“If you are afraid of being lonely, don’t try to be right.” – Jules Renard I was recently having a conversation with someone who’s been in a leadership role for a number of years. At one point in the conversation, he said: “I know what to do, but I think if I do it, some … Read more
“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it’s not open.” – Frank Zappa It goes without saying that the world we’re currently living in does not resemble anything most of us have seen before. Whether it’s customers, employees, the supply chain, financial markets, or any number of other things, everything around us … Read more
“If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.” – Fred DeVito I’ve found myself thinking about ancient history lately. In particular, I’ve been thinking about my ancestors living in caves. It’s kind of hard to imagine. The only thing that makes sense is that if you had managed to find enough to eat, and … Read more
“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden Understatement of 2022: Sometimes our world is pretty complicated. It can feel like every decision or every action is impacted by literally dozens of factors, each of which is impacted by dozens more. We try to get our heads … Read more
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” – Carl Jung One of the conversations I’ve heard leaders having repeatedly over the years has to do with bad luck. Not long ago, I heard a leader describe a situation where there was an opportunity for the … Read more
“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” – Andy Warhol Over the past few months, I’ve heard a lot of people start sentences with the words “I wish…”. They’re wishing something about COVID, or they’re wishing something about the supply chain, or they’re wishing something about the labor … Read more
“The truth is, hardly any of us have ethical energy for more than one really inflexible point of honor.” – George Bernard Shaw Lately in this space we’ve talked about purposefully being uncomfortable, about constantly questioning, about the need to adapt, and so on. All good things. That said, as some of our loyal readers … Read more
“Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.” – Ernest Hemingway Thinking about and planning for the future sounds like something we should do as leaders. There are millions of books/articles/videos on the topic. So we all talk about doing it, … Read more
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T.S. Eliot Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about comfort zones (here and here, for example). There are plenty of reasons for that, but one of them is the realization that there are way more people cruising … Read more
“No man can, for any considerable time, wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which is the true one.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne There are dozens of leadership buzz words that show up in books, in webinars, wherever any kind of discussion of leaders and what they … Read more
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