Swift Straw Blog

Simon Sinek told a story about he and a friend who came across a free bagel giveaway. Simon exclaimed “Free Bagel’s! Let’s go get one!”. His friend replied, “No thanks. The line is too long.” Simon said, “Yeah, but it’s free bagels.” His friend replied, “Yeah, but look at the line”. After going...

As the Spring unfolds this year, there are many industries that are battling through their peak season. Here is a message from Theodore Roosevelt for all of those who are in the arena fighting the good fight. The critics and naysayers will never know victory nor defeat. But those in the arena will...

The work place is ever evolving which means that leadership must continue to evolve as well.  In order to lead in the future, collaboration must be at the foundation.  Here are seven examples of how to be a collaborative leader versus a traditional leader. 

Last week we were working on a project that required several different pieces of equipment. When it came time to use one particular piece, we realized that we had lost the key. For the rest of the afternoon we searched and even delayed the project until the next morning when a spare was supposed to...

Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer has an interesting perspective on coaching.  Although he has plenty of wins on his resume, his focus as a coach has nothing to do with winning games.  Here are a few of his thoughts on coaching and leadership: 

Respect

Jon Taffer, the host of Bar Rescue and serial entrepreneur, has discovered the common denominator for failure. After listening to a recent interview, here are some great takeaways: 

• Excuses are the common denominator of all failure. They are the rationalization of failure. If you blame anything...

Andy Stanley came up with 4 steps to creating high-performance teams. They are...

Rick Warren, the author of the Purpose Driven Life and Pastor of Saddleback which has over 80,000 people on its rolls, had a non-conventional approach to building his church. Instead of finding a facility, hiring musicians and preparing sermons, he went door to door and asked people why they didn’t...

In order to achieve optimal performance, we need to reflect on and create awareness around the activities that energize us and the activities that drain us. Top performers rely on that knowledge so they can major in their strengths and protect themselves from their weaknesses.