“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need … Read more
“There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.” – Brene Brown Virtually everyone would agree that being a leader is huge challenge. There are people to manage both internally and externally, there are customer issues, technology changes, and on and on. A list of things leaders deal with would take up an entire page. … Read more
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool.” – Richard Feynman There are a lot of balancing acts that leaders are expected to perform. Leaders need to consider what’s best for the business without losing sight of what’s best for customers or employees. Leaders … Read more
“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” – Lao Tzu I’ve had a number of conversations lately with leaders whose organizations are going through some chaos. There are lots of reasons for that chaos – changing industry, changing personnel, etc. – but each of them is dealing with … Read more
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” – Maya Angelou Last week in this space the conversation was about how the choices we make are typically not permanent. We can choose, and if things don’t go the way we like, or even if they do, we … Read more
“Life is a series of commas, not periods.” – Matthew McConaughey I recently was fortunate enough to work with a small business that has been experiencing incredible growth. As with all growth, it came with a number of challenges. Those challenges have caused the business to have to come to terms with a number of … Read more
“As you start to walk out on the way, the way appears.” – Rumi The last few weeks in this space have been about change and not accepting defeat and not settling for less than our best. Our brilliant readers (not being sarcastic) have pointed out that each of those things sounds great until you … Read more
“If you dislike change, you’re going to dislike irrelevance even more.” – Gen. Eric Shinseki Human beings are wired to seek safety. I think that probably goes all the way back to our days living in caves. People in those days were facing death on an almost constant basis, so if they were safe in … Read more
“Being led with parity is like running a race where everyone ties for last.” – John Sensiba Treating everyone you lead fairly should be a no-brainer for leaders everywhere. Regardless of people’s individual characteristics, no team member ought to have to deal with unfair treatment. Not only that, as an organization, it can and does … Read more
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” – Sun Tzu When I ask business leaders how they’re doing, the standard answer I get is some variation of “I’m really busy.” And it’s true. Any leader that’s earning their pay is always going to be busy. … Read more
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