Mike's Latest Podcasts & Interviews
Blog - Mike's World
People First?
By Mike Baer |
We hear this term a lot—people are first at Brand X. However, high rates of turnover, low productivity, ...
Read More Stop Casting Stones!
By Mike Baer |
Stop Throwing Stones In a famous encounter with self-righteousness, Jesus told the crowd, “Let him who is without ...
Read More My Thoughts on “Affordable Housing”
By Mike Baer |
In a famous scene from It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey (James Stewart) gives the curmudgeon Potter a ...
Read More Safety—Why and How I Back the Blue
By Mike Baer |
I Support the “Thin Blue Line” Part of my platform is safety and that involves two vital groups ...
Read More Read My Lips
By Mike Baer |
George H. W. Bush famously promised “Read my lips; no new taxes” and almost immediately after winning the ...
Read More What’s With High Rent?
By Mike Baer |
I hear and understand the concern and frustration about high rent. This is a national challenge but can ...
Read More A Matter of Managed Growth
By Mike Baer |
Main Street, Hendersonville NC Many Hendersonville residents are concerned, as am I, about growth in our city. I ...
Read More Thank You Chamber of Commerce
By Mike Baer |
I want to give a shout out to the Henderson County Chamber of Commerce and their leadership for ...
Read More Stay Together
By Mike Baer |
Better Together Our city is a great place to live, to work, to raise a family. And, while ...
Read More I Proudly Back the Blue!
By Mike Baer |
For the past year, we’ve witnessed cities across America disowning their local police, insulting those who protect them, ...
Read More A Flourishing Economy
By Mike Baer |
Main Street, Hendersonville NC Tourism is the main industry and economic engine of our city. Tourists spend a ...
Read More Local Elections DO Matter!
By Mike Baer |
Sadly, municipal elections attract little interest. This is especially true when they are scheduled in “off years,” i.e. ...
Read More Leading a Remote Workforce (Part IV)
By Mike Baer |
In one sense, leadership is the same in all scenarios. It’s about the heart more than the head. ...
Read More Leading a Remote Workforce (Part III)
By Mike Baer |
The reason that I’m spending so much time convincing you that the hybrid workforce is here to stay ...
Read More LEADING A HYBRID WORKFORCE PART I
By Mike Baer |
The reactive (panicked) move to remote work that occurred in 2020 is about to replace by a return ...
Read More When Leaders Fail
By Mike Baer |
Contrary to much of the contemporary leadership literature, most leadership failures are not missing the objective, falling short ...
Read More What Matters in Leadership?
By Mike Baer |
Many will tell us that leadership is all about achieving the objective, accomplishing the goal, reaching the summit. ...
Read More 15 Things About True Leaders
By Mike Baer |
Are You a True Leader? It’s true that anyone can claim they are a leader. Many bosses do ...
Read More Questions for Remote Leadership
By Mike Baer |
Even when the pandemic has passed, the new shape of work will remain. Companies and teams will operate ...
Read More Leadership is Not Natural
By Mike Baer |
The age old question is, “Are leaders made or born?” Of course, the basic answer is usually, “Both.” ...
Read More ENOUGH LEADERS?
By Mike Baer |
With all the talk, books, and training around leadership, I’d expect to see a plethora of truly excellent, ...
Read More Are You a Leader Who Develops Leaders?
By Mike Baer |
In my career, one of my proudest moments has always been when someone from my team is tapped ...
Read More When Did It Become OK?
By Mike Baer |
When did it become OK to drop the f-bomb in business meetings?When did it become OK to not ...
Read More THINK TIME (Part VII)
By Mike Baer |
This final installment addresses the question of how to turn annual intentions (Parts V-VI) into actions. We all ...
Read More Think Time (Part VI)
By Mike Baer |
In the last publication, we started looking at the annual commitment to Think Time and focused on looking ...
Read More Think Time (Part V)
By Mike Baer |
In this fifth installment of Think Time, we’ll focus on the annual time set aside to think, reflect, ...
Read More Think Time (Part IV)
By Mike Baer |
In this fourth installment of Think Time, we want to look at building it into your daily routine. ...
Read More Think Time (Part III)
By Mike Baer |
In the last installment, we explored getting an hour or two a week to “go to your Starbucks ...
Read More Think Time (Part 2)
By Mike Baer |
THINK TIME (Part 2) In our last post, we discussed the WHY of dedicated think time. In this ...
