How Far Will You Go?

Linda LaitalaBusiness, Employees, Leadership, Management, Marketing, SalesLeave a Comment

What determines what we will achieve in life? It’s a question that has plagued people for ages.  One indicator is mental toughness: resilience against attack, calmness in the face of uncertainty, persistence through pain, focus amid chaos. Here are three videos – each an example of mental toughness.

Can I Get Away With That?

Linda LaitalaBusiness, Employees, Leadership, Management, Marketing, SalesLeave a Comment

Serving on our local electric cooperative board (East Central Energy) is an honor and a responsibility.  I take it very seriously.  We are the stewards of our members’ investment in their electric utility.  Controversy over decisions made by the CEO and directors of Crow Wing Power recently received front page coverage in the Brainerd Dispatch.  It begs the question: How could good

5 Things to Avoid Saying During Employee Feedback

Linda LaitalaEmployees, Leadership, ManagementLeave a Comment

Your team is important to you. They’re your backbone and the last thing you want is a team of dissatisfied employees. Your business success is largely in the hands of your team and that can be a tightrope to navigate. Providing feedback to those employees is a crucial to running an efficient and successful business. Frankly, it’s impossible to avoid,

Eight Simple Words

Linda LaitalaBusiness, Employees, Leadership, Management, SalesLeave a Comment

The dairy farm where I grew up was in west central Wisconsin; the neighborhood was filled with family-owned farms.  Some farms were larger than ours; most were smaller.  We were a tight knit group who helped each other out in bad times and celebrated together in good.  I believed that way of life would last forever, but it was not