What modern convenience(s) would you eliminate just for a week or two to simplify your life?

There are a lot of people in their 20's (and younger) that may not agree with me, but they consider video games a modern convenience and I just consider them a false sense of mastery.

How do you create accountability and ownership in a family or organization?

I've brought my teams through a program based on Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team. This reveals the main dysfunction that needs to be dealt with in each organization: Absence of Trust; Fear of Conflict; Lack of Commitment; Avoidance of Accountability and; Inattention to Results. Ownership is lacking when there is a problem with any of these areas (dysfunctions), but especially Avoidance of Accountability. Only through involvement and buy-in of the entire group to eliminate these dysfunctions will ownership in the process, family, and organization be built.

Do little “white lies" hurt?

People have long-missed the fine art of keeping their mouth shut. The truth should only be said out loud if it is "in love". If the truth only tears everyone involved down, that "truth" is not good. The truth is meant to be edifying...so either tell the truth or keep your mouth shut. Telling a lie (even a little white lie) is not a good alternative.

Is it more important to be faithful or to be successful?

Being faithful IS being successful. You can be faithful to your goals and meet them. You cannot disconnect these two words. They are not mutually exclusive. You cannot be successful if you're not faithful and you must be faithful to be successful.

Other than real emergencies, do you reply to e-Mail after each alert or do you wait for some time to pass before responding?

One thing to think about is that if you respond too fast on business e-Mails, you may not be allowing other people in your organization to grow by answering the question themselves.

Is multi-tasking good or bad?

What about driving and talking on the cell phone? What about answering email while on a Webex meeting? What about using Blackberries at a dinner table? What about…?

Does this increase productivity levels? Can we train ourselves to be better at it?
There is something called cognitive reorientation cost. It was quoted in a CIO magazine article in 2007. Too much multi-tasking is bad. Every time your mind has to switch from one subject to another, there is a transition cost (reorientation cost) that hurts a family or an organization. The more multi-tasking, the more cost. Of course, some multi-tasking is necessary, but we do too much of it.

When do you know the risk is worth it?

Transitional times are the riskiest. “Risk” is defined as the exposure to the chance of injury or loss. Unfortunately (or fortunately), if there is no risk, there is seldom a reward. Nothing ventured - nothing gained. Friedrich Von Schiller said it best when he said, “He that is over-cautious will accomplish little”. Asking the question, “Are you getting to your goal more effectively” doesn’t deny risk. That question takes risk into account. God gave us a neck to stick it out. If we are to get to our goal more effectively, we have to stick our neck out and make things happen or things will happen to us instead.

Try driving in a car and avoiding intersections or having certain careers without flying in a plane. You would find that the avoidance of risk costs much more than taking the risk in the first place.

Are crisis situations just a test of knowledge, experience, skills, diligence, and/or worth?

It's just as the Navy Seals say, “people do not rise to the occasion. They sink to their level of training.” Training and experience can be tested if an individual has it. There may be particular crisis situations where an individual may have no prior knowledge. The good news is that more can be learned from failures than successes…so even with these situations, good can be gained from the experience….for the next test.

What is the difference between an aim and an objective?

An objective is the target while an aim is the direction to the target.

How do you regain focus and vision when you’re distracted by uncertainty?

This analogy is hard to follow, but here we go:

To answer this question, it might be helpful to discuss your vision, focus, and distractions from a different standpoint.

If you were analogize seeing through a pair of glasses and wanting to regain your focus and vision when a distraction (uncertainty) arises, (in some cases) you would remove the distraction (uncertainty) by taking off your glasses (strategic vision) and wiping the dust (small uncertainty caused by lack of education or need to seek wise counsel) off of them so you could see the landscape in front of you (business focus).

However, if the distraction (uncertainty) is caused by a catastrophic storm, which breaks the lenses to your glasses (strategic vision) and changes the landscape that you’re looking at (business focus), you may have to change your strategic vision and have a new business focus all together.

The Right Way to Handle Criticism:

How did you react the last time you were criticized by a teammate or your boss? Did you seethe in silence the rest of the day? Did you blame someone else for the problem – a teammate or a customer, for instance? What’s the right way to react to criticism?

Here are three tips:

 Don’t take it personally. If someone criticizes the way you handled a situation, don’t conclude that he or she is finding fault with you as a person. Separate your job performance from your personal self-image.

 Don’t let offhand criticism slide by. When someone directs offhand criticism at you, there’s probably a specific reason for it. Say, “It would help me to know exactly what I’m doing wrong so I can correct it.”

 Don’t tune out criticism you feel is unwarranted. You score points with people when you simply listen to what they say. Acknowledge you heard the criticism, thank the person for it and move on.

What is more important to be successful? A great team of players or a team of great players?

You might have a great team that has team-camaraderie, collaboration, determination, and the ability to achieve specific goals, but that is lacking in individual accolades, having experts, or having proven track records.

On the other side, you might have experts in their profession, proven track-records, and individual stars, but might be lacking team spirit, collaboration, and achieving team goals.

I would say a team of great players may not play great together, but playing great together is the key to building success…so a great team of players is more important.

Name the top 3 crucial contributions given to you by people or situations

Name the people or turning points in your life that have helped you become the person that you are today. What people changed your life? What incidents changed your life?

The three humans that changed my life: My dad who carried on a mentor/protégé relationship before it was mainstream; My mother for loving me for who I was rather than what I did; My ex-wife for teaching me patience.

The three turning points in my life: My business coach telling me I had a problem with transition; a person in my business life telling lies and my patient and ethical response; Setting my dad’s broken wrist on a racquetball court