leaders – CainEllsworth

It’s Your move

“The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.” – Albert Ellis Everyone faces challenges and barriers in their lives, both personally and professionally. Life … Read more

impact

“If your vision is for a year, plant wheat. If your vision is for ten years, plant trees. If your vision is for a lifetime, plant people.” – Old Chinese Proverb One of the things I appreciate about most of the leaders I get to work with is that, for the most part, they’re in … Read more

Stop putting off great

“I always wanted to be a procrastinator but never got around to it.” – Anonymous A week ago in this space, the topic was avoidance. That topic was framed around the idea that leaders have a tendency to avoid things that are unpleasant. Maybe it’s a difficult conversation, maybe it’s a difficult decision, whatever. Today’s … Read more

Face it

“You cannot find peace by avoiding life.” – Michael Cunningham Last week in this space the topic was leading with the knowledge that, no matter what happens, you can’t make everyone happy, so do what you think is best and deal with what happens. Based on the feedback we received, that touched a nerve. Apparently, … Read more

You’re the leader – now lead

“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 The world is always changing, and as it changes, leaders are continually faced with new opportunities and challenges. Sometimes the opportunities and challenges are two sides of the … Read more

No More Looking Backwards

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” – John F. Kennedy Everyone knows change is hard. And it’s not only hard to change, sometimes it’s hard to even wrap our minds around what change to make. We’re bombarded with ideas … Read more

Are You Saying No?

“Courage is the resistance to fear, the mastery of fear – not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain Way back in January – that seems like years ago – we declared 2025 the year of No. Now that the year is nearly a third over, it seems like a good time to revisit that declaration. … Read more

Complaining Gets You Nowhere

“You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can be grateful that thorn bushes have roses.” – Tom Wilson It seems to be fashionable these days to be as negative as possible. Finding something wrong in every situation and then complaining about it has become something of an art form. It’s almost like we’ve … Read more

Growth & Fear

“You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety.” – Abraham Maslow It’s hard to escape our past, and I’m not talking about last week or last year. I’m talking about centuries ago, and the fact that our brains have developed to keep us safe. It started when we were … Read more

Reality = Agility

“People often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it’s served up.” – George R. R. Martin Occasionally, a topic hits home for the visitors to this space. Both last week and the week before, the topic has been the idea that a vast number of leaders appear to be either … Read more

GPS Blog

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