If a Job is Once Begun…

Uncategorized Jan 31, 2024

“Everyone who’s ever taken a shower has an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.” — Nolan Bushnell

People often classify themselves as either a thinker or a doer, and think that both of these things are a good quality in their own right. This is true, but in order to really be successful, you have to be both. You have to have the ability to form the thought, see its potential impact, and come up with a finished product. If you can’t see your ideas through until the end, you will end up with a bunch of half-baked plans that never get off the ground.

Related: Tips for Analysis Paralysis

It might seem like good practice to be able to lay out the groundwork for a multitude of different projects and then see where they go, but the reality is that it is much more difficult to put the finishing touches on something than to simply start it. The reason for this is that when you are...

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Succeed Through Humility

Uncategorized Jan 24, 2024

“The biggest challenge after success is shutting up about it.” — Criss Jami

 

The feeling of success, of overcoming a great boundary, is one of the greatest in the world. It is what pushes men and women toward greatness and gives them the drive and willpower to push forward, no matter the obstacle in front of them. It is the light at the end of the tunnel, the tantalizing prize that we are rewarded with after weeks upon weeks of effort. So powerful is the rush that we get from this feeling that it can send some on a kind of ego trip, without ever knowing it. Success makes us feel powerful, and the ability for power to corrupt is well-documented throughout history.

Related: How to have an effective quarter

But how do you avoid corruption while still maintaining the drive that can do wonders to your work ethic? The answer is through humility. It is easy to get lost in competition, and when that happens, your mind often plays tricks on itself to make you think...

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A is for Attitude

Uncategorized Jan 17, 2024

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” — Thomas Jefferson

 

Attitude is key.

You have probably heard this in one form or another many times throughout your life, ranging from when you were in kindergarten to when you got your first job, and it may seem kind of corny at this point. But there is more truth behind it than many people like to admit. It comes through in many different forms from teachings of all kinds of famous speakers and entrepreneurs. It might also come in the form of “change always comes from within” or “to make a difference in the world, you must first start with yourself”, but in reality they all teach the same concept: That how you perceive the world affects how the world really is.

Related: Healthy Team Environments

What this means is that if you really want something, you have to truly believe that you can...

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Loyalty — The Ultimate Form of Respect

Uncategorized Jan 10, 2024

“You can buy a person’s hands but you can’t buy his heart. His heart is where his enthusiasm, his loyalty is.” — Stephen R. Covey

Loyalty in Teams

Continuing on from the last post, I figured I would go into a little bit more detail on one of the most important aspects of an effective team — loyalty. Loyalty is hard to define, yet everyone knows what it is when they see it. For the purpose of this entry, we’ll define loyalty as having complete faith in somebody’s ability, but also having the respect to disagree with them and still see them as an equal.

Loyalty is important within a team because it allows for uninhibited discussion and unlocks the full potential of the group by freeing up the flow of ideas. For example, think about your closest friend at this very moment. You probably go to them whenever you have things going on in your life that need to be discussed with another person. But why do you do this? Because you know that...

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Teamwork makes the Dream Work

Uncategorized Jan 03, 2024

“To succeed as a team is to hold all of the members accountable for their expertise.” — Mitchell Caplan

Effective Teams

More valuable than any sole participant, an effective team is one of the most important aspects to almost all facets of business. Whether you are working together to make the right decision for your company, or a think tank is actively brainstorming new innovations, teamwork is essential for success.

But as the old saying goes, a chain is no stronger than its weakest link. The ability of your team to accomplish its goal rests upon the shoulders of the least active member. Not only do they contribute the least to the team, but they also drag down the entire team by breaking the spark of connectivity between active team players. This spark is only visible when every member of the team sees each other and their ideas as equals.

In order to ensure that every member’s contributions are maximized and that the team is as effective as possible,...

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Leadership Isn't Easy

Uncategorized Dec 27, 2023

“It can’t be about you… if you want to lead.” Bobbie Goheen


Leadership is the ability to define a common purpose and continually align people, resources, actions and behaviors to achieve the vision/goal. This is an easy statement to write and hard one to live out everyday. If you are in a leadership role you know why.

Leadership in today’s world will require the following from you:

1. The ability to listen without judgement
2. The curiosity and willingness to explore other avenues or ideas that are not yours
3. The astuteness to ask for help
4. The interest to establish relationships with those you might not normally have in your inner circle
5. The openness to adapt your style because the situation and people require it of you
6. The tolerance to manage the egos of others even when they think don’t have one
7. The courage to let go of old ways and standards that create rifts between you, others, and the purpose

In my coaching practice it is not...

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Quiet Leadership

Uncategorized Dec 20, 2023

“A problem well stated is a problem half solved.” – Charles Kettering

I am fortunate to have the opportunity to work with effective leaders around the world. I notice many successful leaders have an innate ability to not solve a problem until it is well stated and understood. This is a difficult tension to hold in the dynamics of every day life.

Effective leaders realize that time and clear focus are the most important assets to achieving the vision or goal. When you focus on the right initiatives you get extraordinary outcomes.

To hone your own skill in this area ask yourself the following questions:

State the problem as you presently see it
Define what you are noticing in this situation
State the issue in a sentence
Why it is important to solve
Define the best outcome for all

In my coaching, rich and expansive conversations take place when there is clarity on the problem and the leader begins to explore beyond their current framework of thinking. Bold new...

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Their Success is Your Success as a Leader

Uncategorized Dec 13, 2023

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

The greatness of any organization is built on the motivation and inspiration of it’s people to achieve the vision and goals. If there are no people there is no organization, company or community. There is no need for leadership. Leadership is required when you have a group of people working together to achieve a goal. Leaders who focus on inspiring their people to stretch their personal and professional growth create the kind of synergy that is necessary a forward focused company or organization.

“A leader is best when people barely know (s)he exists. When her/his work is done, her/his aim fulfilled, they will say ‘we did it ourselves.'” – Lao Tzu 

Below are the practices necessary to create a team to say “we did it ourselves”:

No ego about your making it happen, yet lots of focus on achieving the...

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Trusting Your Team as a Leader

Uncategorized Dec 06, 2023

“Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.” ~Alfred Adler

To be a leader is to trust change. This perhaps is one of the most critical attributes to learn that it is not about trusting others or yourself it is about trusting the nature of life and that it will evolve and change.

“True, trust necessarily carries with it uncertainties, but we must force ourselves to think about these uncertainties as possibilities and opportunities, not liabilities.” Robert C. Solomon

The leaders who get this are able to make quantum leaps for themselves and their organizations. Consider any great leader you esteem and you will find them on the edge of change. They are out leading and living on the horizon reminding others of the goal, the vision, the future. These leaders have learned to be tolerant of mistakes of others knowing it will grow better leaders and create a stronger future. This is perhaps the true risk leaders take and...

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Following Your Instinct As A Leader

Uncategorized Nov 29, 2023

“Follow your instincts. That’s where true wisdom manifests itself.” Oprah


To be a good leader you have to be a good follower. The ability to “follow” your instincts is an innate skill that takes practice to know, hear, understand and “follow”.

Can it be taught…no. It must be discovered through life experience …if you did not retain it from your childhood. We are all born with fabulous instincts and part of our socialization process muffles the voice of intuition and instinct.

“He did not arrive at this conclusion by the decent process of quiet, logical deduction, nor yet by the blinding flash of glorious intuition, but by the shoddy, untidy process halfway between the two by which one usually gets to know things.” Margery Allingham

Once you begin to look for your intuition and instincts….you will find it.

“Instinct is the nose of the mind.” Madame De Girardin

Here are some ways to find your...

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