Author: Dick Cross

Make time in your work life to contemplate what you could be. We’ve all heard about continuous turnarounds. These are the businesses everybody talks about, the ones constantly leaving everyone gasping in their tailwinds. Just about the time we figure…

Why motivating ‘creatives’ takes more than straight-line thinking. Lots of people miss goals. I’ve been one of them. But we keep playing the game, bowing to the ritual while the “setters” of the goals continue moving the targets just beyond…

How to rethink your thinking to move the organization forward. The execution fads in business – strategic planning, management by objective, total quality, just-in-time, and others before these – have had their day. Like most fashionable management concepts, execution really…

Our obsession with “the numbers” in business exploded in the 1960s, when the new “science” of decision theory crossed paths with low-cost computer power. Business scholars began the stampede toward a new “law:” given enough numbers, anyone can run anything.…

Making your business important to its customers. As we move into a new year, a noble resolution for every business is raising the loyalty bar. Making your business your customers’ unarguable first choice. But how? It’s simpler than you think.…

You’ve probably felt one before. A company where the atmosphere’s electric. A place where everyone seems energetically locked together in spirit to accomplish something great. Versus other places that are dull. With dull people simply enduring their days at work…

Humility is the key for turning up the pace. It’s easy to get carried away with ourselves in our heady Jobs at the Top. We’re all susceptible to hubris, to some degree. But your degree of susceptibility depends upon your…

Duty, not responsibility, is your greatest source of power at the top. When I talk to CEOs about the gravity of their jobs, many bemoan their burdens and responsibilities. They talk about what they “owe” – to boards, investors, lenders,…

Build the kind of business where the relationship is just as important as meeting your customer’s service and repair needs. The two strongest ways to endear yourself to a customer are to help them over a fear, or to make…

Learn what it takes to create a winning team I horrified an audience recently when I called teamwork the greatest drain on contemporary business productivity. And it’s likely that I’ve just had the same effect on you! It’s not that…

Mechanical shop, collision repair, A/C, muffler, tires … it really doesn’t matter. Today, you need to rethink how you think about your customers. Not just according to who they are anymore – by the demographics – but rather, according to…

An assessment of who you are as an owner requires looking in the mirror first This new series of monthly articles focuses on what I address in my keynote speeches as The Single Greatest Determinant of Business Success. Throughout my…

Employees are looking for more … not pay, not flexibility, but rather more from their leadership. Our 100-year legacy about how to do the Job at the Top, which business schools, literature and our predecessors have metamorphosed into near-laws of…

Character in leadership is defined by key qualities: patience, kindness and generosity. In my keynote speeches, I make a point that mastery in your Job At The Top rests on two obsessions. One is focused thinking. About the whole of…