by Brooks Mendell | Nov 9, 2022 | Communication Skills, Leading/Managing, Sports
Recently, I attended the visitation in Reading, Massachusetts for Francis O’Brien, my college baseball coach at MIT.[1]In his eulogy, Kevin, the oldest of Coach O’Brien’s five children, said, “As Jackie Robinson said, ‘A life is not important except in the impact...
by Brooks Mendell | Oct 10, 2022 | Communication Skills, Forestry, Leading/Managing, Learning
When I missed the mark in my role as a log buyer and harvest manager in northeast Georgia in the 1990s, Danny Hamsley had a way of setting me straight. It would start with a phone call. “Brooks, I’m riding with you in the woods tomorrow.” Early...
by Brooks Mendell | May 18, 2022 | Communication Skills, Leading/Managing
Regular performance reviews, while often criticized, offer a repeatable and transparent process for building more effective organizations. Systems and teams, big and small, require feedback to adjust and improve. Sports have scores, cars have speedometers and engine...
by Brooks Mendell | Nov 16, 2021 | Leading/Managing, Learning, Thinking/Analysis
Growing up, I enjoyed the science fiction movies Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Wars, and television shows such as Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers. The stories combined space travel, advanced technologies and humor with themes that demonstrated a...
by Brooks Mendell | Oct 15, 2021 | Leading/Managing, Learning
During my career in forestry, I learned that managing trees is about managing people. Forest resource managers and timberland investors are also human resource professionals. The work gets done through building productive relationships and teams. As with...
by Brooks Mendell | Aug 17, 2021 | Communication Skills, Leading/Managing
According to the late author and management expert Peter Drucker,[1] “one either meets or one works.” While our sympathies agree with this, we’ve also experienced effective, well-run meetings that got things done. Meetings either leverage or waste company...
