Great Leadership & The Auto Industry

Ah yes, I know this is a touchy subject, but I'm going to focus on the positive.

It's a common misconception that as large companies get larger, they loose touch with reality and eventually reach a level where innovation and great leadership is virtually impossible.

Toyota is an excellent example of an enormous company showing great leadership in the midst of some tough times.

They have several plants here in the United States; some have slowed production and some have suspended production.

However, Toyota has yet to layoff a single worker.

Instead of sending workers home jobless, Toyota has decided to invest deeply in employee development.

Their employees have been going through training programs, seminars about diversity, ethics, and more.

Toyota has also paid their employees to help build homes and plant trees for Habitat for Humanity.

It is truly amazing to see such a large company sticking to its guns.

When you think about it, it may even make economic sense! When we emerge from this recession, Toyota will be ready with extremely skilled and motivated workers.

The workers will be motivated because their employer has shown an unwavering commitment to it's employees.

They also won't be incurring the cost of massive hiring and training.

I am very interested to see how the numbers turn out. Will they have saved money in the long run?

On another note, think about where we would be with the advancement of fuel efficient cars if other automakers hadn't watched Toyota's success with the Prius?

All in all, I think it's cool to see any size company realize what their most important asset is - their people.

Catch Your Limit is Alltopped

Catch Your Limit's Bait, Tackle, Ice, Advice & Beer Blog, the blog you're reading at this very moment is now syndicated on Alltop's Leadership section. I can tell you, the fish folks at Catch Your Limit are honored to be an Official Alltop Blog.

WHAT IS ALLTOP?
A while back I'd heard bits and pieces about Guy Kawasaki's newest, latest and greatest project Alltop but didn't make my way there until a couple of weeks ago. Since then I've been hooked. Alltop calls itself a "digital magazine rack" which I think is an apt description of what you get.

Their ABOUT page goes on to describe themselves as, "We help you explore your passions by collecting stories from “all the top” sites on the web. We’ve grouped these collections — “aggregations” — into individual Alltop sites based on topics such as environment, photography, science, Muslim, celebrity gossip, military, fashion, gaming, sports, politics, automobiles, and Macintosh. At each Alltop site, we display the headlines of the latest stories from dozens of sites and blogs."

Personally, I find it a great substitute for my igoogle page, it's easier because it's organized by topic area whereas my igoogle had dozens of blogs of all types scattered among each other. Every time I go back and navigate through the different sections I'm always amazed at the sections dedicated to a particular niche. So check it out and find what you're looking for.

Did You Know?

Found this on Dan McCarthy's leadership blog and it's quite impressive. The ability of statistical comparison to put things in perspective is truly on display.

BSPR becomes Knowledge Socialist: Great resource-Great Leadership

Fine, I'll take my own suggestion since no one else has offered any other than a creep mustached guy from Chicago. BSPR will now be known as Knowledge Socialist. It is a once week segment of this blog and can be anything that I read and happen to find informative, insightful, useful or inspirational. The idea being to spread the wealth of knowledge.

This week I have to share with you a great blog about leadership, in fact it's called Great Leadership. It's written by Dan McCarthy, a practitioner in the field of leadership development for over 20 years. Dan is currently the Manager of Leadership and Management Development at a Fortune "Great Place to Work", "Training Top 125", and "High Impact Learning" (HILO 80)company.

What I love about Great Leadership is that not only does share great specific leadership tips but he delivers it with a great voice. Not only that he doesn't seem to shy away from giving opinions on failed leadership as he did this week with the auto industry. It's nice to see a person take a position. So add Dan to your rss reader, an email subscription or just check out a couple of the links above. You won't be disappointed.

Joe's Take On How To Keep Millennials With Employee Development

This past week I was in New York City for the AWNY Advertising Career Conference, a few informational interviews, and to have a blast.

I strongly believe that a graduate should make it their mission to find the best place for them. And I’m not talking about who pays more. If you’re good, the money will come.

I’m talking about company culture. Which company’s culture fits like a glove?

After finding the right fit, come graduation time, it’s more effective to show a vested and focused interest in just a few places instead of blindly sending out resumes to everyone.

It’s like dating. You’ll just know when you find the right one because of that feeling.

Cheesiness aside, it’s not always love at first sight. Sometimes it takes informational interviews, an internship, or just plain research.

After the dust settled, Young & Rubicam (WPP Group), and Saatchi & Saatchi (Publicis) stood head and shoulders above the rest.

