“Saying YES to happiness means learning to say NO to things and people that stress you out.” – Dr. Thema Bryant I had a conversation with a leader recently that seemed very normal. We were discussing the coming year and talking through opportunities, challenges, etc. This leader had a number of extremely valuable things on … Read more
“When you say ‘Yes’ to others, make sure you are not saying ‘No’ to yourself.” – Paulo Coehlo It’s the first blog post of the year, and we could spend our time doing exactly what thousands of other blog posts and podcasts and books and articles are doing right now – talking about what things … Read more
“Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy.” – Saadi We would all love it if the world went exactly the way we want. We make a plan, and everything falls into place. We take some chances, and every potential roadblock disappears. We make some assumptions, charge ahead, and find out that every … Read more
“It doesn’t pay to worry. If you went through last year’s files marked “important”, chances are the only things you’d keep are the paper clips.” – Robert Orben What keeps you up at night? There’s a laundry list of things leaders can lay awake worrying about if they choose. Markets, people, products, customers, technology, civil … Read more
“There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.” – Ray Goforth Part of Newton’s First Law of Motion says that an object in motion stays in motion with the same … Read more
“A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.” – Muhammad Ali I heard someone say recently that one of the things she was most proud of in her career was the fact that she’d stuck to the same principles in 2024 … Read more
“The responsibility of each generation is not to please our predecessors – it’s to improve conditions for our successors.” – Adam Grant A few weeks ago, I was working with a leader who faced a frustrating, but not unusual problem. He was dealing with what I’ll call an Alumni Leader. The individual who had been … Read more
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Albert Schweitzer Money matters. It’s not something we directly address in this space very often, but as a business, at some point you have to be profitable, or you won’t … Read more
“If you don’t modify workloads to retain your best people, you’ll be forced to modify workloads when they leave.” – Jeremy Clopton Last week in this space the topic was people, and how no matter what great ideas we have, or what great products and services we offer, we won’t get very far if we … Read more
“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” – Theodore Roosevelt I was fortunate enough recently to have the opportunity to assist the leaders of a 120+ year-old business that was … Read more
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