leaders – Page 10 – CainEllsworth

How Are You Stopping You?

“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

Don’t Forget Yourself

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” – Rumi Last week in this space, the topic was change-related (no surprise). The idea was that you can’t just wish or hope for things to change. You actually have to change them yourself. Be … Read more

It Won’t Just Happen

“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

Not Rainbows and Unicorns

“I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure. It is: Try to please everybody.” – Herbert Bayard Swope One of the challenges that all leaders face is the reality that neither we nor the organizations we lead can do everything we’d like to do. There aren’t … Read more

Your Best Chance

“Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.” – African proverb When I was growing up, I remember cringing whenever I heard some adult (usually one of my parents) refer to something as “a learning experience.” Invariably, that phrase was used when something wasn’t going well, or was really difficult, or some failure had happened. I … Read more

Craziness

“Whatever you are, be a good one.” – Abraham Lincoln For most people reading this, availability of the things we want has rarely been a problem over the past few decades. If we want to buy something, we go to the store and it’s there. If our businesses want something, we call a vendor and … Read more

Plan to Adapt

“It’s a bad plan that admits of no modification.” – Publilius Syrus It’s the understatement of the year to say that we live in a world that’s constantly changing. Right now, most leaders feel like things change so fast that before they understand the current situation, it changes, and they never get caught up. Some … Read more

Think Change

“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.” – Bertrand Russell It’s a huge understatement to say that one of the biggest challenges we face as leaders is attempting to make change in our organizations. We all know change is hard. I would guess that half or … Read more

The Uncomfortable Path

“You’ve got to continue to grow, or you’re just like last night’s cornbread – stale and dry.” – Loretta Lynn With all the preaching about comfort zones lately (here, here, and here, for example), I’ve heard from a number of people offering similar feedback. “That’s great,” they say, “but once I find stuff I’m good … Read more

You, Actually

“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

GPS Blog

It's time to go "Beyond the Numbers".