Peer Power Blog

By Zack Schuler President/CEO Cal Net Technology Group I am of the opinion that no matter what faith you hold, your faith will teach you that taking care of the less fortunate is an essential element of obedience.  Even if you have no faith, in your heart you likely realize that taking care of the less fortunate is “a good thing.”  That said, there are many different ways and forms of taking care of the less fortunate.  There are ways that foster sustainability such as working with a fatherless child, and teaching him something that he will use for the rest of his life.  Helping others to help themselves, has both been an American tradition (at least until recently), and has been taught b...

Yesterday in Dallas at HTG Summit 2012, we hosted our second installment in the HTG Leadership Track.  This is designed to provide an opportunity for members who want to grow in their leadership development to make an investment in themselves and gather once a quarter to learn the skills required to lead well.  Leadership is a skill.  It can be learned.  But it is hard work and requires one to be intentional and committed. We had over 100 members in the room to hear from a half dozen experts on the subject.  Each of our speakers gave fantastic presentations.  They selected the content they would present independently and without scripting by HTG.  And to say there was a common thread betwee...

I've been privileged to be in China for the past 10 days as we are here to pack up and bring our daughter home after almost two years of time learning the language here and sharing life with students.  During that time I have been able to mingle with dozens of college and graduate students.  They have a very positive view of US business and I often felt like a rock star as they surrounded me and wanted to talk about what it was like to lead a company in America. The business climate here is changing rapidly.  There is no question that this economy thrives around small business.  There are tens of thousands of them - almost every building has the first floor filled with small 10 X 20 or so s...

HTG has been focused for years on helping people develop the discipline of planning.  We require members to write four plans - business, leadership, life and legacy.  Each has a very important role in our company, and our personal lives.  The reason it is a requirement is simple.  Without insight into the things that matter to those we are tasked with serving as peer members, it is impossible to act as accountability partners to help drive execution.  Without plans we have no way of understanding where someone is attempting to go, and what the outcomes are they are working to achieve.  Planning is core to effective peer interaction, or any type of acountability for that matter.  It is essent...

We travel a lot.  In fact, we travel way too much but it is what it is.  As such, we have status with a number of airlines, hotels and car rental companies.  Let’s just say that they are not all created equal.  And where the major differences seem to occur is in the little things – the customer service areas where some go above and beyond and find ways to say yes while others don’t make those same decisions. First in the airline arena.  I’ll just say it clearly – I am a Southwest Airlines fanatic.  They may not offer some of the perks that other airlines do – like no such thing as first class seats or meals or even assigned seats for that matter.  But they do provide benefits no other airli...