“There was no such thing as luck. Luck was a word idiots used to explain the consequences of their own rashness, and selfishness, and stupidity. More often than not bad luck meant bad plans.” – Joe Abercrombie Today’s quote is a little harsh, which I suppose is to be expected when you take a quote … Read more
“Strategic planning is worthless – unless there is first a strategic vision.” – John Naisbitt In last week’s post I talked about how important it is to plan, and a few key things that make up part of a successful planning process. As a few of you reminded me, there are many other things that … Read more
“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” – Dwight Eisenhower I wouldn’t necessarily agree that plans are useless, but I think what Eisenhower meant was right on. Once the shooting starts (or for those of us fortunate enough not to get shot at on a regular … Read more
“A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves obscure men whose timidity prevented them from making a first effort.” – Sydney Smith In last week’s post we talked about the fine line we walk between perseverance just being stubborn (even if … Read more
“Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.” – Josh Billings One of the more interesting exercises we use when talking about growth is to help our clients create a business statement. I can hear your eyes rolling as you read that … Read more
“Be yourself – not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be.” – Henry David Thoreau I like that quote. I wish I had a way of measuring how much time we spend in our businesses and our lives trying to do things only because we think other people think … Read more
“You don’t lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case.” – Ken Kesey Last week I spent part of a day visiting with a leadership group whose organizational focus is entirely on growth. They’ve been talking about growth for years, and have … Read more
“All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.” – Ellen Glasgow During 2014 we’ve spent a lot of time working with people around the idea of growth. After several years without much growth to speak of, people want to grow. Growth is fun to talk about & it energizes people. Unfortunately, a … Read more
“Death is a challenge. It tells us not to waste time.” – Leo Buscaglia One of our keys to success in 2014 is the idea of being a challenger (read this if you have no idea what I’m talking about). We’ve been talking with people about challenging their people, their customers, and their entire organization. … Read more
“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” – Sun Tzu A recent Mindshop survey asked business leaders around the world to pick what they thought was a likely theme for their organization in 2014. The most common response was “Growth”. Based … Read more
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