There are many “top skills for the future,” but communication, influence, and professional presence routinely populate top ten lists that are prevalent in academic circles and the business press. I view it as my duty to prepare my students for the real world of work. If they enter the job market without being objectively terrified to use their voice, render an opinion, and act as a positive force for change and growth, I will have done my job.

This urge to do it yourself is one that comes naturally—at least for some of us. Remember class projects in high school and college? Were you the Type A high achiever that jumped in when deadlines approached and “took over” to prevent a failing grade or substandard outcome? I played this role many times in college and look back on my behavior with a cringe.

Continuous improvement is based on three primary tenets: identifying & minimizing waste, respecting people, and maintaining a maniacal focus on the customer. My advice today is this: use the holiday shopping season to look for examples of service excellence and service failure.

…but significant sustaining innovations occur in the devices and products we use everyday—this type of innovation can largely go unnoticed. I’d like to address that today by highlighting an innovation I’ve stumbled across that has had a positive impact on me personally—innovation in trimmer string replacement. That’s right, we’re going to talk about trimmer string today!

If you’re a leader, listen to what your front-line personnel are telling you about what your customers are saying. Actively listen. Meet them on their turf. Tune in directly to customer conversations. Show you care by taking action to improve the experience of your customers. Taking action will result in improved working conditions for your front-line colleagues.

Every employee of every company in the world is involved in value creation and impacts one or more value streams either directly or indirectly. Unnecessary complexity, over-engineered processes, extraneous approvals, and myriad other blockers impede flow and therefore constrain value addition to any process.

The reason I wasn’t surprised by their response is that I’ve become accustomed to marketers and business owners who ask for feedback, but then completely ignore it—opting instead for canned, automated responses. Remember the Seinfeld episode where they “take the reservation, they just don’t hold the reservation?” That’s how this makes me feel as a consumer. I find this behavior astonishing because why ask for feedback if you’re not going to do anything with it. Nothing says “I could care less about my customer” more than asking for feedback and then ignoring it.

To be “bankable” requires an understanding of how the business functions, what your role is in the value streams that you influence, and how the value you help create generates revenue and operating income.

In business and in our personal lives, honing the skill of both giving and receiving constructive feedback is essential to building trust and driving long-term results. Most of us philosophically recognize the importance of this skill, but struggle with its implementation in real life. In today’s video muse, I provide three tips for engaging in constructive feedback.

My main point is this: philanthropic events are a team sport. They are a place where “we” should apply before “me.” Therefore, when providing feedback regarding your individual experience, pause to ensure you’re providing constructive, actionable advice for how to improve.

If trust is nowhere to be found, if no one knows what their colleagues are doing, if waste and entropy abound, and if the customer is a mystery, then achieving an organizational flow state is highly unlikely. I’m not saying that it’s impossible, but to find flow in a large, toxic, chaotic organization would be a real oddity.