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I was lucky enough to have the honor to serve as the 2016 National Chair of the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC).  When you research ABC on their website, you will notice their mission statement is: ABC will continually strive to be the leading voice...

Yesterday a coworker, Sylvia, asked if I knew what muddy rain was and if I had ever seen it.  I told her I didn't, and I hadn't.  She explained that "muddy rain" is when high winds kick dirt into the air, creating a dust storm aloft, rain passes through the dust...

Last week my daughter, Anne, and son-in-law, Jon, had a daughter.  Her name is Amelia, and she is our first grandchild.  She is a treasure to everybody in the family.  My wife, Sue, and I hustled up from Nebraska to Minnesota to visit her.  Our daughter Sara also...

Gate to gate is an airline term.  It is how they measure on-time arrivals of airplanes.  I have been told airlines typically added 20 minutes to every flight to account for taxiing to and from the runway on takeoffs and landings. Anybody who has flown from Lincoln...

Recent SWOT (Strength/Weakness/Opportunity/Threat) analysis at Willmar Electric told the leaders several things.  Most notably, communication is essential. Not really a news flash.  If you didn’t already know the importance of communication, you likely are part of a...

Merit Shop is one of our core values.  It would be impossible to call ourselves a Merit Shop if we didn’t do individual evaluations. At Willmar Electric, evaluations are a two-part process.  Part one is the performance evaluation.  February is performance evaluation...

A few days ago, while getting ready for work, I noticed something my family members call the "license plate" sunrise. Let me explain. In 2004 our family moved to Nebraska.  It meant getting Nebraska license plates for our cars.  Our children didn't complain at all...

A lot of people like to make cheap jokes about 2020.  A trend is to refer to it as the “year that shall not be mentioned.” Clearly, 2020 was a lousy year globally and personally for many people, but should we be pretending like it never happened? (To save time, I will...

I heard a podcast this week with the author of “This is Marketing,” Seth Godin.  One of the topics he discussed was the price.  He pointed out if people buy your product because it is the cheapest you spend, the rest of that product’s life justifies why it is what it...