Make it meaningful. — Following on from yesterday’s leadership moment and my oldest daughter’s first performance evaluation, I continued to think about our conversation. She definitely liked what the boss wrote but also realized there was some fluff in there. As we talked, I suggested she keep a copy as it would be a…

Attitude + Effort = Success! — My daughter called me late this afternoon in a great mood. She’d just received her first performance review at her job and earned stellar marks. Of course I’m a proud dad but that aside, I wasn’t surprised. She brings a positive upbeat attitude and her best effort to work every…

Good news well received. — That isn’t my voicemail although I wish I’d thought of it. My voicemail says, “Hello, you’ve reached Mark McMillion, McMillion Leadership. Sorry I missed your call. Please leave a message and I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can. Have a great leadership day!” It’s said with enthusiasm…

As they say in Alabama, “Roll, Tide, roll.” — There is a serious problem happening across America as I write. On my family’s recent vacation, we saw this repeatedly throughout the Southeast. I’m reaching out now to see how widespread this contagion is. While the medical establishment hasn’t yet determined this to be a “disease,” they have reached out…

Communication, communication, communication. — This evening my family and I went to Wendy’s for dinner. The young man taking our order was clearly new to the position and struggling with English. I had the perception he was pretty sharp but the job was really challenging him. One of my sons likes his hamburgers plain…

Plans are worthless; planning is priceless. — Eisenhower said that about planning. Maybe not exactly, but words to that effect. I was reminded of that today with my family as we discussed vacation plans. We have a two-day package for Dollywood. One day at the water park and one day at the general amusement park. …

Seriously? — Yeah, I don’t know. I keep seeing this clickbait article on my feed. It makes me angry because it’s so stupid but I desperately want to click on it to know why but I don’t want to reward stupid because if you click on stupid, you get more stupid. …

You can only do so much. — Boys will be boys. I really dislike that expression. I used to think it was cool but now it’s used to excuse all sorts of stupid. One of my teenage sons is playing football and experiencing a little bit of low-level bullying. Mostly small, picayune, nit-noid stuff. But it has…

Moving from planet to planet is hard. — In June of 1987, I left my home world to emigrate to Armyland. My initial destination was the United States Military Academy at West Point. That first summer was quite an adjustment. The Academy calls it Cadet Basic Training but most cadets and grads call it Beast Barracks. The informal…