I think the reasons they stood out speak to how organizations can retain the best and brightest Millennials.

Employee Development

Millennials have the desire to be seen and heard. We aren’t content with sitting in the background and being silent at meetings.

We want the opportunity for mobility, and we want to collaborate with intelligent people.

Saatchi & Saatchi has a neat training program that ends with a bang. Entry level employees have the opportunity to develop a campaign and present it to the client and the CEO. Afterwards, there is an awards ceremony to recognize the best campaigns.

This is what us Millennials love! It’s the opportunity to be a star and to be heard by the big dogs. I’m sure the champagne doesn’t hurt either.

Young & Rubicam has a really similar training program with the added benefit of mobility.

Millennials don’t just want to move up, we want to be able to move laterally as well, between departments.

Young & Rubicam hits a home run with the way their training program is done. The trainees get exposure to several different departments and learn how it all fits into the grand scheme of things.

Anything spark your interest? Y&R will let you shadow someone from that department. The opportunity for mobility within a company is very attractive for a Millennial.

In addition, Y&R’s office space is organized in a way that fosters bonding with fellow employees.

It’s done by position. So an AAE is sitting near other AAEs. It’s neat because you’re sitting around people that are going through similar experiences – again, another homerun for Millennials.

Saatchi Switch is an awesome program that is extremely appealing to me. Saatchi Switch allows you to literally switch lives with another Saatchi employee at the same level anywhere around the world for six months. At the time I was there they had switches from Saatchi Sydney!

Millennials aren’t as money hungry as we are made out to be. More than anything, we want to be happy at our new job! We want to feel important and valuable.

Y&R and Saatchi & Saatchi stood out because of their devotion to employee development and I think many companies would benefit from following their lead.

The ability to retain the Millennial stars is harder than it sounds, yet extremely valuable in the long run.

A Sweet Decision

With my high school senior year quickly drawing to a close, I've been repeatedly asked what career I want to go into. Up until this day, I have answered with an honest, "I have no idea". But the perfect job for me hit me in the face today like a ton of bricks. Chocolate bricks, that is.

Some important things that I believe need to be in my future are:

• An internship outside of the United States.


• A work environment that is relaxed, and fun.


• A job that helps me brighten other people's day.


• Some way to release my artistic endeavors.


• An ever changing product so I'm never bored.


• And of course, more chocolate than I could ever want or need for my entire life.

With this in mind, I have decided that I will become the next Willy Wonka, by opening a chocolate shop here in Tallahassee. This idea is perfect for me because it answers all of the basic things I want for myself. I can take an internship in Belgium learning how to make some of the most awesome chocolate in the world. The environment will be entirely up to me, so I can make it as relaxed and fun as possible. Chocolate makes people happy, so I'd be honored to give this happiness to the people around me. I can decorate my product and design everything to let the artistic me out. I'd always be updating and changing my product, finding the best recipes. And the best part is that I'd be up to my neck in sweet, delicious chocolate.

I'm more excited about this idea than I have been for all of my past career choices. I'd be making more than just your normal chocolate candies. I'd serve chocolate drinks, like chocolate milk and chocolate frappachinos. I'd make chocolate dipped fruits and cookies. I'd have a full chocolate liquor bar. And I'd also have some fun dipping unordinary things in chocolate, for the daring consumers.

So look out for my chocolate shop in a few years! And in the meantime, any ideas for a name?

Training and Development in 2009

Smartbrief on Workforce says....

More than 130 SmartBrief on Workforce readers weighed in on last week's SmartPulse question: What direction do you expect your organization's training/development budget to go in 2009?

• Down, but we still will be spending -- 49 votes, 37.12%
• Our training/development budget won't change next year -- 31 votes, 23.48%
• Up, but only for select people/departments for which it's essential -- 23 votes, 17.43%
• Up. If people want training, they'll get it -- 18 votes, 13.64%;
  
• We will eliminate it completely -- 11 votes, 8.33%

"You may be looking for ways to cut costs next year, but you don't all plan on taking it out of your training budgets. Indeed, nearly a third of you reported that your training budgets would actually rise, whether across the board or for select departments and positions. But things aren't rosy everywhere -- a total of 45% reported that spending would decline -- in some cases to nothing at all." -- Mary Ellen Slayter, senior editor, SmartBrief on Workforce.

