A great irony about vision is that it’s born, not on the mountaintop, but in the valley; not in the light, but in the darkness. It’s created by adversity. Whereas most people would conform to the limitations of current reality, sinking into it like quicksand, visionaries do just the opposite. They refuse to accept the […]
Read MoreKnow Your Weaknesses and Know Them Well
Contrary to what popular psychology proclaims, we must know our weaknesses and know them well. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise. Why? First, so that you can avoid situations that play to your weaknesses. All workflow takes the path of least resistance, and, if you’re ignorant of your weaknesses, you’ll find yourself repeatedly doing […]
Read MoreThe Discipline of Focus
The sun is a powerful source of energy. Billions of kilowatts of light pour from this star at the center of our solar system. A laser is a weak source of energy, just a few meager watts, infinitesimal compared to the sun. But those few watts are focused, unlike the sun, in a very narrow […]
Read More5 Circumstances When Patience is a Vice
We’ve all been taught from childhood that patience is a virtue. I can’t tell you how many times I was told as a kid to slow down, calm down, and get down. I hear echoes of parents and teachers imploring me, even impatiently, to “Be patient!” Lesson learned. There are times in business, however, where […]
Read More4 Keys to Creating a Culture of Accountability in Your Company
My favorite scene from one of my favorite movies, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, takes place takes below deck in the gunnery section of a 19th century man-of-war. Russell Crowe’s British sea captain, Jack Aubrey, is preparing his men to attack a bigger, better armed French privateer. Literally outgunned and outmanned, […]
Read MoreTwo Kinds of Accountability: Internal and External
Accountability is all the rage these days. Everywhere you turn, in both the public and the press, people are asking for greater accountability. The salacious tales of Bernie Madoff, John Edwards, and Anthony Weiner all bring cries for greater accountability in business and government. This is good. But what most people think of when they […]
Read MoreHow Many Goals Should You Have?
In my first year of consulting, I was asked to coach an executive director of a local non-profit organization. In meeting with him for the first time, I asked the predictable executive coaching question, “What goals would you like us to work on?” He told me that he didn’t believe in goals. That set me […]
Read MoreThe 4 Causes of Conflict and How to Handle Each
Conflict is a fact of life. Like the old saying goes, “If two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary.” Which suggests that the lack conflict is not only rare, but unhealthy. We’ve all read well-documented stories of nurses avoiding conflict with surgeons while the wrong body part is amputated. Or engineers avoiding […]
Read MoreForget Work-Life Balance. Embrace Concurrence.
Balance as a metaphor, when it comes to the integration of work and life, is flawed. Balance suggests an equality, parity, ideal symmetry. No such conditions exist is the real world of working and living. So I would like to suggest a different metaphor: concurrence. Consider, for instance, a four-wheel drive vehicle. Traveling on rough […]
Read More4 Proven Sources of Trust
Know, like, and trust: these are the keys for building business today. In spite of the stunning technological advancements of the last few years–or, perhaps, because of them–people want to do business with other people with whom they have an authentic relationship. John Naisbitt’s Megatrends prediction of “high tech-high touch” nearly 20 years ago has […]
Read MoreGot Grit? True Grit?
True grit, as it turns out, has an official definition. Not the one given by the 1969 movie where John Wayne won his only Academy Award, or by the recent Coen brothers’ re-make. The grit young Mattie Ross found in the aging “Rooster” Cogburn was an ability to stand up to bad guys and shoot […]
Read MoreValue, Added Value, and (Surprise!) Unexpected Value
Average doesn’t cut it anymore. People don’t tell their friends about an average restaurant, an average contractor, or an average consultant. Remarkable, now that’s a different story. At the heart of the word remarkable is “making remarks.” Remarkable service and remarkable products generate remarks from customers, otherwise knows as referrals, the most powerful and reliable […]
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