The world faces a new crisis situation more or less every day—be it political, economic, or humanitarian. Wherever a crisis is experienced, echoes are felt around the globe. In the digital age, social media conveys crises in real time, resulting in rich portfolios of pictures, videos, written records, and more.

After decades of coaching powerful executives around the world, I have observed that leaders rise to their positions relying on a specific set of values and traits. But in time, every executive reaches a point when his performance suffers and failure persists. Very few understand why or how to prevent this.

Employee absenteeism is a problem for companies everywhere. When employees are away from the office, for good reasons or not, the cost has been measured at somewhere around 4 percent of the world’s gross domestic product. Absences lead to delayed work, colleagues take on more, and projects are hampered, thus reducing productivity for the firm as a whole.

On our most recent episode of QDL from this past Fri., April 14, 2017, we took a close look at innovation and engineering. Here’s a quick recap:

The tide of popular opinion seems to have turned against multitasking. Recent articles scoff at the notion that people could satisfactorily complete more than one activity at a time, labeling it a myth and a fallacy. This purist pushback in the press mirrors common resentment among professionals at the expectation to adjust to the constant flux that digital technology has brought to daily life.

The largest problems facing businesses isn’t competition, globalization, or access to capital. It is something else, something embedded in the fabric of organizations as their most important asset. Human capital, the people who make organizations work, is one of the largest single issues being faced in today’s business environment.

Two years ago, the marketing research division of Florida-based TR Cutler Inc. interviewed CEOs of privately held manufacturing operations in North America and reported that their top fear was a lack of communication with employees due to the inability to motivate or inspire the workforce. That research was recently replicated, and while communication breakdowns are still the No. 1 fear, the reasons and importance are quite different: It’s about communicating with a multicultural workforce.

You’d like to address a potentially sensitive topic with a neighbor, co-worker, or boss, and you dread it. It might turn ugly. You fear an unpleasant reaction.

If there’s one thing that separates those who do things in an average way and those who do those same things in an extraordinary way, it’s passion. This sense of intense interest, excitement, and focus drives the authentic pursuit of excellence, even (or perhaps, especially) in the rather mundane realm of customer service.

A U.S. Air National Guard veteran, a high school dropout, a person with a background in sales, and a family man who hadn’t been in a classroom for 20 years; four men on very different paths that ultimately led to one destination: the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership’s (MassMEP) Accelerated CNC Program.