Vote in the 2nd Annual Open Web Awards

Today starts the first round of voting for the 2nd Annual Open Web Awards. Open Web Awards is the only multilingual international online voting competition that covers major innovations in web technology. Through an online nominating and voting process, the Open Web Awards recognizes and honors the top achievements in 26 categories. This year, they are partnering with over 100 blog partners and Catch Your Limit's Bait, Tackle, Ice, Advice & Beer Blog is one of them.

The first Open Web Awards achieved over 250,000 votes combined between Mashable and their 50 international blog partners. Winners included Facebook, Digg, Google, Meetup, Twitter, Netvibes, woot!, Last.fm and Mahalo.

So now that your withdraw from the Presidential Election has really set in, you have the opportunity to get out and VOTE for something again!!

For a Human Press 1

At Catch Your Limit I make a lot of phone calls. Scratch that, tons of phone calls. It's part of my job and I love it. What I don't love are automated phone answering systems. I know many people don't like them, complaints about them are old as they are, but my complaint is a little different. To me what bothers me is they are so off message to current marketing trends that they seem outdated.

Like some sort of idea in the 80's or 90's to cut costs gone awry, they are like those corn-yellow bathtubs you see in houses that the realtor says, "this one needs just some minor updates." It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I can't imagine why any company regardless of size would want to have their first impression given by something automated. In an age and time when everything in business seems to be about connecting with customers, listening to customers, engaging customers it just seems passe'. Even Starbucks, a company renowned for creating relationships with customers has an automated "customer relations" line. When I was a kid, when automated phone systems first became highly prevalent I remember hearing adults complain about having to talk to a machine. That still goes today but what's different is that almost every company on this planet is claiming to be customer focused.

If I were CEO of a large conglomerate the first thing I'd do is remove the phone system and install some people.

If you really want to see the difference a human can make, the power of creating a memorable moment in a first impression give Brains on Fire a call at 864-676-9663 and just wait or if your shy watch the video.

BSPR-Springwise is Good for Your Brain

As I a reminder BSPR is a segment where I'll share a blog, a newsletter, an article or something else in the virtual world. It is a once week segment of this blog and can be anything that I read and happen to find informative, insightful, useful or inspirational. (As I mentioned I'm still looking for a better title for these posts because this one doesn't make any sense but I refuse to create it. Right now BSPR=Brain-Synchronization-Phobia Realization the point is to be a Knowledge Socialist. maybe that should be the title?).

One of the most interesting newsletters I receive from a creativity point of view is Springwise. When you're looking to come up with new ideas or a new a perspective what better place to start than looking at other people's new product or service ideas, some of which are pretty innovative. It's a great place to look when you just need to feed your brain.

Copied from their about page "Springwise scans the globe for the most promising business ventures, ideas and concepts that are ready for regional or international adaptation, expansion, partnering, investments or cooperation. We ferociously track more than 400 global offline and online business resources, as well as taking to the streets of world cities, digital cameras at hand.

To ensure true ‘global’ coverage, the central office is in close contact with more than 8,000 Springspotters in over 70 countries worldwide. Springwise's weekly newsletter, to which you can subscribe for free, is sent to more than 100,000 business professionals in more than 120 countries."

The weekly newsletter features ideas in categories from telecom, non-profit, hospitality you name it. My most recent favorite came from this weeks edition it is a company called Plus 3 Network that allows you to earn money for charitable causes for personal workouts. It matches individuals with companies. You, as an individual pick the charity, you do the exercise and the company donates money. Pure genius.

Update - Finding White Space Time

A week or so ago, I committed to finding/spending some "white space time" ... a time to do nothing but think - see my earlier blog for more detail.

Now, I knew this would be difficult to actually commit to, but I couldn't have imagined how difficult it would be to take the time to put it on my calendar and to mark it as a high priority. It's a good thing I've listed all of our blog readers as my conscience on this project or this would have been a convenient thing to just forget about and put on my "too busy to do" list.

After much deliberation, I've picked two 3 hour periods of time in the month of December to just think. I'll let you know what I happen to think about and how I feel about taking the time once I actually do it.

That's the update for now. More to come ...

Life Imitating Blog - Brand Loyalty

I am about to substitute out of a brand I've been with for 5 years because of price and price only. I'm switching from T-mobile to Sprint's Simply Everything plan. The Simply Everything Plan undercuts it's competition by about $50 bucks. That's a big deal for a college student.

You might think I'm a little weird, but this is a major issue to me. I like T-mobile a lot. I like their brand, and the customer service has been spectacular over the past 5 years. I've even convinced a few of my friends to switch to T-mobile.

