change – CainEllsworth

Don’t Make Peace With Underachieving

“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” – Confucius We’re a month into 2026, and all I keep thinking about is change. Not just the global change we see, or technological change, but change for us as leaders in our own small piece of … Read more

No Pain Tolerance

“Growth is painful. Change is painful. But, nothing is as painful as staying stuck where you do not belong.” – N.R. Narayana Murthy Last week in this space the idea was that doing things to stay safe don’t necessarily keep us safe. After watching some leaders this week, I’m still thinking about that idea. It … Read more

Safety Isn’t Safe

“If you dislike change, you’re going to dislike irrelevance even more.” – Gen. Eric Shinseki Human beings are wired to seek safety. I think that probably goes all the way back to our days living in caves. People in those days were facing death on an almost constant basis, so if they were safe in … Read more

We’re Not All the Same

“Being led with parity is like running a race where everyone ties for last.” – John Sensiba Treating everyone you lead fairly should be a no-brainer for leaders everywhere. Regardless of people’s individual characteristics, no team member ought to have to deal with unfair treatment. Not only that, as an organization, it can and does … Read more

Break Out

“He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.” – Lao Tzu Most of us have some kind of daily routine. We get up in the morning, we workout or meditate or eat breakfast or whatever, then we work, there are more meals in there, maybe a coffee or two, then we … Read more

Leave The Cave

“Courage is the capacity to confront what can be imagined.” – Leo Rosten Safety is enticing. It’s been that way for ten thousand years. When our ancestors were living in caves, the entire goal was safety. If you had something to eat, and a cave, and a fire, you had it made. Why go outside … Read more

Mindset Matters

“The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it.” – Chinese proverb Being a leader is hard. We all have ideas about what we want to do and what we want the organizations we lead to look like. That’s the easy part. Making those ideas a reality … Read more

Living Dangerously

“Pioneering is never done in front of cheerleaders urging on a roaring grandstand of popular approval.” – George Takei We like safety. We’re wired for it. Ever since our ancestors were living in caves, our number one goal is to be safe. If those ancestors were in a cave, with something to eat, and fire, … Read more

Not By Hope Alone

“I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.” – Georg C. Lichtenberg Here’s a quote I’ve heard a lot lately: “I sure hope we have a better year next year.” That’s great. I think virtually everyone who’s ever … Read more

Not For Long

“Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.” – Bertolt Brecht Humans are interesting creatures. No matter how many times certain things repeat themselves, it seems like we’re always surprised. At this point you would think that after thousands of years we would have learned all the lessons … Read more

GPS Blog

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