 Robert Martichenko is founder and CEO of LeanCor Supply Chain Group. He is a frequent conference speaker, a poet and author of several business books and a novel. For this series about the crossover wisdom between work and life we talked about how his creative side and his professional life have come together, leading by example and how problem solving can build respect.  All In: Bring Your Whole Self to Work and Life I believe I was touched by the muses. My novel Drift and Hum poured out of me. It’s 193,000 words and I never once stared at the screen and asked, “Now, what am I going to write today?” The only reason it took so long to write was because of my slow typing. If you read my novel, there are two story lines. One is about the boys growing up and the other one is about Sam at 50 years old. It is a book of fiction, but a lot of it is fairly autobiographical. When I decided that I would self-publish it, I was worried about LeanCor. I have a brand. I’m known as a lean thinker and business owner in the supply chain industry, which is fairly conservative. If I negatively impacted the company somehow, that would be very bad. I was going to use a pseudonym; I came up with “Hunter Karmack.” Then some friends asked me, “What are you doing? Be proud of the different depths that you have as a person.” I’m a business owner. I write business books, I wrote the novel and I also write poetry. And I have a degree in mathematics. “I can bring more joy to myself, and maybe help others, if I give people my whole being.”
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 Rebecca (lower center) and her family. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Morgan. Rebecca Morgan has been a strategic consultant to manufacturing companies for over 25 years. Prior to that she worked in leadership roles for Perdue Farms, Cleveland Trust, Stouffer Foods, TRW and Precision CastParts. We talked about her role as a consultant, asking questions and what lifelong learning means to her.  Start Where People Are I’ve learned several things in consulting that have helped me become a better person. One, you always need to start where the client is, not where I wish they were. I have to start where they are and move at the speed they can move. I can’t act disappointed because they’re not where I think they should be, or when they don’t reach a certain point by some deadline. Most deadlines are arbitrary anyway. I have absorbed that into my relationships with family and friends and everyone. They are where they are and that doesn’t make them wrong or bad. The same goes for people who are far ahead of me in certain areas. That doesn’t make them superior to me. We all start where we are. I have become much less judgmental in my personal life by being less judgmental in my business life. Finding the Best Solutions Starts with Vulnerability When I was younger and had a “real” job I thought I had to know everything. I thought I was supposed to have all the answers. As I learned what makes leaders great and what makes companies great, I began to understand the power of questions and the power of vulnerability. There are a lot of people in leadership jobs who believe they have to know everything. They look at a given situation, think they understand the problem and come up with a solution. I used to be like that. The strongest people I know are the ones |
David DrickhamerI am an independent leadership and management writer, editor, researcher and journalist. For the past ten-plus years (wow, has it been that long already?) I have helped business leaders and companies tell powerful stories. 
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