Read More THINK TIME (Part 1)
By Mike Baer |
I don’t even have to ask the rhetorical question, “Do you get enough think time?” We both know ...
Read More BEWARE THE COST OF CHANGE FATIGUE
By Mike Baer |
Look, I get it. As if the pandemic wasn’t enough, business must (MUST!) constantly pivot and change if ...
Read More The Desperate Need for a Cause
By Mike Baer |
As I survey the emotional landscape and the damages of a year of COVID-19 fears coupled with a ...
Read More Thriving IN Chaos
By Mike Baer |
THRIVING IN CHAOS Quite a number of years ago, management guru, Tom Peters, wrote a book entitled Thriving ...
Read More Go Big or Go Home!
By Mike Baer |
I keep hearing people talk about getting back to “business as usual.” I’d like to make a plea ...
Read More Ending a Hard Year
By Mike Baer |
It’s hard to come up with a “non-trite” way of saying this so, I’ll just say it. To ...
Read More Leading a Remote Workforce: Reinforcing Celebration
By Mike Baer |
Hint: this cannot be overdone! In every period of time, human beings love celebration and recognition. In a ...
Read More Leading a Remote Workforce—Reinforcing Community
By Mike Baer |
Maslow’s Hierarch of Needs Abraham Maslow, famous psychologist, made it very clear in the Hierarchy of Needs, that ...
Read More Remote Leadership (9): Building Community
By Mike Baer |
According to Sirota research, one of the three most impactful dimensions of employee engagement is a “sense of ...
Read More Leading a Remote Workforce (Part 7): Leadership Credibility
By Mike Baer |
There are three questions that followers ask of their leaders...constantly and now more than ever. Does this person ...
Read More Reinforcing Culture (Part III)
By Mike Baer |
Native Totem Pole Culture doesn’t grow on its own. It has to be nurtured. Strengthened. Reinforced. Constantly. How ...
Read More Are You Getting Time in Your Starbucks Chair?
By Mike Baer |
Customers sit in a Starbucks store in Seattle This blog is by no means an advertisement or endorsement for ...
Read More Reinforcing Culture (Part 2)
By Mike Baer |
Steel Bars for Reinforcing Concrete As important as culture is (and we’ve only scratched the surface), it’s something ...
Read More Leading a Remote Workforce (2): Reinforcing Culture
By Mike Baer |
Management Guru, Peter Drucker, once said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” He’s right, of course. Culture, not brilliant ...
Read More 5 Key Things to Reinforce in a Hybrid Workforce
By Mike Baer |
Leadership is always about the heart and in all circumstances. The COVID19 pandemic is no exception. Nor will ...
Read More Leading the Hybrid Workforce (Part 1)
By Mike Baer |
The Pandemic of 2020 has presented leaders with one of the greatest challenges in history: how do you ...
Read More Wanted: Empathy!
By Mike Baer |
Being able to feel with people and communicate that concern is one of the greatest gifts one human ...
Read More What is Your Company’s Higher Purpose?
By Mike Baer |
Simon Sinek has developed thought around a company's purpose; he calls it the “why?” It’s not a new ...
Read More Hire Experience
By Mike Baer |
During this COVID-19 economy, millions have lost their jobs and, while I’m grateful to see the strength of ...
Read More Finding the “New Normal”
By Mike Baer |
I have to admit, I hate the term “new normal.” The reason I hate it is that it ...
Read More FREE MARKETS, CAPITALISM, AND SUCCESS
By Mike Baer |
In these politically charged times, with all the hype and exaggeration in the media, it’s helpful to back ...
Read More Don’t Be a Useful Idiot
By Mike Baer |
Gossip is one of the oldest and most destructive of vices and it continues to devastate today. What ...
Read More Keys to Crisis Management
By Mike Baer |
Coming through COVID-19, every time we think of crisis we think of something of the magnitude of a ...
Read More Creative Compassion
By Mike Baer |
People are frightened; they are confused; and they need help. Compassion means that we feel their pain and we move ...
Read More We Built This
By Mike Baer |
Everything that is great about EmployBridge was built and strengthened by us. It wasn’t done for us or ...
Read More Another Special Day
By Mike Baer |
Can you believe it? Monday was Star Wars Day. Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo. And today? Well, the ...
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