The WestermaNation

By Scott Westerman

The “Real” Scott Westerman will be 85 on July 10th. I’m the third in a line that started with his dad back in 1895. I’ve always felt richly blessed to have been born into a family with the father and mother I was dealt. And since Sunday was Father’s Day, I sat down to ask dad what lessons he learned from his father. I present them here, not necessarily as recommendations, but solely for your consideration. Read the rest of this entry »

By Scott Westerman (scott@scottwesterman.com)

NOTE: My Monday Motivators have moved to their own site. Catch up on the latest over at www.scottwesterman.com.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

One of my proudest small contributions during my three year Comcast adventure has been my relationship with Frank Eliason. Frank and I were kindred spirits from the start, passionate about improving the customer experience and laser focused on finding root causes, broken processes, and areas for improvement. We often talked late into the night on our Instant Messengers about how to take our care efforts to the next level. Read the rest of this entry »

By Scott Westerman
Years ago (and I do mean years ago!) I earned my first Vice President gig. It covered a wide swath of the Midwest and among my direct reports was a manager who everyone thought was a golden boy, a man who seemed to do everything right, a rising star. I was excited to meet him.

Almost from the start things went wrong. I would say that something was “blue” and he would argue that, “no, it’s blue!” He was a very able guy, but we just couldn’t get in sync. He went on to a great leadership career and we’re still good friends, but it was my first experience with team chemistry. Read the rest of this entry »

By Scott Westerman

Almost 20 years to the day after our first visit, we found ourselves in Disney World this week. We purposely returned to the Disney Caribbean Beach Resort. The first time our kids were 8 and 10. Now they are grown and gone, so Colleen and I could experience the resort as empty-nesters.

The rooms were the same size. The TVs are still analog CRT based units (Disney doesn’t make any money when you watch TV) and the only change in fixtures I noticed was a more water conserving commode. I’m sure the carpets, beds and furniture have been changed out over the years, but they had the same feel. Only the wall paper boarder had been updated with a Finding Nemo motif. Read the rest of this entry »

By Scott Westerman

When Colleen and I visited Hawaii, one of the first places we explored was the famed Waimea Bay. The Beach Boys sang about it in Surfin USA and I wanted to see, up close, how those boys and girls “with their feet full of tar and their full of sand” attacked the rollers.

They make it look easy.. But it isn’t. Read the rest of this entry »

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. wrote these and for many years, they were on a poster on my office wall. As we celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary, I was reminded, again, of how important his first “suggestion for success” truly is.

1. Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.

2. Work at something you enjoy and that’s worthy of your time and talent.

3. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully. Read the rest of this entry »