Category Archives: Intentional Connectors

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George Washington, Worthy of Praise?

Yesterday was President’s Day in the U.S., a day in which we primarily celebrate our first president, George Washington.  Reading the article “George Washington’s Tear Jerker” in yesterday’s The New York Times, one might ask, was Washington really the great leader he has been made out to be?  I asked myself that question during the summer of 2002 and began a journey to unpack truth from myth.  My journey went as far as contacting and interacting with Edward Lengel, the foremost historian on Washington’s generalship.  After doing my own research I wrote the following which became one of the chapters on 20 leaders in a book I wrote entitled Fired Up or Burned Out.

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First in Their Hearts

Richard Neustadt, Presidential Scholar at Harvard University, observed the following about George Washington: “It wasn’t his generalship that made him stand out . . . It was the way he attended to and stuck by his men. His soldiers knew that he respected and cared for them, and that he would share their severe hardships.”

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Having Lost Connection to Work, Nick Sarillo Found Purpose in Pizza

Nick Sarillo lost the feeling of connection to his work when the home construction employer he worked for over 12 years shifted focus from quality and craftsmanship to speed and mediocrity. So Nick did what every self-respecting man of action does. He quit and started his own business where every employee would feel connected to his or her work. Today, Nick’s Pizza & Pub is the 4th busiest independent pizza company in America and it’s the cover story in this month’s Inc magazine. The story is entitled “Lessons from A Blue-Collar Millionaire,” written by Bo Burlingham, one of my favorite writers.

Nick’s Pizza & Pub is a prime example of a business that thrives because its leader is focused on achieving both task excellence and relationship excellence. Just read its purpose and values below:

Nick’s Pizza & Pub
“Pizza on Purpose”®

Our Purpose: “The Nicks Experience”
Our dedicated family provides this community an unforgettable place; to connect with your family and friends, to have fun and to feel at home!

Nick’s Pizza and Pub Values

  • We treat everyone with dignity and respect.
  • We are dedicated to the learning, teaching and ongoing development of each other.
  • We have fun while at work!
  • We provide a clean and safe environment for our guests and team.
  • We honor individual passions and creativity at work and at home.
  • We communicate openly, clearly and honestly.
  • We honor the relationships that connect our team, our guests and community.
  • We take pride in our commitment to provide a quality service and a quality product.
  • We celebrate and reward accomplishments and “A+” players.
  • We support balance between home and work.
  • Health: We are a profitable and fiscally responsible company.  We support the physical and emotional well-being of our guests and team members.
  • Our team works through support and cooperation.

I met Nick and his business partner Chris Adams at The Great Game of Business Conference and Nick attended a presentation Jason Pankau and I gave last Fall at Northwestern University’s Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement.

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Lifting Spirits In Difficult Times

“The times are difficult. They require courage and faith.” – Thomas Merton

Last Saturday evening, my wife Katie and I attended a gathering to hear about a new artistic collaboration between our friend Rob Mathes and Irish poet Michael O’Siadhail. The evening of conversation, poetry and music brought a dose of truth, beauty and goodness to my day.  It lifted my spirit.

Performing one of the songs with Rob was vocalist James “D-Train” Williams.  Prior to the performance, my friend Ian Cron, catalyst to the Mathes-O’Saidhail collaboration, said a few words about courage and faith during difficult times. As usual, Ian was profound.  He quoted Thomas Merton, whose words are so applicable today.  We need courage and faith to persevere when the future looks threatening, as it does for so many.

During difficult times, we also need truth, beauty and goodness.  When I’ve been working so hard that I go numb, I find that truth, beauty and goodness have a mysterious power to revive me: truth in the form of learning something new and refreshing from a book, an article or a movie;  beauty in music, the theater or nature; and  goodness in a kind, encouraging or helpful outreach to others.

If you are facing difficulties and need to be refreshed, watch Rob Mathes performing for Kathy Lee Gifford on The Today Show, read Ian Cron’s wonderful book Chasing Francis, or reach out to encourage or help a family member or friend in need.  During a difficult time in my life when my beloved Katie was undergoing treatment for advanced ovarian cancer, my family was on the receiving end of a continuous flow of truth, beauty and goodness that I wrote about in an essay entitled Alone No Longer. The essay was published  as an Amazon Short.  I hope reading it will encourage you, too.

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Leadership Wisdom: Howard Behar


One of my favorite business books is Howard Behar’s It’s Not About the Coffee. Behar is the former president of Starbucks International and Starbucks North America. On March 24-25 I’ll be moderating a session at the Conference Board’s Customer Experience Management Conference in New York City where Howard will be speaking. You can learn more about the conference at this link. And be sure to check out the above webcast I hosted with Howard.

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Cancer Changed Me In Unexpected Ways

Six years ago this month, while standing in a hospital waiting room with my mother-in-law and my two young daughters nearby, I began having a hard time breathing.  My wife Katie’s surgery for ovarian cancer had gone beyond three hours.  I knew that normally it shouldn’t have taken that long and I started imagining something had gone wrong.   Before too long, the surgeon entered the waiting room and walked toward me.  “Katie has ovarian cancer and it has spread.  I’m sorry,”   he told me.  Today, six years later, Katie is cancer  free and her doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center told us they believe it is highly unlikely that she would have a recurrence at this point.

