“Some of us have great runways already built for us, and if you have one, just take off. But if you don’t have one, it’s your job to grab the shovel.” – Amelia Earhart One of the inescapable realities of life is that we are constantly presented with barriers to overcome. In our businesses it … Read more
“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” – Warren G. Bennis I recently was fortunate enough to work with a business that wanted to significantly change their culture. I’ll spare the details, but it’s sufficient to say things were not good and management wanted a change. Part of the process involved working with … Read more
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy One of the core responsibilities of leaders in the 21st century is to be agents of change. There are so many variables and so much chaos in the world that it sometimes seems that change is the only certainty … 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 Last week in this space I vented a little bit about beliefs and how they drive our behavior and how so many people don’t believe they can change. Someone emailed me and … Read more
“You must make your mark on this earth, and, if you have never done so, it is simply because you neglected to use the powers you have, or you have neglected to develop them.” – John Henry Patterson I’ve written about belief previously in this space (here, for example), and about the reality that if … Read more
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” – Friedrich Nietzsche I’ve used the above quote in this space before, maybe more than once. The older I get and the more people I meet, the more I want to get it printed on a … Read more
“A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill There are a lot of people out there who are in some kind of position of leadership, whether it be in a business or some other organization. From the outside it can be difficult to tell why … Read more
“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.” – Alan Alda As humans, we have a number of needs. Two of our more basic needs are safety and security. We want to be safe, comfortable, feel like no one’s going to … Read more
“Take action. Success is not guaranteed, but inaction will guarantee failure.” – Ken Poirot There are so many opportunities to take action in today’s world that sometimes we do nothing. A hundred things seem to be coming our way at any given moment. Maybe we’re overwhelmed, or maybe we’re afraid to fail or make the … Read more
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” – Theodore Roosevelt As leaders we all have difficult decisions to make. We’re faced with seemingly endless combinations of opportunities, threats, fires to … Read more
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