behavior – Nathan Magnuson

Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word

July 10, 2017 Personal Effectiveness

Over a decade ago I received a DVD of a past Chick-fil-A franchisee seminar. As I watched, the late founder Truett Cathy took the stage to deliver his opening remarks. They weren’t what I expected. He opened by saying, “If any of you has something against someone in this room,…

Don’t Sabotage Your Own Success

September 5, 2016 Character Personal Effectiveness

When you’re new to the workforce, enjoying leadership success can be a far off goal. The main focus is finding the right role and doing quality work. I know that was the case for me. But with time and experience (and a lot of hard work) come new opportunities to lead…

Why Do We Even Have Core Values?

April 21, 2014 Core Values Culture decision-making Leadership Organizational Effectiveness Values

Most organizations have core values. Somewhere anyway. They’re usually posted on the website and probably printed on a brochure somewhere. But do people talk about them individually? Does anyone know them? Are they specific and meaningful enough to make a difference? At the end of the day, the organization is going to…

Catch People Doing Something Right

March 17, 2014 Culture Influence Inspiration Personal Effectiveness

Several years ago I needed to perform a complicated banking transaction on a certain day but wasn’t going to be able to arrive during lobby hours. Having worked as a bank teller back in the day, I knew it would probably prove an impossible request. But to my surprise the…

How to Measure Learning Programs Using the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model

August 12, 2013 Engagement Human Resources Learning Organizational Effectiveness Strategic Thinking

All of a sudden you get put in charge of building a new training course for your organization. It could be leadership training, professional training or technical training. Doesn’t matter. So you do the hard work of analyzing the learning needs, developing objectives, designing content, coordinating the event and finally…

Core Values as Habits

September 3, 2012 Core Values Leadership Personal Effectiveness

It was years ago that the late Green Bay Packers football coach echoed these words as part of his famous “What It Takes to be Number One” speech: “Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do…