by Brooks Mendell | Feb 18, 2024 | Communication Skills, Leading/Managing, Thinking/Analysis
Simple approaches can focus the mind. When thinking through the means and mechanisms by which disruptions could affect my business, my community, or the economy, I often ask two simple questions rooted in economic fundamentals[1]: Big or small? In other words, how...
by Brooks Mendell | Jan 20, 2024 | Communication Skills, Leading/Managing
A new manager, whether promoted from within or hired from abroad, must learn to communicate and model the values and expectations of the organization. For the internal hire, that person has the advantage of in-house experience and a demonstrated potential to manage....
by Brooks Mendell | Oct 8, 2023 | Books, Communication Skills, Leading/Managing
My Dad taught me and my brother, “There is no premium for complexity.” He emphasized the value of keeping it simple, focusing on the most important things you can control, and getting it done. You don’t get paid more to sound like a robot or technocrat, or...
by Brooks Mendell | Jul 30, 2023 | Communication Skills, Leading/Managing, Sports
A friend of mine, a former professional baseball player, recently asked, “who is the best coach you ever had?” I played multiple sports growing up and baseball in college, and this question brought back a double-header of memories, from Coach White teaching us to...
by Brooks Mendell | Apr 14, 2023 | Leading/Managing
After watching then New England Patriot quarterback Tom Brady at practice, former Indiana basketball coach Tom Crean, in a 2018 Sports Illustrated article, observed: “Everything Brady does, he does with purpose… bag drills, footwork drills, the dropping back,...
by Brooks Mendell | Mar 19, 2023 | Forestry, Leading/Managing, Thinking/Analysis
As leaders, parents, investors, and coaches, we often make decisions with imperfect and incomplete information. Therefore, we benefit by having an approach or philosophy for dealing with uncertainty. When screening and evaluating analysis, I start by confirming that...
