The Culture Power of Circle Conversations

We always discover a number of things about each cohort: How human, fragile, courageous, adventurous, resilient, talented and personally adaptive they can be. Collectively, they are already extraordinary. Here’s how we do this.

Personal LeadershipGarrett RubisJanuary 21, 2020Culture, Focus, Goals, Leadership, Learning, Lessons, Success, The Character Triangle, leadership, culture, purpose, employees, Wow, trust, Seattle Seahawks, NorQuest, culture champions, circles, courageComment

Culture of Love in a Violent Game!

Here’s how the Seattle Seahawks and coach Pete Carroll inspires people to compete to develop personal and team greatness, rather than focusing on the narrow, ever elusive short term view of simply beating the competition each week. Much of the focus is on both personal and organization purpose and meaning. We have lots to learn from coaches like Carroll.

Personal LeadershipGarrett RubisJanuary 14, 2020Culture, Focus, Goals, Leadership, Learning, Lessons, Success, The Character Triangle, leadership, culture, purpose, employees, Wow, productivity, trust, NFL, Pete Carroll, Seahawks, playoffs, Seattle Seahawks

Is 2020 the Year the WFA Culture Explodes?

Happy New Year everyone! More importantly, happy new decade! It’s 2020, and every organization needs to actively promote the Work From Anywhere (WFA) Culture.

Free Holiday Gift: 20 Culture and Leadership Maxims (illustrated) E-Book

Please enjoy it, share it, stuff it in a few stockings if you’d like, and we hope it can become an extremely useful reference to all of you in a very happy New Year! Here’s to 2020, a new decade, and 20 Culture and Leadership Maxims.

Plan to Deliver a ‘WOW’ Performance in 2020

As I reflect on my 40-plus year career, I recognize the difference between the few WOW performers and frankly, the many average transactors. So, if you want to be more of a WOW employee, here are some steps you can take.

Personal LeadershipGarrett RubisDecember 17, 2019Culture, Focus, Goals, Leadership, Learning, Lessons, Success, The Character Triangle, leadership, trust, culture, purpose, customers, employees, customer service, Harvard, 10 Key Elements, Wow, Carol Dweck, Stanford

The ‘Customer First’ Sucker Punch

My strong belief is that we need to be both “people first AND customer obsessed.” Note the emphasis on the order, along with the conjunction in the phrase. We cannot give customers excellent value and experience at the expense of people. Being people first is not a matter of focusing on employees at the expense of customers either. It must be an “AND.”

How a Culture of Free-Will Can Excel!

You and I are culture champions, and sometimes we need real world stories to propel us along. Please read a summary of Samer’s culture cornerstones. Enjoy, and I hope you become challenged and inspired too.

This is All I Need in a Leader!

Here’s what someone told me was all they really needed in a leader. See if you agree with this simple checklist.

Personal LeadershipGarrett RubisNovember 26, 2019Culture, Focus, Goals, Leadership, Learning, Lessons, Success, The Character Triangle, NorQuest, culture champions, leadership, trust, culture, welcoming, purpose, deep purpose, mission statement

Why is It So F#%king Hard to Define Deep Purpose?

Defining a meaningful “deep purpose” is just plain hard. Finding the combination of words to really capture the soul and “why?” of an organization is a longer journey than most institutions are willing to take.

Personal LeadershipGarrett RubisNovember 19, 2019Culture, Focus, Goals, Leadership, Learning, Lessons, Success, The Character Triangle, NorQuest, culture champions, leadership, trust, culture, welcoming, purpose, deep purpose, mission statement

Why Do So Many Organizations Suck at Onboarding?

There is plenty of research that indicates if we make a meaningful contribution early in our jobs, then we seem to gather career momentum. If we know this, then why don’t we put enormous focus towards onboarding?

Personal LeadershipGarrett RubisNovember 12, 2019Culture, Focus, Goals, Leadership, Learning, Lessons, Success, The Character Triangle, NorQuest, culture champions, leadership, trust, culture, onboarding, welcoming

This Culture ‘Fluff’ Stuff

I’m somewhat amused and amazed at the number of so-called experts that still refer to culture as “fluff.” My experience is that they are typically analysts or non value added “money bags,” who frankly have never really run anything other than a spreadsheet calculation.

Personal LeadershipGarrett RubisNovember 5, 2019Culture, Focus, Goals, Leadership, Learning, Lessons, Success, The Character Triangle, 1000 Blogs, NorQuest, culture champions, college, leadership, transparency, trust, fluff, culture, Ben Horowitz

Please Skip the Spin

There is a lot of talk about the importance of transparency and openness in organizations. I just put out a podcast about it! Yet, I think many leadership teams are still learning how to do this well. Too often “message control” from management is more about sharing information they want all team members to know, versus providing the details people really want.

Personal LeadershipGarrett RubisOctober 29, 2019Culture, Focus, Goals, Leadership, Learning, Lessons, Success, The Character Triangle, 1000 Blogs, NorQuest, culture champions, college, leadership, Google, Sundar Pichai, transparency, trust