During the last administration, in a particular period of rather nasty and heated political back and forth, I found myself thinking, “Whatever happened to decency?” The politics of nasty now has a solid footing.

Every breakdown is a function of a conversation not had. The biggest mistake is resisting the resistance.

Discover the transformative power of compassion and decency—learn how removing unnecessary tension can not only enhance your personal well-being but also elevate your professional success in surprising ways!

I recently picked up a book titled "The Social Lives of Animals" by Ashley Ward. The cover flap informed me that "a rat will go out of its way to help a stranger, Vampire Bats will share their food with another who does not have any, and ants farm aphids in cooperatives." I bought the book.

When we talk about decency and the economics of business, we are talking about the same thing. I am saying that we, you and I, we all want peace, we all want decency.

I will admit, my intelligent brain could absorb this, but my emotional rationale struggled. Not unlike… “Do you believe in ghosts, flying saucers, or life on other planets…” radical to absurd questions when I was growing up, easily got you laughed out of the room.

If most businesses had this kind of result from their clients, they would be top performers.

We get up in the morning, clean up for work (at least pre-COVID), down some coffee, brace ourselves, and head out the door. It has become so routine we do not notice. In some ways, it started back in grade school… walking out the door with a mental “showtime!”. We slapped our game faces on and headed to school.

In 45 years, I have found that most breakdowns in business can be traced to an absence of authenticity…

We tend to set goals based on who we think should be, what we should be achieving rather than taking an internal look to ask, “Does this outcome excite me?”

It does not take a great work culture to succeed in business, but if you value a culture built on decency and engagement, here’s what it takes…

You probably do business with people you like, and you like them because of the way they treat you. How you are treated reflects how that business treats the people who work there…

I get at least six emails a week telling me that the sender has the “magic formula” to increase our business by 10 times. Does it actually work?

I will start to see a person through a lens that will only reaffirm my point of view. I will often cease to see them in a larger context of possibility or partnership and my interactions with them become limited…

Is the core values conversation approaching the tipping point on your “give a s**t meter?” Fair enough; let’s talk about a new aspect of them. Three things about core values you may not have considered…

Most people think they are better listeners than they are. We listen at about 25 percent efficiency. And, although most people agree that good listening is essential, very few seek to improve their listening skills.

In fairness, looking inward, introspection, is all scary business. We want to know the source of our particular anguish, yet we are hesitant, fearing confirmation of our worst fears about ourselves.

Jung’s “shadow” describes those aspects of the personality we repress. There are parts of ourselves that we don’t like, — or that we think society won’t like — so we push those parts down into our unconscious psyches.

“People all over the world want a good job with mission, purpose with a living wage. This finding gets you pretty close to the meaning of life in the new millennium.”

We have spent years endeavoring to bring the principle, “decency pays,” to the people we work with, and Wizard has been a great model for us.