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🗣️ "We read to know we are not alone." -William Nicholson

🗣️ "'Tis the good reader that makes the good book." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

🗣️ "A book is far more than what the author wrote; it is everything you can imagine and read into it as well." -Dee Hock

🗣️ "Almost every idea that you have is downstream from what you consume. We don’t usually think about it that way, but when you choose who to follow on Twitter, you’re choosing your future thoughts in a sense, you’re creating the information flow, what the timeline, what the feed is going to look like. Or when you choose what book to read or which podcast episode to listen to, you’re choosing the thoughts that are going to arise." -James Clear

​After 15 Years of Trying to Build a Journaling Habit, I Finally Broke Through When I Tried This​ Here are the basics of how to make this "BuJo" system work for you... ​Read more​

​The Best Quotes on Leadership​ I've collected thousands of quotes over the past 10+ years. Here are the best ones I've found so far about leadership... ​Read more​

​You Can Just Do Things by Jay Yang​ ​Nonfiction: Personal Development Dang, I wish this book was around when I was 20! In a slim 130 pages, Jay Yang explains how to pursue your goals with what he calls "permissionless action." ​See takeaways​

​Beloved by Toni Morrison​ ​Fiction: Literature, Family, Grief/Loss I recommend this book with a few qualifications. It's a dense, complex, and layered book that's often difficult to understand, but it's also beautiful and rich. I frequently consulted SparkNotes while reading it because I knew I'd miss a lot otherwise. But I'm glad I finally read this Pulitzer Prize-winning classic.

🗣️ "People issues are like fish rather than fine wines: The problems you see on your team now are not going to improve with age. If you tolerate underperformance on your senior team, you put your company, your job, and possibly the jobs of thousands of other talented, hardworking folks in jeopardy." -Elena Botelho and Kim Powell

By far, the worst part of management is having to fire people. It's something I wouldn't wish on anyone, but you sure do learn a lot from it.

Many managers have consulted me through the years about whether to let someone go or keep working to help them improve.

Of course, any manager should give a lot of feedback before even beginning to walk down the road of performance management. But what if you've given a bunch of feedback and they're not improving? What now?

By far, the best question I've found in these situations is to ask yourself:

This question cuts through the crap. Sometimes the answer is "Yes, I would because they have a great attitude and they just need more training."

Other times, the answer is the opposite: "No, I definitely wouldn't."

Either way, that single question brings much-needed clarity. If you're working with a struggling employee, reflect on that. I bet it will help.

​Dive deeper into this topic​

It's HoopFest weekend!

Every June, the city of Spokane, WA, welcomes 250,000 visitors for the largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament in the world. (Pretty crazy that it happens in Spokane!)

I'm playing again this year with my buddies Phil, Mike, and Anthony. We always love this weekend because it's not only a chance to play our favorite sport—it's a chance to hang out, grab meals together, and catch up on life.

We're 2-1 so far, about to play our fourth game about an hour after this email hits your inbox! ;-)

Visit me at BobbyPowers.com for more articles and book reviews about leadership, communication, and personal development.

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