Matt Heemstra 
“When you have exhausted all the possibilities, remember this – you haven’t.” – Thomas Edison I had a conversation with a leadership team recently that was really frustrated. They felt like their organization was stuck. It wasn’t that things were going poorly, but they weren’t really improving either. It seemed to all of them that … Read more
“There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience.” – Archibald MacLeish Change leads to all kinds of things. Excitement, frustration, success, roadblocks, progress and setbacks. And probably a bunch more. Change is a permanent part of the human condition and so are all the things … Read more
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas Edison We’ve spent a lot of time on change over the past few weeks. Purposefully looking for change, pushing for change, etc. That’s great, one of our loyal readers said. But change is hard, and quite often it doesn’t work out … Read more
“Most people prefer the certainty of misery to the misery of uncertainty.” – Virginia Satir Last week in this space the conversation was about purposefully looking for change, seeking out change, and how even the best and the brightest will fail if they can’t make change, and how being the best and the brightest today … Read more
“It’s not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it’s the one that’s most adaptable to change.” – Charles Darwin I’ve been around a number of leadership teams lately that are extremely impressive for their intelligence. These are people who’ve got years of experience, and they’re extremely knowledgeable about what they … Read more
“Everything you can imagine is real.” – Pablo Picasso Many hours have been spent over the years trying to define what characteristics and behaviors define great leaders. Some things show up over and over again – work ethic, intelligence, integrity, etc. Those kinds of things will always matter. The world is always changing, though, and … Read more
“Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.” – Mahatma Gandhi Today’s conversation is about something that’s both obvious and incredibly difficult. I’m not sure I have anything wise to add, and I know I don’t have any magic bullet to make it easy. Every human being is unique. Each of them has different … Read more
“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” – Lao Tzu I’ve had a number of conversations lately with leaders whose organizations are going through some chaos. There are lots of reasons for that chaos – changing industry, changing personnel, etc. – but each of them is dealing with … Read more
“The tragedy in life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.” – Benjamin Mays Leaders are busy. In my entire career I can’t remember ever talking to a leader who was bored, or who said they just didn’t have much to do. Whether business is booming … Read more
“You don’t have to become something you’re not to be better than you were.” – Sidney Poitier Continuous improvement is something that every great leader strives for. They understand that performing at the same level in the same way today that they did ten years ago won’t work. They need to develop new skills, and … Read more
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