change – Page 3 – CainEllsworth

Stop Accepting Defeat

“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

What Are You Still Doing?

“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

Forward Or Backward

“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

Who’s Driving This Bus?

“Opportunity is sometimes hard to recognize if you’re only looking for a lucky break.” – Monta Crane Last week in this space the topic was patience. More specifically, the idea that a lot of leaders have a tendency to use the term to hide the real issue – passivity. At some point, we have to … Read more

Only So Much Patience

“God gives every bird a worm, but he does not throw it in the nest.” – Swedish proverb Patience is a complicated virtue. The dictionary says that patience is “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset”. We prize patience, we tell people they should be patient, we … Read more

Always Learning

“One should pay attention to even the smallest crawling creature, for these too may have a valuable lesson to teach us.” – Black Elk Last week in this space the idea was that leaders need to make decisions and deal with issues that need to be dealt with, rather than hesitating until someone or something … Read more

Be Real

“The world changes in direct proportion to the number of people willing to be honest about their lives.” – Armistead Maupin Last week in the is space, the conversation was about letting go of what’s worked in the past in favor of what can work in the future. That’s a hard thing to do. And … Read more

Quit Looking Backwards

“When you’re through changing, you’re through.” – Bruce Fairchild Barton One of the most challenging things leaders have to deal with is what I call a “legacy of success”. Leading an organization with a long history of high achievement sounds like it should be a great thing. It usually means a solid foundation of people, … Read more

Something Different

“Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.” – Elbert Hubbard Normally in this space we’re talking about leadership, or change, or some kind of challenge we face in our organizations. Today is a little different. It’s still about a challenge, but that challenge is of a completely different … Read more

Almost Nothing Is Permanent

“It is what we know already that often prevents us from learning.” – Claude Bernard Most of the successful leaders I know pride themselves on being lifelong learners. They like to talk about how they’re always seeking new knowledge, new ideas, new ways of doing things, and that being open to all that kind of … Read more

GPS Blog

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