“Everything you can imagine is real.” – Pablo Picasso Many hours have been spent over the years trying to define what characteristics and behaviors define great leaders. Some things show up over and over again – work ethic, intelligence, integrity, etc. Those kinds of things will always matter. The world is always changing, though, and … Read more
“Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.” – Mahatma Gandhi Today’s conversation is about something that’s both obvious and incredibly difficult. I’m not sure I have anything wise to add, and I know I don’t have any magic bullet to make it easy. Every human being is unique. Each of them has different … Read more
“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” – Joseph Campbell Planning is an important part of leadership. No organization was ever successful for very long without taking time to plan for its future. Regardless of size, purpose, location, or … Read more
“Never be so focused on what you’re looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find.” – Ann Patchett Last week in this space, the topic was vision. Creating a clear, compelling vision isn’t easy, and most organizations never really get it done. Even organizations that succeed in terms of vision are faced with … Read more
“It doesn’t pay to worry. If you went through last year’s files marked “important”, chances are the only things you’d keep are the paper clips.” – Robert Orben What keeps you up at night? There’s a laundry list of things leaders can lay awake worrying about if they choose. Markets, people, products, customers, technology, civil … Read more
“Predicting rain doesn’t count. Building arks does.” – Warren Buffett One of the things you’re supposed to do as a leader is think about the future. It’s why there are so many books/articles/podcasts/whatever on planning, strategic planning, long-term planning, etc. Everybody knows it’s important and understands that it’s something they probably should be doing. Some … Read more
“Strategic planning is worthless – unless there is first a strategic vision.” – John Naisbitt Last week in this space the conversation was around the idea that at some point everybody has to stop “hunkering down” and start thinking about the future. That means vision, strategy, all that good stuff. Based on some responses I … Read more
“If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.” – Thomas Watson One thing I hear almost every organization talk about is their commitment to providing their customers with a quality product or service. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve … Read more
“It’s a bad plan that admits of no modification.” – Publilius Syrus It’s the understatement of the year to say that we live in a world that’s constantly changing. Right now, most leaders feel like things change so fast that before they understand the current situation, it changes, and they never get caught up. Some … Read more
“Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.” – Ernest Hemingway Thinking about and planning for the future sounds like something we should do as leaders. There are millions of books/articles/videos on the topic. So we all talk about doing it, … Read more
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