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ARTICLES BY DR. ANDY NEILLIE, CSP

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bars of soap

Help! I’m running out of soap!

By Andy Neillie | October 13, 2020

It has been more than six months since I got off an airplane. Normally by this time of year I would have well over 100,000 air miles as I criss-cross the US for client engagements.

bars of soap

And now I’m fast approaching a crisis situation: after stockpiling hotel soap for the past 20+ years – and avoiding the grocery store soap aisle since the 1990s – I’m down to just a few, small remnants of all my hotel pilfering.…

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Burning Money

Your Managers Are Costing You a Lot of Money

By Andy Neillie | September 11, 2020

Your managers are costing you a lot of money. $360 billion dollars this year alone.

It doesn’t show up directly as a line item on any P&L. But your bad managers are costing you. A lot.

According to several recent studies by Pepperdine University, Inc. Magazine and other organizations, 50% of your people who work under a bad boss plan to look for a new job in the near future.

Three out of four employees say their boss is the worst part of their job.

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group of tomatoes

How Are Your Tomatoes Doing?

By Andy Neillie | August 17, 2020

One of the bright spots for my wife and me in late March occurred when we realized: we could finally try our hands at a raised garden. After flying almost weekly for years, we now stared into months with no travel on the calendar.

A trip to Austin-iconic Shoal Creek Nursery and we were in business: four large-looking plastic raised gardens, instructions included, along with tomato, bell pepper and cucumber seedlings as well as two packages of green bean seeds.  

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desert

We can be right, and still not be right. . .

By Andy Neillie | July 13, 2020

Fellow Leader,
We can be right, while still not being right. Particularly during a season where everyone’s fuses may be short, as leaders we can be “right” while still not being right.

This Present Reality
Patience is frayed for all of us. It’s July (in Texas, we say that, “Juu-Liii”) and temperatures are soaring near triple-digits almost daily in the Austin area. Our swim schools have enacted social distancing measures and a rigorous sanitizing process so we can continue to serve those of our families who are venturing out during uncertain times.

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boxer in a fight

3 Best Practices for Leaders in Uncertain Times

By Andy Neillie | June 9, 2020

The challenges keep coming. We’ve restarted our businesses in central Texas, but at a much-reduced capacity. And based on the news you and I are reading, many, many businesses and industries continue to operate at run rates far below optimal. Perhaps just as challenging is that none of us know what a “New Normal” may look like and when it will arrive.

 

How do you and I lead when we are dealing with day-to-day challenges and months of on-going uncertainty in front of us?

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Four “Fast-Follower” Best Practices Learned on Lake Austin

By Andy Neillie | May 11, 2020

Texas started opening back up last week.
Our business hasn’t – on purpose.
Four “Fast-Follower” Best Practices learned on Lake Austin.
Here in Texas, our Governor started re-opening the state last week. He gave direction to various business enterprises on recommended occupancy rates and social distancing requirements as we emerge into an economy that needs to recover from Covid-19.
I’ve given the managers of our local businesses very clear direction. Don’t be the first businesses to re-open.

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Young Redford

Leaders are Resilient

By Andy Neillie | April 30, 2020

Without noticing it, Redford got old. The handsome “Cover Boy” of my best-selling book, “The Golden Principles” went from cover-boy looks and alpha-male behavior to white-faced and slow. We rescued him when he was just over a year old. We lost him to old age at 14. For a Golden, that’s old. And while he was in good health almost to the end, he moved slowly in his final days. But even in his advancing age,

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red door - small

It’s Not Just About the Bunny Ears

By Andy Neillie | April 14, 2020

Today is Easter Sunday and the middle of Passover week. For Jews and Christians, some of the most important days of the year: days that have always represented the hope of deliverance.

In our Austin neighborhood – perhaps like yours – it’s also been a day for a “social distancing” kind of Easter egg hunt.  Many of our neighbors have placed pictures of Easter eggs in their front windows.  Families,

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Blue boarding smaller

Why Leaders Should Encourage Thinking Outside The Box

By Andy Neillie | March 9, 2020

My wife and I own four Aqua-Tots swim schools in central Texas. While I travel every week on behalf of Neillie Leadership Group clients, I have a rock-star team of leaders managing these four schools and the more than 100 aquatic coaches and team members who serve our families.  Last year, we did more than 120,000 swim lessons at these four year-round, child-friendly indoor swim centers. I love what our swim center teams do!

Recently,

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