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I Didn't Care What They Called Me, As Long As They Paid . . . . .In Cash

When I was younger, I would ask my Grandfather Harry about the family business.  My Great Grandfather Sam was a cooper before he emigrated from Belarus to Canada, and later to the United States at the turn of the 20th century.  His father Avraham (my great-great grandfather) and his grandfather Shmuel Zelek (my great-great-great grandfather) were coopers as well.  Coopers are tradesmen that make wooden barrels from oak staves and lids, bound wrought iron bands.  It is a combination of carpentry and blacksmithing that was essential to packaging goods up into the mid 20th century.  Today, cooperage is mainly for whiskey barrels utilized to age the liquor and add special characteristics. www.barrelsdirect.com Originally, when my Great Grandfather immigrated to the United States, he worked as a heat treater in a Flint, Michigan auto plant making driveshafts.  His brother Ed and him formed a barrel making business that last a few years before they went their sep...
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Difficult Decisions Can Be A Little Easier

Years ago, when I was still a teenager, my father taught me a method of evaluating options when making difficult value decisions.   These types of decisions were mostly about which school to attend, career path, job positions, and major purchases (home, car, home improvement, etc.).   This method was meant for objective decisions, not emotional ones.   Difficult decisions are difficult because of the various criteria involved.   Emotional decisions are not part of this equation, so please do not use this post when deciding whom to marry, because I have been divorced twice; so you’ve been warned. Any complex decision entails 5-10 separate criteria, items of consideration that are going to be difficult for each option.   The decision-making process is complex because each option is going to hold to each of those criteria differently.   If one of your options is overwhelmingly favorable across the board, then it really is not a difficult decision, it is a sl...
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Knowing When To Make A Stand - Thanks For Nothing, Max Weber

     I remember how powerless I felt as an undergraduate college student while studying engineering. My future, my independence, my life, was balancing on a single event, graduation. Completing my studies had always seemed like a moving target. See my earlier post ( Three Men and a Truck - My 30 year journey ) about my trials and tribulations involved with transferring from U of M - Ann Arbor to U of M - Dearborn .       In that sordid process, there were several courses that didn't transfer towards my engineering requirements. I ended up taking an additional semester of coursework to finish my degree. During my senior audit, I was told that I was three credits short on my humanities requirement. I just couldn't believe it. During the prior semester, I had taken debate which was categorized as humanities, or so I thought. The department had recently reclassified the course.  I had used an older bulletin when originally choosing the cla...
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Richard Winters: Integrity In Leadership

Maj. Richard Winters      While I was watching HBO's " Band of Brothers " mini-series, for the twenty-something th time, I recognized something poignant. Maj. Richard Winters , who serves as the central connecting character, continually demonstrates exceptional middle management virtues.  His leadership is exemplary, not just in a military sense, but for any organizational setting.  He led by example and was always willing to go first, where he sent others.  He knew how to balance compassion with expectations. When it was necessary to be stern and authoritative, he was. When it was necessary to show empathy, he did.  He learned to delegate, even though it was never easy.  He gained the respect of his peers and his subordinates through his actions, not by intimidation or cruelty. Damien Lewis as Richard Winter s      Richard Winters knew he wasn't perfect. He didn't demand perfection, he demanded ultimate accountability. In co...
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The Mentor of a Middle Manager - Joel Bussell

       I have been writing this article for almost a month; bits and pieces at a time.   I wanted to finish it before December 26 th, on what would have been my father’s 84 th birthday.   Joel Bussell was the most important mentor in my life.   I have had many people who have influenced me during my journey into middle management.   Supervisors, department managers, coworkers, and even direct supports have helped guide me through numerous challenges.   However, my father was the first and most significant mentor of my entire life.   An engineer, and later an attorney, he was not ever a C-suite executive or a world-renowned leader. To those he taught in his classes or hired and developed in his 40-year manufacturing career, and 15 years as an educator, he was an invaluable mentor.        As I look back on my life, I can visualize many of the times my father advised me.   It was his idea for me to spend my summ...
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Three Men and A Truck Photo, My 30 Year Journey

Last year, I received an interesting email announcing the retirement of one of my undergraduate professors.  Professor Keshav Varde was not only one of my instructors, he was also my program adviser, the head of the mechanical engineering department, and the faculty advisor on the Society of Automotive Engineers competition project.  I was the team leader of a national competition project to convert a GMC truck to run on natural gas.  It had been several years since we had spoken, and I thought it would be nice gesture to stop by his retirement party and congratulate him in person. On the evening of the retirement reception, I arrived late on a winter evening at the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus.   I was held up at work, and running behind, so I skipped dinner and headed over to my alma-mater.  I hadn't visited the campus in several years.  The last time I walked through campus was with my oldest son.  A few years prior he was up in the ...
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The Midge Maisel Journey of Transformation

I just finished watching the first two seasons of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”.   This is a dynamically written show, with impressive acting, and a killer soundtrack.   In previous posts, I have been highly critical of poorly written television series, but I can’t stop thinking about the complex undertones present in this exclusive show (Amazon Prime).   Spoiler Alert!! I don’t plan on going through a synopsis of the show, but there are certain nuances embedded in both the minor and major story arcs that can spoil certain details for those who haven’t seen it.   So if you are still interested, follow me down my obscure middle management rabbit hole. How does this show tie-in with middle management?   Throughout the series, the main character travels a whimsical journey through her own creativity; both physically and emotionally.   She finds herself one night drunk, heartbroken, and on the same stage that she watched her husband perform open-mic st...
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