“Young man, please step away from the wall!”
“Young man, please step away from the wall!”
The college-age employee turned, looked at me, and then—beaming slightly—stepped back from his work.
Aiming my iPhone camera, I asked …
Continue ReadingPersonal Accountability Brings Freedom
A quick story, often attributed to Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892):
A duke boarded a galley ship and went below to talk to the convicts manning the oars. When he asked what their crimes were, almost every man claimed that he was innocent, blaming someone else or accusing the judge of taking a bribe.
There was one, though, who said …
Continue ReadingAccountability = No Hiding Behind the Team
Yep, that’s me achieving a rare victory on the wrestling mat in 1974 as a 10th grader. My dad, Jimmy Miller, may have been Cornell’s head coach, but I lacked his natural talent, not to mention his physical strength acquired by milking cows by hand in the 1930s! 🙂
However, the sport of “grappling” did teach me one key thing about successful living:
Continue ReadingQuick Poll: Why Practice Personal Accountability?
If you’re a fan of the QBQ! book and follow us on social media, then you know this: We are really big proponents of PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY (PA).
We write about PA, train on PA, give keynote presentations about PA. And, like you—work hard to practice PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY at work and home.
My wife, Karen, and I even wrote a whole book on the power of accountable parenting!
But … why?
Continue Reading“Sorry, that’s our policy” = FAIL!
“Organizations that put polices before people fail everyone.” Outstanding!
Have you taken the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)? The Millers have, and doing so has enabled us to better understand and relate to each other. Kristin is even certified to teach MBTI because there’s nothing more powerful than our QBQ! content on personal accountability combined with MBTI material in the same workshop.
Anyway, if you do know Myers-Briggs, then you will know me without meeting me when I tell you my “type.” I’m an “ESTJ.” If you aren’t familiar with MBTI, stay with me here. You see ….
Continue ReadingOutstanding Organizational Culture: 7 Reasons to Not Whack Moles
We recommend that you forward this piece to your colleagues and boss to create meaningful dialogue.
Question: Does “free speech” exist in our organization?
Resting in a Colorado field, these bales of straw possess a beauty that stems from their “alikeness.”
The characteristic of “alikeness” can be of great value when the market wants and expects consistency. McDonalds comes to mind. Buy a Big Mac in Sochi, Russia at the Olympics and it tastes exactly like the one you consumed a few days earlier in Paterson, New Jersey.
But what can be positive about alikeness in straw bales or the food we purchase, can be very negative in our organizational cultures.
In Toronto to speak on “Personal Accountability and the QBQ!” I got out for a long walk and passed by this building with its profound proclamation:
Continue ReadingAlmost 5 Traits of People Who Stand Out
Do you know someone who stands out on their “likability” alone? If so, have you studied them?
Let’s do that here by exploring 5 traits likable people possess. Yes, there are more than five, but in this space I’ll share four and then you can come up with #5!
Here we go …
Continue ReadingNo Excuses Living Is No Mistake
While many talk about leaving a better world to our children, accountable parents work to leave better children to the world.
One thing I’ve learned writing a bunch of books is this: Every book has typos.
Some mistakes don’t matter much, as we can still understand the author’s meaning—even when there are two in one sentence! Example:
Continue ReadingVictim Thinking: “I deserve to be hired!”
At QBQ, Inc. we sometimes rail (yes, rail) against anything that smacks of victim and entitlement thinking. We’ve blogged on this topic many times, like here and here and here. 🙂
Knowing our point of view, Lois, a longtime believer in the QBQ! book, sent us this email:
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Skip the Blame, Solve the Problem
“Karen, I dropped Becca!”
It was our son-in-law calling my wife’s cell.
It seems that “Becca Boo”—her painful but triumphant Sept 21, 2012 birth story here—had hit her head at the Denver airport where we had just dropped the Lindeen family for an evening flight home to Wisconsin. As fathers have for a millennium, Erik had been tossing Rebecca up in the air while she giggled and grinned—till she slipped through his hands.
THUD.
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