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I have watched poor leaders get promoted for dismissing the exact fires they should have been putting out. It happens most clearly during dashboard reviews. The screen looks calm, the room does not. Everything is green, but the operation behind it is smoldering with late jobs, broken handoffs, and unowned processes. Problems everyone knows exist, but nobody wants their name next to. That is how dashboards become flammable. Not because the data is wrong, but because people l

It was me. I was 29 when I started the MBA program at Ohio University. Four years earlier, I had started my own mortgage broker business. When you own a business, every mistake has your name on it. You're the CEO, CFO, CIO, salesperson, accountant...and yes, the janitor. You learn to trust yourself. You learn to make every important decision. Eventually, you learn to control everything because the cost of being wrong is yours alone. Then I got to Ohio University. The MBA Exp

Have you ever lost your company $3 million? One of my coworkers did. It started when a coordinator walked into my office and asked, "Joel, do you know why I have to print every job package in triplicate?" Not one. Not TWO. THREE. If one copy was missing, the job was delayed or canceled. I didn't know. Her boss didn't know. His boss didn't know. So I kept asking. For the next week, my question kept climbing until Compliance finally found the answer. There was no standard.

I once bought a hilarious going-away cake for an employee that everyone loved except HR. She was moving out of state. I liked her, we had a good relationship, and our banter was always sharp. On her last day, someone asked me to pick up the going-away cake. So I asked the baker to write this “Happy Trails. You’re Dead To Us.” I thought it was hilarious. Most people thought it was hilarious. HR saw a baked-in lawsuit. HR escorted me into a closed-door meeting and laid into

My dad is very proud of his 1931 Model A. He should be. It is beautiful, original, and has more accessories bolted to it than a truck stop Christmas tree. He also added a high-compression engine and a high-speed rear end. According to him, that little Ford can easily do 65 mph. I believe him. I believe it can do 65. I just prefer my near-death experiences to come with seatbelts and disc brakes. Here’s the problem. The engine might be ready for 65, but the rest of the car is s

Warren Buffett sits on my Board of Directors. He doesn't know it. Neither do Charlie Munger, Deming, Drucker, Lincoln, or a handful of other people whose judgment I admire. A few months ago, I realized AI could do more than answer questions. It could help me make better decisions. So I built a Board of Directors with some people I admire. Today, when I'm facing a tough business problem, I ask AI to analyze it from different perspectives. What would Buffett think about the ri