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How do great brands use curiosity, surprise, emotion and storytelling to capture attention, engage customers and strengthen brand loyalty? And how can you do the same? Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark.

Mike and Mark share their experiences using Chick-fil-A training materials, and interviewing owner-operators and employees, to shed light on CNBC's interview with the company CEO. Tune in to hear how the company so consistently beats the short-term thinking, lack of fundamentals and personnel issues that plague other companies. Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark.

We recorded this right as Kelly Clarkson went viral. But the Internet happens so fast, we are dropping this episode early because it went Mega Viral®. Is your team ready for YOUR Kelly Clarkson moment?  (The latest news on X, as of this episode dropping, can be found here.) Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark.

Ever had an employee quit ... and forget to leave? How to identify the mentally checked out ... how to "re-recruit" ... how to avoid the Longevity Trap ... all this and more in this episode. Shout-out to Mike Judge's "Office Space:" worth a watch if you can handle a few naughty bits.  Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark.

An episode recorded for some of our clients: If you want accountability in your workplace, you need these three elements ... and then you must add the fourth element. At the risk of sounding like clickbait, it may surprise you. Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark.

One of the earliest examples of DISC? Shakespeare's'' "Julius Caesar!" Personality preferences are not an excuse for a lack of integrity. Brutus, Shakespeare's noble assassin, points the way. Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark.

What is the best way to get promoted in any organization? There are two answers. Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark.

Professional decline can begin earlier than most people expect. But the real danger is not decline itself. The danger is failing to recognize that we need to change how we create value. (Thanks to Arthur C. Brooks for the excellent content.) Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark.

What do the Watergate Scandal, the Bible, two modern business books and the International Coaching Federation have in common? They can all help you defeat the behavior that tempts us all. (Shout-out to Josh Wink for our acid house tangent toward the start.) Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark.

You can teach five conversational habits that give your Gen Z employees what they want: more chances to connect with people. They need friends. You need a great customer and coworker experience. Get both. The Harris Poll we mention Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark.

They Might Be Giants are the USA's greatest rock band. (Mark said so.) An early lyric of the band gives us a window into hipsters, millennials and cancel culture. But the UK's best comedy mind (Mark said so) David Mitchell points to a different path. Can our workplaces use his insight before it's too late? Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark.

The closest English translation is probably self-reflection. But that definition doesn't really do it justice. Hansei isn't sitting around thinking about your feelings. It isn't beating yourself up about something you did wrong. And it definitely isn't the corporate ritual where everybody sits around a conference table after a bad month trying to figure out who screwed things up. Hansei is much more powerful. It is the discipline of looking honestly at what happened, examining your role in the outcome, and deciding what you will do differently next time. Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark.

We all tend toward one or the other. If you emphasize both, you share a skill with some of the best leaders.  Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark.

A roofer's watermelon trick ... a game for high-school juniors ... what do they have in common?  Something that goes back at least to Aristotle. And it's something that can help just about every area of your thinking and interacting.  Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark.

Change fatigue is real! In our continuing series, we discuss how even skilled Navigators can burn out when change is constant, incomplete or poorly supported. Sustaining the healthy response requires systems and personal practices that protect energy and dignity over time. Interested in coaching or training on these topics for you or your team? We'd love to hear from you! Email Mike and Mark.