culture – CainEllsworth

Act On Culture

“Take action. Success is not guaranteed, but inaction will guarantee failure.” – Ken Poirot I’m fortunate enough in my career to spend a lot of time with people who lead successful organizations. Those organizations provide a wide array of products and services, come in all shapes and sizes, and are structured in a variety of … Read more

Culture Ambassador

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.” – Oscar Wilde Leaders are asked to do a lot of things. Some of those things are tactical, some are more strategic, some are tangible, some more intangible, etc. Regardless, most leaders choose to be extremely busy, and while they’re busy doing lots of things, … Read more

Not Rainbows and Unicorns

“I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure. It is: Try to please everybody.” – Herbert Bayard Swope One of the challenges that all leaders face is the reality that neither we nor the organizations we lead can do everything we’d like to do. There aren’t … Read more

Culture Doesn’t Just Happen

“Corporate culture doesn’t happen by accident – and if it does, you’re taking a risk.” – Monique Winston It’s always interesting to ask leaders about the businesses they lead. I always ask what the leaders think is the real strength of their business, the thing that really drives their success. People answer that question in … Read more

Culture Takes Work

“It is better to be alone than in bad company.” – George Washington Culture gets a lot of attention these days, and rightly so. For all the strategy & planning and great ideas we might have, if the culture of our organizations is no good then it will all amount to nothing. I’ve seen plenty … Read more

It’s Actually About You

“…Leadership is about taking responsibility, not making excuses.” – Mitt Romney This blog might sound like a repeat (of this, or this, or maybe even this) but it just keeps coming up time and time again. Whether it’s a reflection of our society as a whole or just a coincidence, there is an epidemic of … Read more

3 Thoughts About Your Culture

“If you do not develop your corporate culture it will develop itself.” – Monique Winston Last week in this space the idea was that if you’re unhappy with things that are going on in your business, then as a leader it’s your responsibility to do something. Complaining solves nothing. Either accept reality as is and … Read more

Before You Start Planning…

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” – Peter Drucker As someone who gets paid to help organizations develop & implement strategy (among other things), I get lots of questions about the best way to go about developing strategic initiatives, how to make sure they get done, etc. Usually people expect to hear terms like “SWOT analysis” or … Read more

Do We Really Want Innovation?

“Everybody believes in innovation until they see it. Then they think, ‘Oh no; that’ll never work. It’s too different.’“ – Nolan Bushnell If there is one word I hear more than any other as I visit with business leaders it’s “innovation”. Everybody wants to talk about how great innovation is, how innovation is the key … Read more

What Value Do You Bring?

“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” – Albert Einstein We talk a lot on this blog about what kinds of things leaders should spend time doing, making the best & most efficient use of time, etc. I could write a book (maybe I will!!) … Read more

GPS Blog

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