live in a world of constant uncertainty. There is tradeoff between speed and alignment with what really matters in life. There is a lack of trust—in government, in s

A few weekends ago, my grandson was taken to the emergency room by his parents. He had a fever, and was tired and lethargic. After many tests, the diagnosis was dehydration, growth spurt, possibly too busy, and he needed rest. He and his siblings are so busy. It is kind of the way life was for us when we were raising our boys. And there was a time when I believed that being busy meant that I was doing something right. A full calendar felt like it was progress. Constant moveme

So, today's topic is bad news. It is difficult to find good news anywhere these days. I went to Breakfast Club this morning and everyone wanted to talk about bad news—what a way to start your day! How do we deal with all this bad news? This was the topic that was given to me by the organization that I just did a keynote speech for. Have you ever been around someone who sucks the energy right out of you? Maybe they can’t stop talking about themselves. Or they are not shy about

I need your ideas! But before I ask, I need to tell you a story. About 10 years ago I began making speeches frequently and I had the pleasure of speaking all over the US and Internationally. And in those speeches, I would usually use a baseball story to illustrate some key point. Late in 2016, a man who is a well-known business leader told me that I was a very good speaker but that I should really consider putting my stories in a book. Well, I continued to write stories about

I met with a very successful client this week and he asked me a serious question. He asked, “How much more can I take?” He had just lost the third executive from his team. They all joined one of his competitors. The way he said it made me think that he doesn’t realize that everyone has hardships. Actor and comedian Drew Carey once said, “Just because you’re a celebrity and you have money doesn’t mean that bad things don’t happen to you or you don’t have bad days. Everybody’s