The Sharpening Stone

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Sharpening Stone is a series of short videos from True Edge designed to sharpen leaders and their organizations.

Interested in learning more about the content below, and how to apply it to solving challenges in your business? Contact us today.

The Sharpening Stone2023-04-12T18:26:55+00:00

The Sharpening Stone – Would You Want You for a Boss?

Have you ever seriously pondered what it is like serving under your leadership in the workplace?  Would you want youfor a boss? I spend most of my days providing executive coaching for leaders of businesses and other organizations, and [...]

By |April 12th, 2023|Tags: , |

The Sharpening Stone – Friction to Fire

Conflict avoidance and conflict management are frequent topics in executive coaching. People most often avoid conflict because they are trying to circumvent undesirable reactions or ongoing relationship contention that can result from confrontation or challenge. Unfortunately, when we avoid dealing [...]

The Sharpening Stone – The Right Stuff: Elements of a Well-Designed Incentive Plan

When I was a boy, my dream was to be a pilot, and I was enamored with flying and outer space.  In fact, one of my favorite movies growing up was, “The Right Stuff”, which chronicled the stories of [...]

By |January 10th, 2023|Tags: , , |

The Sharpening Stone – Don’t Confuse “Busy” with “Productive”

Do you pride yourself on being an “excellent multi-tasker”? Do you feel much (or most) of the time like you are Sooo busy, yet don’t really get much done (at least not the truly important things)? Are your relationships [...]

The Sharpening Stone – Minding Your Family Business

If your family is in business together, you already know some of the special joys -- and challenges – of working with relatives.  A family-owned business can be a great vehicle for generating family wealth, for providing jobs for [...]

The Sharpening Stone – Staying or Going? Let’s Have a Better Conversation

My wife loves Hallmark Movies, and after watching a number of them with her, I find there’s a common theme – Couple is interested in each other, but they don’t express it to one another, then one thinks – [...]

By |September 9th, 2022|Tags: |

The Sharpening Stone – Organizational Fitness for a Healthy Future

A number of years ago at a gym where I worked out I was introduced to the concept of “The Three Pillars Of Fitness” – Strength, Endurance, and Flexibility. Personal reflection on these so-called pillars yielded an appreciation [...]

By |July 18th, 2022|Tags: |

The Sharpening Stone – Accountability AND Compassion

Why do so many of us, leaders included, find it difficult to hold people accountable or address issues firmly and directly? I am convinced it’s because we see confrontation as some variation on harsh, intolerant, unkind, aggressive, or uncompassionate, [...]

By |November 15th, 2021|Tags: , |

The Sharpening Stone – Pay Attention to Retention

When business leaders were surveyed about the top threat to their business for the rest of 2021, it wasn’t inflation or supply chain disruptions to production that came out on top.  The majority of respondents said “Hiring and [...]

The Sharpening Stone – Bring Your Child to Work

When we work with family-owned businesses, a common question we hear from parents is, “How important is it, really, for our sons and daughters to work for someone else? Won’t that just delay their readiness for key roles [...]

The Sharpening Stone – Let’s Talk About Trust

Let’s talk about TRUSTLeaders set the tone and the example in determining the level of safety and trust that exists in an organization.If trust is absent or uncertain, we are forced to spend our time and energy protecting ourselves [...]

The Sharpening Stone – Can You Trust Personality Assessments?

Many companies utilize personality questionnaires or similar psychological tests or assessments to help them decide whom to hire or promote. When good assessment tools are properly used, they can substantially improve your hiring decisions.  The problem is: too many employers [...]

By |January 26th, 2021|Tags: |

The Sharpening Stone – A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results

We’ve all been there. We’re expecting an employee to do something or produce a desired result and it’s just not happening. The tendency may be to think they’re goofing off or being lazy, or that they have been side-tracked by [...]

The Sharpening Stone – Accountability is NOT a Four-letter Word

If, like most of us, you have ever resolved to engage some process of self-improvement, you have probably confronted the sobering fact that saying something, even really wanting it, is not the same as doing it. Any effort to engage [...]

The Sharpening Stone – Does Your Board Know its Job?

In our work with boards, we tend to see two extremes.  On one end of the continuum is the rubber stamp board.  We see this most often in organizations that have an assertive, high-performing and highly trusted executive director or [...]

By |June 3rd, 2020|Tags: |

The Sharpening Stone – Headwind or Tailwind? Building Your COVID-19 Sales Recovery Strategy

Hello, this is Michael Lambert with True Edge Performance Solutions, a management consulting firm in Lancaster, PA.  I’d like to cover a few points about not only staying afloat today, but taking advantage of the situation and building momentum for [...]

By |April 16th, 2020|Tags: , |

The Sharpening Stone – Leading in the Face of COVID-19

Today we have a special audio edition of Sharpening Stone in light of the rapidly unfolding COVID-19 coronavirus situation.  I’m Rob Skacel, business psychologist with True Edge Performance Solutions. Wow, it seems everything’s changed over the past few days – [...]

The Sharpening Stone – The Good, The Bad, and the Boss

Most of us have experienced performance reviews delivered to us by our bosses.  If that was done reasonably well, we walked away with constructive feedback that helped us grow professionally, or at least perform our jobs a little better. In [...]

The Sharpening Stone – The Trouble with Anonymous Feedback

Conventional wisdom says that if you want people to tell you the truth, let them do so anonymously. I disagree. Anonymous 360s and workplace climate surveys have their place, but sometimes they cause more damage than good. You would be [...]

By |September 1st, 2018|Tags: , |

The Sharpening Stone – Lessons from Goldilocks

We’re all familiar with the children’s story, “The Three Bears” and how the young girl Goldilocks gets lost and wanders into their home where she proceeds to try their three bowls of porridge, to sit in their three chairs, and [...]

The Sharpening Stone – Preparing for Battle – Part 2 of 2

In an earlier segment, we talked about the importance of anticipating conflict with your business partners, communicating regularly, and getting tension points on the table before they have a chance to grow and fester. Today we’ll talk about some guidelines [...]

The Sharpening Stone – Preparing For Battle – Part 1 of 2

If you want a healthy business, prepare your battle plan.  I’m not talking about battling your competition.  I’m talking about handling conflict with your business partners. When most people go into business together, they’re not thinking about conflict.  They’re usually [...]

By |April 1st, 2018|Tags: , |

The Sharpening Stone – An Ancient Method for Developing Others

Okay.  So you’re in charge of something.  You’re experienced.  You’re also pretty smart.  Naturally, people come to you for direction. They pop their heads in your office, ask you a question.  You give them an answer.  And off they go [...]

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