“I’ve suffered a great many catastrophes in my life. Most of them never happened.” – Mark Twain There are an infinite number of management and leadership articles that have been published over the years. They talk about important things like finance, emotional intelligence, communication skills, and dozens of other relevant topics. And while those certainly … Read more
“It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky Most people who lead businesses are extremely gifted, great learners, willing to try new things, open to new ideas, etc. Yet so many people who lead businesses make what seem to be horrendous decisions. Or, in some cases, they seem to make no … Read more
“We know what we are, but we know not what we may be.” – William Shakespeare There are a lot of fun, complex, mysterious things that go into leading an organization to sustained success. We’ll save those for another day. Today I was reminded of one of the most basic parts of leadership, one of … Read more
“In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy.” – J. Paul Getty I have the great fortune of working with a lot of terrific leaders. They share a bunch of characteristics, but for the purposes of this post I just want to focus on one that doesn’t always get a lot of … Read more
“Don’t let reality get in the way of your dreams.” – Anthony Liccione It’s early January and the world is full of New Year’s resolutions, lists of things you can do to make the year successful, and predictions about what kinds of things we’ll have to deal with throughout the year. In other words, it’s … Read more
“Our company has a short range and a long range plan. Our short range plan is to stay afloat long enough to make it to our long range plan.” – Anonymous One of the challenges I hear leaders mention on a regular basis relates to planning. Our businesses are faced with so much change that … Read more
“Nobody ever wrote down a plan to broke…lazy, or stupid. Those things are what happen when you don’t have a plan.” – Larry Winget I had a very engaging conversation with someone a few weeks ago about strategy development and planning. The core question was, given the rate at which our world is currently changing, … Read more
“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.” – J.R.R. Tolkien We spend a lot of time as organizations (hopefully) talking about the future. And, to most people’s credit, it’s usually a positive conversation. Most leaders are excited about the future for their business. Most … Read more
“If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.” – B.C. Forbes I recently spent some time with a business owner in our area. He’s a nice guy, but it was exhausting. His view of the world is pretty simple: everyone else has resources I don’t have, I can’t possibly compete … Read more
“You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.” – Alvin Toffler Quite often when people are inquiring about someone’s business, they’ll ask, “Are you keeping busy?” Usually the person will respond with some comment to the effect that yes, they’re … Read more
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