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This past Sunday, October 25, there was a major rock slide that has closed I-40 in both directions. (click here for story) The slide occurred between mile markers 2 and 3 on the North Carolina side. Highway officials are estimating that it could take up to 3 months clear away the rock debris and reopen the road.

Until the highway is reopened, guests coming to Ridgecrest from the west should take I-40 East to I-81 North and then take I-26 East to Asheville where you can get back onto I-40 East. This route is the recommended detour and there should be plenty of signage to help along the way. The detour will add approximately 60-90 minutes to your drive time so please plan accordingly. One good note, the drive on I-26 from Erwin, TN to Asheville is absolutely beautiful and you will definitely enjoy the views.

We will keep updated highway information on our Ridgecrest website. Please check beck for the latest before hitting the road for Ridgecrest!

I attended the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta last week and it was a great event.  One of the speakers this year was Pricilla Shrier who in her closing comments recited this poem that I found on her website.  It had the crowd cheering and I thought I would share it with you this week.

He is the First and Last,
The Beginning and the End!
He is the keeper of Creation and the Creator of all!
He is the Architect of the universe and the Manager of all times.
He always was,
He always is, and He always will be...
Unmoved, Unchanged, Undefeated, and never Undone!

He was bruised and brought healing!
He was pierced and eased pain!
He was persecuted and brought freedom!
He was dead and brought life!
He is risen and brings power!
He reigns and brings Peace!

The world can't understand him,
The armies can't defeat Him,
The schools can't explain Him,
and The leaders can't ignore Him.

Herod couldn't kill Him,
The Pharisees couldn't confuse Him,
and The people couldn't hold Him!

Nero couldn't crush Him,
Hitler couldn't silence Him,
The New Age can't replace Him,
and Oprah can't explain Him away!
He is light, love, longevity, and Lord.
He is goodness, Kindness, Gentleness, and God.
He is Holy, Righteous, mighty, powerful, and pure.

His ways are right,
His word is eternal,
His will is unchanging,
and His mind is on me.

He is my Savior,
He is my guide, and
He is my peace!
He is my Joy,
He is my comfort,
He is my Lord, and
He rules my life!

I serve Him because
His bond is love,
His burden is light,
and His goal for me is abundant life.

I follow Him because
He is the wisdom of the wise,
the power of the powerful,
the ancient of days,
the ruler of rulers,
the leader of leaders,
the overseer of the overcomer's,
and is to come.
And if that seems impressive to you,
try this on for size.

His goal is a relationship with ME!
He will never leave me,
never forsake me,
never mislead me,
never forget me,
never overlook me,
and never cancel my appointment in His
appointment book!

When I fall, He lifts me up!
When I! fail, He forgives!
When I am weak, He is strong!
When I am lost, He is the way!

When I am afraid, He is my courage!
When I stumble, He steadies me!
When I am hurt, He heals me!
When I am broken, He mends me!
When I am blind, He leads me!
When I am hungry, He feeds me!

When I face trials, He is with me!
When I face persecution, He shields me!
When I face problems, He comforts me!
When I face loss, He provides for me!
When I face Death, He carries me Home!

He is everything for everybody everywhere, every time, and every way.
He is God, He is faithful.
I am His, and He is mine!
My Father in heaven can whip the father of this world.
So, if you're wondering why I feel so secure, understand this...

He said it and that settles it.
God is in control,
I am on His side,
and that means all is well with my soul.
Everyday is a blessing for GOD Is!

If you haven't heard Pricilla Shrier speak you should, it will be a blessing for you, it sure was for me.  Look for an event near you at http://www.lifeway.com/women.

 

 

Today, as I was looking through the books in my office bookcase, I came across a blast from the past. The book is titled Without Reservations - An Uncensored, Unabashed Look At How People Behave In Hotels and is a compilation of guest stories from Holiday Inn hotels during the early 90's.

As I looked at the book, I remembered first reading it when I was the general manager of the Holiday Inn Townlake in downtown Austin, TX. The book was loaned to me by Oscar Sanchez, my front desk manager at the time. After reading I must have set the book aside and forgot to give it back when Oscar left to go to another hotel. So, Oscar, if you read this... I'm sorry man!

From experience, I can tell you that guests really do some strange things when staying in your hotel. I wish I would have been smart enough to right down all the crazy stuff I've seen over my hospitality career. While I don't remember all of them, here are just a few that I'll never forget.

• While helping to open the Crowne Plaza Galleria in Houston I remember I man coming down to the front desk and complaining about the toilet in his room. Not an unusual complaint for most hotels. However this one had a twist. See, we had really rushed the last couple of days of construction in order to get the hotel open in time for the Houston Homebuilder's Show and when you rush construction, some things tend to get missed.  When the desk clerk told him she'd send maintenance right up to fix the toilet he told her the problem was not a 'broken' toilet. No, the problem was he didn't have a toilet at all, only a hole in the floor of the bathroom! Big oops!
• One night, when serving as the Manager on Duty, I got a call on the radio that someone was shooting off a fire extinguisher on the 4th floor. Grabbing two security guards to go with me, we headed up the elevator. When we got off the elevator, we didn't see anyone and it was very quiet. Thinking we must have missed them, we started to head back down to the lobby. However, before we could, we noticed CO2 powder running down the corridor carpet so we followed the trail. The trail led us directly to a room on that floor so we knocked on the door. Imagine our surprise when a young man opens the door with a fire extinguisher in his hand. Talk about finding a smoking gun! Needless to say, he and his buddies had been partying in their room just a little too much. They ended up spending the rest of the night in jail...
• One Saturday afternoon, while working as the F&B Director at Holiday Inn East in Montgomery, AL, I got a call from the front desk saying someone had reported a 'bum' loitering in our Holidome. She asked if I would check it out and if true, politely ask him to leave. I said sure, but before I could walk out of the restaurant, one of my waitresses came running into the restaurant all excited. I asked her what was going on and she breathlessly explained that she had just see Hank Williams, Jr in the Holidome. Turned out he was the 'bum' that had been reported to the front desk. Evidently his tour bus had stopped next door to the hotel and he was just walking around to stretch his legs. Needless to say, I didn't ask him to leave. Even though he did look a bit like a bum...

