“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
“One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.” – Shannon Alder I was fortunate last week to spend some time working with a business that has been very successful for over 100 years. Over that time, they’ve developed a culture that they’re very … Read more
“It’s a terrible thing to see and have no vision.” – Helen Keller One of the things I hear leaders complain about on a regular basis is how hard it is to build commitment to change across an entire organization. Everybody has kick-off events, or gives fantastic sounding motivational talks, or some other great idea, … 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
“Drive thy business or it will drive thee.” – Benjamin Franklin Last week in this space the focus was on making sure what you’re doing is driving your business toward the vision and making sure you’re busy doing things that matter, not just busy being busy. Someone emailed me with the comment that while that … Read more
“Where there is no vision, there is no hope.” – George Washington Carver We live in a world of activity. We feel like we’re busy all the time, and we actually take pride in it. If I ask a business owner how things are going they almost always say “We’re really busy” or “It’s been … Read more
“Blessed are the flexible, for they will not be bent out of shape.” – Anonymous I’ve been fortunate over the past few weeks to spend a lot of time with some really great business leaders thinking about and working on the future. We’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out WHERE each of … Read more
“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.” – Alan Alda As humans, we have a number of needs. Two of our more basic needs are safety and security. We want to be safe, comfortable, feel like no one’s going to … Read more
“Take action. Success is not guaranteed, but inaction will guarantee failure.” – Ken Poirot There are so many opportunities to take action in today’s world that sometimes we do nothing. A hundred things seem to be coming our way at any given moment. Maybe we’re overwhelmed, or maybe we’re afraid to fail or make the … Read more
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