As emcee of the Community Bankers Association of Georgia annual conference, I interviewed Ray Davis, former CEO of Umpqua Bank. Ray is iconic for taking Umpqua, a small $140 million institution located in rural Oregon, and transforming it into a $20 billion juggernaut. As I frequently talk about the success of Umpqua when I speak […]
Category Archives: Leadership
Are You Prepared for a Boycott?
On October 13th, there was an organized effort to boycott Twitter. When I first heard about it, I immediately thought, “What if someone boycotted my company?” How would it impact employee morale, our current customer base or revenue? As a leader, anticipating a crisis is not always easy. I’m sure Twitter had no warning that […]
An Example of a Thoughtful Response
I am in Seattle, Washington and have just finished a keynote address based on my book, Grounded (Little River Publishing). This is the first annual Emerging Leaders conference conducted by Western Independent Bankers and I am honored to have had the leadoff spot. These are not just the future leaders of their respective financial institutions; […]
You Got to Know When to Fold Em …
It is always a crapshoot answering your mobile phone from a number that you don’t recognize. In one particular instance, what I thought was a phone call from a recently signed client, turned out to be a cold call from an organization that had reached out to me via LinkedIn previously. Their LinkedIn message had […]
I Got Caught with a Coke
I was on my way out of the store with a 16-oz Coca-Cola in my hand on a Saturday morning when I spotted my cardiologist walking into the store. We made eye contact, and both exchanged a brief greeting, the nondescript kind that involves no personal information when two people know they know each other, […]
Be The Best You Can Be #throwbackthursday
I was recently Master of Ceremonies at the CBA of Georgia Leadership Division conference at the Contemporary Resort in Orlando. The final keynote speaker was legendary coach Bill Curry. He is best known as coach of Georgia Tech, but he also coached at Alabama, Kentucky and, most recently, became the first coach for the fledgling […]
Does OK Mean I Agree or I Understand?
Words matter. They convey a specific meaning, both to the speaker and to the listener, but the meaning sent is not always the meaning received. Picture a husband or wife coming in the door to his or her home after a hard day of work. Their spouse is in the kitchen, busily preparing dinner. “Hi […]
Jamaican Blue Coffee
While I was in Jamaica for the Destination Experience event, I took the opportunity to learn more about Jamaican coffee production. As an owner of an artisan coffee roasting business (www.thebeanery.com), I try to learn as much as possible about coffee production. Since I was in Jamaica, I wanted to connect with someone who makes […]
Insights into Influencers
I had a chance to meet the fascinating Jon Levy at the Destination Experience. He said, “I’m a behavior scientist. When I’m not consulting, doing research out of C Lab or speaking, I spend my life convincing strangers to cook me dinner and I travel around the world studying the science of adventure.” Sounds like […]
Millennials and Y=X Thinking
One of the presentations at #TheDestinationExperience was fromMichael Lee-Chin, Chairman of Jamaica’s Economic Growth Council, who had us from the start with his use of a white board and a math equation to illustrate a concern about young professionals: Y = X Chin’s theory is that most millennials think that their careers will progress along […]