Business Coaching

On Friday, Oct. 28, the world became a lesser place as Vincent Joseph Dooley, whom many respectfully just addressed as “Coach,” left this life. Since I was a senior at Notre Dame who attended the Sugar Bowl at the end of the 1980 college football season, and I am also an alumnus of Georgia Tech, you can probably figure out that I am not a Georgia Bulldogs fan. However, I am proud to say that I consider Coach Dooley to have been a role model and a friend. I am

Much like many others in the South, I spend a good part of my Saturdays watching college football and I am usually rewarded with exciting entertainment. However, unlike many of my fellow fans, I have found college football to be fertile ground for lessons on how to be successful in business. In today’s column, I’ll share some of what I have learned, not only by watching the most successful teams and programs but also by watching those who are not quite as successful. Hopefully, you can take some of these

After decades in business, serial entrepreneur, Jeff Annis discovered that profit sharing is one of the keys to employee retention. On Wednesday, Annis, founder of Advanced Services Pest Control, spoke to a group of real estate agents, loan officers, and home services professionals at this month’s CSRA Home Connections meeting. He said some of his long-term employees have told him they had considered leaving the company, but changed their minds when he began offering the lucrative profit-sharing incentive, which for most employees, meant they earned between 14 and 18 percent

For those of you who read my previous columns in the Augusta Chronicle, you know that I like to write about leadership. Although I have been in a number of leadership positions across my two careers in the military and higher education that does not necessarily make me a great leader. One thing I do know that I have in common with great leaders is that I am always looking to improve my leadership ability. Therefore, I read about leadership, and listen to others speak about leadership, but most importantly,

Few things determine the success of a business, or any organization, like good leadership. How to create leadership that can be trusted will be the topic of the next Russell A. Blanchard Distinguished Lecture Series in Ethics at Augusta University on Thursday. Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Leslie C. Smith, vice president for leadership and education for the Association of the U.S. Army, will present “Why Leadership Matters: Building Trust in Organizations” at 6 p.m. Sept. 22 in the Dr. Roscoe Williams Ballroom in the Jaguar Student Activities Center on

I like to believe that I am an ethical person in all that I do. I believe I behave ethically because it is the right thing to do without ulterior motives. The credit for my ethical behavior goes primarily to my parents, who not only told me to be ethical, but more importantly, were outstanding role models of ethical behavior. This behavior was further enforced for me through eight years of early Christian education, four years at the University of Notre Dame, and 15 years of active duty in the

I have the joy of teaching leadership in many settings. My favorite audiences are Emory University scholars (in three separate programs – the Executive MBA, MBA, and BBA programs). Trust, compassion, and integrity are always stressed. The following are four examples of integrity. An auditor blows the whistle  In the Pentagon, a major, who was an auditor, discovered that an Air Force general officer had manipulated a secret United States Air Force bank account. Over years, the general pocketed more than $300,000. Despite risks to his career, the young major forcefully raised the

I will never forget the day that basketball great Bill Russell visited the Air Force Academy. He was serving the U.S. State Department as a special envoy to Africa. The year was 1973. He had retired from playing basketball and would soon move on to full-time coaching. When he arrived at the Political Science Department his handshake was memorable. Bill’s hand seemed to be twice the size of mine; it surrounded mine. He visited a class with about 20 cadets who were taking a course in international relations. An introduction