In addition, I'm a creature of habit. I feel like I'm gambling by switching to another carrier.

Where am I going with this? It all reminds me of these two posts about being brand loyal on my personal blog. The latest blog mentions a Wall Street Journal article that talks about how people are increasingly dropping brand loyalty in favor of frugality.

So I want to explore this topic a little more and pose two questions.

What are the implications for marketers as customers increasingly substitute out of brands in favor of frugality?

Is there anything they can do?

Accent, Anyone?

I've always been very fond of the English accent.

When I went to England two summers ago, you could say I freaked out just a little when I heard the voice come on over the intercom, announcing some plane departure or another, in an English accent!

Basically I've found myself wishing I had an English accent for most of my life. And since I'm terrible at impersonating any accent whatsoever, I've finally found the answer to my wish!

I read an article about a woman that fell out of a moving truck, splitting her head from front to back. She had bad headaches and back pain, but for the most part was alright. That is until she found herself talking in a European accent out of nowhere, about twenty years later! She's never been anywhere outside the US besides Canada, and has never taken a foreign language class. She has an extremely rare condition called Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS). Sound made up? I thought so too. That might be because there's only been about 50-60 documented cases throughout the world, the first one being a Norwegian woman during WWII.

If you're interested, you can read the whole article at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008315220_foreign27.html.

So my best bet is to have major head trauma, and hope for the best!

Where Big Decisions Are Born

Yesterday I had a great lunch at Decent Pizza(best pizza in Tallahassee), with a great guy, John Fleming. John's a PR guy, public affairs whiz who just launched his own shop, aptly named the The Fleming Agency. After lunch we stood in the parking lot as cars zoomed past on Monroe St. and he said something that I haven't been able to stop thinking about. He said, "small conversations turn into big decisions."

To put that quote into context we were talking about networking but I think there is a lot of truth in that statement that applies in broader terms. Consider the quote in the context of developing business strategy or in the context of marketing, the context of customer experiences.

It's the small conversations that create the big decisions for a historical presidential bid, the small conversation that create the big decision to go after a new industry, to commit to change, to develop clean energy, to recommend a doctor, to create a repeat customer.

So if "small conversations turn into big decisions." The question to ask yourself and your organization is "What small conversations are you creating internally? Externally? How are you facilitating those conversations?

BSPR-Get SmartBriefed

As I a reminder BSPR is a segment where I'll share a blog once week that I read and happen to find useful or inspirational. As I mentioned I'm still looking for a better title for these posts because this one doesn't make any sense but I refuse to create it. So we're stuck with BSPR still because I've received no suggestions other than from Kyle and I refuse to accept the advice of someone with a mustache like his.

A great resource that I'm as much addicted to as my daily five cups of coffee is my morning SmartBriefs. If you're not familar SmartBrief is a newsletter service that sends you a daily newsletter of collected articles, whitepapers, research and news in whatever category you're interested. For instance, I subscribe and recommend the Leadership Smartbrief it pulls articles from tons of sources and delivers to me 5-7 of the best for each day. It's a great resource for looking smart, being smart and sounding smart. I guess that's why it's called Smartbrief. To checkout the different industries they cover click here and to view a sample of one click here.
So check them out and get smarter.

Your Monumental Troops in Richmond

Around 7:30 this past Friday morning I rode down Monument Avenue on the way to Richmond ><(("> HQ for the last time before heading back to Tallahassee.

Monument Avenue is perhaps our nations most celebrated tribute to the Confederency. Giant statues reveal themselves block after block and the orange, yellow and red hues of fall create a backdrop that is both sureal and breathtaking.

The statues are:

Robert E. Lee – unveiled May 29, 1890
J.E.B. Stuart – unveiled May 30, 1907
Jefferson Davis - unveiled June 3, 1907
Stonewall Jackson – unveiled October 11, 1919
Matthew Fontaine Maury - unveiled November 11, 1929
Catch Your Limit - unveiled November 7, 2008

Somehow, I started daydreaming about Catch Your Limit and
our noble scouts in Richmond. And, as strange as it sounds, I spotted a statue of all of us riding a giant fish memorialized in stone as the newest and grandest statue on Monument Avenue.

There we were, our renegade, ragtag army ... or better, our special forces, attempting to conquer the venerable old capital city of the south with only our wits, style and do-whatever-it-takes attitude.

