action – Page 9 – CainEllsworth

So This Isn’t How You Thought It Would Go

“When it’s obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” – Confucius It’s important in every business to have a few clear, concise goals or targets to shoot for. For that matter, it’s important in our personal lives as well. Something that pushes us, something that focuses our … Read more

Don’t…Don’t…Do

“When bobbing for apples, an idealist endlessly reaches for the best apple, a pessimist settles for the first one within reach, while an optimist drains the barrel, fishes out all the apples and makes pie.” – Vera Nazarian There are far too many people in this world who aren’t happy with whatever situation they’re in, … Read more

So Many Choices, So Little Time

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” – Stephen Covey I had an invigorating conversation last week with a business owner who’s currently in the middle of a big growth spurt. I asked him what his biggest issue was right now and he said, “We have so … Read more

Time to Get Going

“Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.” – Ernest Hemingway There is a significant part of the population that suffers from a debilitating sickness masquerading as a positive character trait. The sickness is praised in many quarters as being a … Read more

It’s Up To You

“If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.” – B.C. Forbes I recently spent some time with a business owner in our area. He’s a nice guy, but it was exhausting. His view of the world is pretty simple: everyone else has resources I don’t have, I can’t possibly compete … Read more

Good Ideas Aren’t Good Enough

“Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed, whatever follies I have witnessed in public and private life, have been the consequences of action without thought.” – Bernard Beruch I think I could edit the above quote to end “…thought without action” and it would be just as meaningful. It’s bad enough to … Read more

Greasing the Wheels

“Nothing changes if nothing changes.” – Unknown We talk a lot in this space about change & how hard it is for us to change, both individually and organizationally. I had an interesting conversation recently about a different aspect of change – how do you get others to change? More specifically, how do you convince … Read more

Do Something Constructive

“Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.” – Winston Churchill As leaders, a big part of our job is thinking about the future. Unfortunately, too often that thinking becomes worrying, complaining, stressing, obsessing, energy destroying – you get the picture. I’ve been involved way too many management team meetings where all I did … Read more

You Can’t Just Sit There

“There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.” – John F. Kennedy I was going to start this week’s post talking about a client of ours who struggles to “do” anything. They talk and talk without it ever amounting to any action. There’s … Read more

What Aren’t You?

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” – Michael Porter We live in a world that likes to measure worth by accomplishments. We’re always talking about what we’ve done, about what goals our businesses have achieved, by what items we’ve crossed off our to-do lists. It’s implied that the more things we … Read more

GPS Blog

It's time to go "Beyond the Numbers".