What about you? Care to share an unusual hotel experience with us?

I recently read an article about the 10 things we should pray for our children.  I thought it was a good reminder as I caught myself chuckling about some of the prayers I have prayed recently for mine:  "Lord, keep him out of trouble" , "Protect his heart" and "Father, keep me sane"  I'll admit have topped my list in the past few weeks.  Here is the list from the article.

1.  For Godly wisdom

2.  For character

3.  For an excellent spirit

4.  For humility

5.  For the desire to know God

6.  For direction

7.  For favor

8.  For discernment

9.  For the right friends and the right spouse

10.  For respect toward authority

 A good list to remember for our children.  And as for our sanity, well I guess that will have to wait for another list.

This is an excellent article from Fuller Youth Institute that gives great insight into "Guy Land," the world that your boys grow up in. It also offers some suggestions for how to walk with them through "Guy Land". Having worked closely with boys in middle school and high school for the past 10 years, I find this article to be right on target. This is the adolescent boy world. If this is news to you, then I encourage you to read the entire article, and perhaps even take a closer look into your son's day-to-day life. Who is he spending time with? What are they doing? What do they really talk about? And who is leading them into the rest of their life? Are they leading themselves? Or is there an loving, caring adult walking beside them through these crucial years of transformation? Enjoy the article and please feel free to comment with any questions or concerns...

Click this link for read more:  http://fulleryouthinstitute.org/2009/08/just-guys/

Last week I wrote a post listing the top 10 reasons why people stay with an organization (read entire post here). In that post I referenced a book I recently read entitled, Love 'em or Lose 'em. In this book, the authors offer 26 engagement strategies for managers to use in helping retain good employees.

Of the 26 strategies, 25 were proactive and basically a list of do this, or do that. However, one chapter focused on what not to do. The chapter was titled, "Jerk - Don't Be One". Immediately below the chapter title was this, "WARNING - If this book landed on your desk with a bookmark here, pay attention!".  If you're like me, you probably chuckled when you read that.

Unfortunately the reality is that it's not really funny for a lot of people. The reason being, they work for a boss that acts like a jerk and it makes their work life miserable. Over the years I've had the unfortunate experience of working for a couple of jerks (none so far at LifeWay!) and it was not fun. In one case, it was bad enough that I was ready to quit. When I complained to my general manager he told me that I could learn as much from the bad managers as I could from the good ones. (Not sure that's what I really wanted to hear, but looking back I think there's a little truth in there somewhere.) Fortunately, before things got really bad, I got a promotion and was transferred to another hotel.

As it almost was for me, working for a jerk boss is one of the top causes for a person to leave a job. Even employees who are well paid, receive recognition and a chance to learn and grow will leave if the boss is a big enough jerk. This begs the question, "Are you a jerk boss?". Some bosses are proud of the fact they're a jerk, but I think most of them (maybe even us sometimes) don't really realize the impact their behavior is having on their employees.

So, what are some of the behaviors of a jerk boss? Here's a "Jerk Behavior Survey" that can offer a little insite. The survey poses the question, "Which of these behaviors would make you leave your job?" and lists 42 jerk behaviors to choose from. Once you check the five that would most likely cause you to leave, you get the results of what everyone else said.

Here are the five (4 of 5 were in top 8) jerk behaviors I said would cause me to leave a job:

1. Belittles people in front of others
2. Lies
3. Humiliates and embarrasses others
4. Betrays trust or confidences
5. Swears

What about you? Have you ever left a job because the boss was a jerk? If so, what was the behavior that sent you out the door? If not, what jerk behavior would cause you to leave a job you were otherwise satisfied with? 

Over the course of my work career, I've been involved in more performance reviews (giving and receiving) than I can remember. Most were positive, others not so positive, but in my most recent performance review my boss asked me a question I had never heard before.

Near the end of our meeting, Jerry asked, "What would it take for you to leave LifeWay?". For just a moment, I was speechless. In 30+ years I've never had a boss ask me that question. I'm sure I've had one or two who probably wanted to ask what it would take to GET me to leave, but never what would it take for me to leave. Fortunately, I truly do love what I do. Once I recovered my voice, I said that short of the audible voice of God, I couldn't think of anything that would get me to leave to LifeWay.

As we discussed this question further, Jerry shared that he had recently read the book, Love 'em or Lose 'em. In this book,  the authors challenged employers to ask this type of question before a good employee leaves, instead of waiting and asking why they left in an exit interview. When you stop to think about it, this makes a lot of sense. Why not engage your good performers and find out what might cause them to leave before they really leave?

In their book, authors Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans shared the results from over 17,000 folks who answered the question, "why have you stayed with your organization?". Based on that research, here are the Top 10 Reasons why people stay with an organization:

1. Exciting work and challenge
2. Career growth, learning and development
3. Working with great people
4. Fair pay
5. Supportive management/good boss
6. Being recognized, valued and respected
7. Benefits
8. Meaningful work and making a difference
9. Pride in the organization, its mission and its products
10. Great work environment and culture

I would love to hear what you think about this. How do these reasons line up with how you feel about your job or organization? As a boss, which of these areas can you positively impact?