We looked well prepared. We had a plan. We had a vision and we had the right people in the right seats on the giant fish to win. Our battle cry was captured on the base of the monument, "Together, we can take this town ... then the world ... one town at a time." It was in Latin to make it seem even more important, but this was the translation.

As I steered the car in the direction of our office, my memory embraced the image of the colossal fish of stone. On top of the fish rode the CYL ><(("> Brigade, smiling and cheering each other onward to victory.

And the leaves from the trees acted as a magnificent color guard ... waving their festive flags of joy!

Taco Bell Subliminal Marketing

For those of you who do not watch enough T.V. to catch all the new fast food advertisements like I do, I will share with you that Taco Bell has a new product called the Frutista Freeze. It is a nifty little frozen drink that comes in Strawberry, Mango-Strawberry, and Triple Berries-n-Crème.
Now, I have nothing against fast food places introducing new products or against Taco Bell in general. In fact, Taco Bell saved my life a few times after 2 a.m. when I was between the ages of 21 and 24 (and possibly more recently, but we don’t need to talk about that). Although I do think Jack in the Box has gone a little overboard with all their random menu items. Sometimes you just need to stick to the basics like In-N-Out Burger does (sorry East Coast readers) – burgers, fries, shakes, done!

Anyway, I digress.
Now, I am sure the fine folks at Taco Bell are very proud of their new drink commodity and they certainly do a great job of trying to sell it. We were hit up with a free sample as soon as we walked in the door last Saturday, during a brief stop, while making the boring trek from Spokane to Seattle to watch the Seahawks lose, yet again… but that is a different blog…

Back to the story – coincidently, my friend Barry happened to be driving from Seattle to Spokane last Saturday and met my husband and me for lunch at the aforementioned Taco Bell in the middle of the great state of Washington. After Barry ordered, the cashier asked for his name to call when his lunch was ready (they apparently did not want to use order numbers).

Is there a point your Honor? Yes!
Here is my point/question: is the example below a clever subliminal marketing scheme for their new Frutista Freeze or should this particular Taco Bell cashier have used the order number instead of the patron's name? Hmmm….








http://www.tacobell.com/frutistafreeze/

When Being Labeled "Gifted" May Not Be True

A friend recently told me that a study on child psycology divided a class of young children into two groups. They then told one of the groups that they were "gifted" and the other that they were "normal". As the children progressed in school, the group labeled gifted did remarkably well compared to the other one. The point being that naturally we only live up to our standards.

I'm not sure if this was a legitimate study, or that it is anything more than a theory. By no means would I just believe any old thing a friend rambles on about. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.

If we're told from a young age that we're nothing special, that we're just like anybody else, we probably won't strive to become better than that. On the other hand, if we're told constantly that we're incredibly smart, or really talented, we're going to continue working hard to live up to other's expectations. Of course, this isn't true for everybody. Some people have unnatural self motivation to prove the world wrong. But it strikes a chord with me. I think we need to encourage all children to be their best, that nobody's normal, or gifted, and especially not stupid. If we just tell them that they're a genius in their own unique way, then everybody can live up to their potential.

** On a side note, I must say this past night I was filled with renewed faith in the United States. Never have I felt so much pride for our country as I did watching the speeches made by McCain and Obama. I found myself tearing up like a baby looking at how simply a highly diversified country can come together for want of change. I'm so grateful that I was able to take place and do my part in this election, in something so much bigger than myself. I'm looking forward to this new president, and what he has already proven he can inspire in us.

An Automotive Rant

I've been meaning to blog about this because I think it's an amazing phenomenon.

Many Americans seem to be suffering from short-term memory loss.

I think we can all agree that even though gas prices are lower, we still have not solved the energy crisis. These lower prices simply reflect the economic down turn.

It may come as a surprise that truck sales rose in the month of September and was projected to have an even better month in October.

What?

Yes, according to this Autoblog article, the numbers are quite impressive.

Seriously though, did we forget so quickly?

You have to wonder about what will happen to the antithesis of these trucks if this trend continues.

Will hybrids and small cars see a decrease in sales because of increased truck and SUV popularity? That's a scary thought, especially after companies like GM and Toyota have invested significant time and money into cars like the Volt and new Prius.

Hmmm, lets see what happens!

I Voted!

I arrived at my poll this morning at 5:45 am. The line was all the way down the hall. I bumped into a former Chairman of the state Democratic Party and we stood in line together chatting about how excited we were to see the turn out.

We were both particularly happy about how many young faces we saw, until he reminded me that most people are younger than us now. None the less, I'd never seen so many people, young or older, at this particularly precinct this early in the morning.