That season in our lives changed me in expected and unexpected ways, including how I view organizations and the workplace.  I wrote an essay about it entitled Alone No Longer that was published as an Amazon Short.  Each year around the anniversary of Katie’s surgery, I offer a free download of Alone No Longer at this link. I hope you’ll take the time to download and read it, then reflect on its application to your life.  The essay has been especially popular with people who want to know how they can help family members or friends with a serious illness.  If you know of someone who might benefit from reading Alone No Longer, please pass it along with my best wishes.

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Here’s to Positive Role Models

While growing up did you have role models in your life who had a profoundly positive effect on you? Perhaps it was a teacher who believed in you and pushed you to strive, a parent of one of your friends who consistently provided encouragement or a coach who modeled great leadership, teaching you to work hard and play fair. I’m fortunate to have had positive role models and mentors in my life who brought out the best in me and I’ve tried to play that role for younger people in my community.

I was reminded about positive role models recently while watching a remarkable television program called Friday Night Lights. I really want to encourage you to check out this award-winning and critically-acclaimed drama. This show is gritty and real.  I don’t want to give away the story but suffice it to say the writing, acting and production of this show are extraordinary, a far cry from many of the vacuous programs on today.  You can rent the first three seasons at your local video store and the fourth season will be broadcast soon on NBC (if you have DirecTV, you can watch the fourth season now on Wednesdays at 9:00 PM Eastern).

While I’m not an avid football fan (and you don’t have to be to enjoy this show), I love this drama for its inspiration, entertainment and the values it promotes. The primary examples of great role models on display are in the characters of coach Eric Taylor and his wife Tami. Eric is the high school football coach in a football-crazy West Texas town that, incidentally, is based on Odessa, Texas, where I worked for Texas instruments in my first job after college.  Tami is a guidance counselor who becomes the high school’s principal in later episodes.   Eric and Tami are both leaders who inspire the kids to achieve excellence in their academic and athletic endeavors, and in their relationships and personal character. The show’s adult and teenage characters face the types of heart-wrenching trials and temptations that we all face in life, whether it’s the sickness or death of a loved one, a friend who needs us during a busy and demanding time in our life, or the lure of doing something we know is wrong for the sake of status or financial gain.

The above video clip includes images from Friday Night Lights set to Coldplay’s song “Fix You.”   The images coupled with the song’s music and lyrics capture the spirit of Friday Night Lights. I hope you’ll check it out. You’ll be glad you did.

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Message of “Christmas Carol,” “Wonderful Life” Critical Today

The 1951 movie “A Christmas Carol” is based on Charles Dickens’ classic novel.  It’s the fictional story of  Ebenezer Scrooge, a business owner who idolizes wealth and mocks charity.  Scrooge’s values, and the behavior emanating from them, isolate him from family and friends and make him miserable. Scrooge gets a wakeup call in the form of a nightmarish visit from the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.

“A Christmas Carol” highlights how certain character vices lead to relational isolation which results in dysfunction and death.  This is in contrast to virtuous character that leads to human connection, thriving and life. Charles Dickens understood just how powerful human connection is and that it comes from the character strengths of compassion, empathy, generosity, kindness and magnanimity. These are character strengths and virtues we celebrate during the holiday season (and hopefully live year round).

The same themes of connection and character are explored in the 1946 holiday classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”  

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Connecting Up: Our Need for Transcendence

What do many scientists at NASA and engineers at Google have in common with a doorman at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC)?  The answer: they are fired up about the importance of their work and have a passion and energy that drives them to be a force for the cause.  Employees at NASA are fired up that they are exploring space.  Google employees are fired up because they are organizing information and making it accessible to the world.  I learned  this when I met employees at NASA and Google.   I spoke at both organizations earlier this year.

The doorman I refer to at MSKCC is named Nick.  When my wife Katie and I were walking down 53rd street in NYC in 2004 and we got within eyesight of the MSKCC  entrance, Nick locked his eyes on her and greeted her like a returning friend.  This in in Mid-town Manhattan where no one makes eye contact! Nick knows cancer patients when he sees them, probably from the wigs they wear.   It felt like the healing began within eyesight of MSKCC.

Katie was at MSKCC for high dosage chemo treatments she needed to treat advanced ovarian cancer.  Late last year her oncologist told her it that given favorable test results and five years in remission it was unlikely she would have a recurrence.  Words can’t express how overjoyed we were to hear that news. When we told Nick, he gave Katie a big hug and said how proud he was that she persevered.  We learned that Nick was a cancer survivor too and he attributed his survival to the treatments he received at MSKCC.  Is it any wonder then that this man is so passionate about his work at MSKCC.  You have to see Nick to believe it and you can if you stop by MSKCC’s entrance on 53rd Street across the street from the Citigroup building.  He’s a big guy with a dar complexion and blue eyes. Tell Nick you read about him.  Don’t worry that it may seem strange.  Former cancer patients and their family members regularly stop by to say hello to Nick. That’s how beloved he is.

Nick’s example shows that people are fired up if their work reflects the eternal values of the transcendent: truth, beauty and goodness.  MSKCC’s work reflects goodness and is expressed in it’s tagline “The Best Cancer Care, Anywhere.”  Apple’s passion for the aesthetic design and ease of use of its products reflects beauty. Work in the fields of journalism, research, theology and the academy reflect truth-seeking.

Truth, beauty and goodness are eternal values that reflect transcendence.  Human beings need the truth, beauty and goodness of transcendence to meet our need for meaning in life.  If you can find time over the holidays, reflect on the need for the transcendent values of truth, beauty and goodness in your own life. Below are links to some of my favorite essays, speeches and articles that touch on transcendence. Let me encourage you to print them out, read them and consider their relevance to your life and the lives of those you love.