Fifteen minutes after the poll opened, I had done my patriotic duty, collected my "I voted" sticker and walked outside to see the line had grown and now extended outside the building, down the block and around the corner.

I saw people with canes and a guy on crutches among all the folks standing in the rain. There were easily 100+ people standing in the rain waiting to do something only a small percentage of the world's population gets to do, participate in their government by choosing their leaders.

Nations get the kind of leadership they deserve. We deserve the best, so, if you've already voted, Hallelujah. And if you haven't yet, please, make time to do so.

And oh yeah, God bless America, please.

Is this a great country or what ...

I took a newspaper from the rack, had a dollar in my hand and was next in line at the convenience store to make my purchase.

When I placed the paper on the counter to hand over the dollar and wait for change I asked the cashier if she had voted.

"No," she said in broken English. "I am not a citizen." Her voice was barely audible, so I asked her to repeat what she said.

"I am not a citizen. I cannot vote."

She pointed to the two pictures of the candidates on the front page of the paper and asked, "Which one do you vote for?"

I pointed to my choice.

She looked at me with a frown.

I asked her if I voted for the wrong one.

She again replied she was not a citizen.

Then she added, "but I can talk."

"Yep, that's what this country is all about," I replied.

She pointed to the other candidate and smiled. After holding her finger there for a few seconds she pointed back to my choice. "That's who my six year old daughter wants," she said. "But, I still want him." Her finger shifted again.

I got my change and as I was going out the door I turned and said, "is this a great country or what!"

"Yes sir," she said softly. And then she repeated, "yes sir."

Here's Where Joe Comes In

Since all of us at Catch Your Limit agreed to blog at least once a week, I have made it one of my goals to not let my team down and, come hell or high water, blog at least once a week.

Talk about discipline ... this is going to be a challenge. And, since nothing is off limits at Catch Your Limit except making excuses, I have nothing to fall back on other than to blog.

So, I have a reminder on a special website I'll tell you about later that says, “Blog once a week or I’ll shoot your dog.”

Now, I don’t have a dog, but I saw that caption on the cover of a Mad magazine (Alfred E. Newman of What, Me Worry? fame) when I was a kid and it has stuck with me ever sense.

Goals are easy to pay lip service to. We kick start the first of every year telling anyone who will listen what our goals for that year will be.

We strategically try not to tell anyone we shared our resolutions with in prior years for fear they will say, "that's what you said last year". We just rinse and repeat and, if truth be told, don't have any intentions of doing anything we say because whose going to hold us accountable anyway? Certainly not ourselves.

So, here's where Joe comes in. Not Catch Your Limit’s Joe, Joe Six Pack or Joe the Plumber, but a Joe never the less.

Joe has a website that makes it easy to get your goals (positive and negative) in writing in a variety of categories, share them with your friends if you choose, track your successes and failures and log your progress via Joe’s logbook.

Guess what the URL is. You guessed right if you said www.joesgoals.com. All you have to do to get started is to sign on and start writing and tracking those goals of yours and the best part is that it’s absolutely free.

So make it a goal to visit www.joesgoals.com. This could be the start of something really big.

And, at least for me, a chance to make it a good habit and write at least a blog a week. And, thanks to Joe, save my dog (if I had one).

It Is Urgent That We Do Something, NOW!

That's the first step in initiating change.

Helping the people who will be impacted realize something must be done. It is not an easy challenge. Most people prefer the devil they know to the devil they don't. I'm always surprised by how people will do nothing; stay in a bad situation, rather than take action to change their situation.

Fear of the unknown is very common.

Well, come Wednesday America will know who's going to lead our country for the next four years. I have a preference, but more importantly I want a decision made, so we can get on with business.

Regardless of whether the Democrats or the Republicans win, once we know who's at the helm let's start working to get our nation back to work.

Indecision and the fear of the unknown crippled the world in the 1930's. Let's not let that happen again. Sit down with your management teams and decide how you are going to bring value to your customers. For that matter, it's not a bad idea to sit down with your customers and talk about how together you can bring value to your local, national and international economies.

If you need someone to facilitate the meetings call Catch Your Limit. We're experts at helping people examine situations and make effective decisions. We also have a track record of helping people execute their plans.

But above all, do something.

Lead!

Stop sitting around, wringing your hands and moaning.

America, regardless of who's at the helm, is made up of the most innovative and compettitve people in the world.

Let's get back in the game, NOW!