“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” – Joe Sabah If you read what I posted last week in this space, this might sound like a repeat. And it mostly is, with maybe a slight twist. That’s primarily due to the fact that since the writing … Read more
“Few days are sunny. Few days are perfect. Instead, most days have something wrong with them, us, or others. Stop waiting for perfect days and start marching forward.” – Jim Collins Early in my career, I thought the most important part of my job was going to be helping leaders figure out what they and … Read more
“Whatever you are, be a good one.” – Abraham Lincoln It’s pretty common to hear leaders talk about their desire for excellence. They’ll talk about delivering excellent products to their customers, or they’ll talk about their excellent customer service, or they’ll talk about their excellent people, and on and on. It would seem that the … Read more
“Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Here’s an obvious statement: there are a lot of things in our lives and careers that we have absolutely no control over. Weather, people, governments – the list goes on and on. And a lot of these uncontrollable … Read more
“It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky One of the things that leaders are most proud of is their work ethic. If you talk to most leaders long enough, at some point they’ll mention how hard they’re working. And for the most part, they are working hard. The question that … Read more
“Drive thy business or it will drive thee.” – Benjamin Franklin A few weeks ago, someone forwarded to me a survey that had been taken of business leaders around the globe. These leaders were asked a lot of different questions about their concerns, priorities, initiatives, etc. One of the interesting things that came out of … Read more
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought into a focus.” – Alexander Graham Bell Today’s topic isn’t new, but it never gets old either. Leaders everywhere feel like they don’t have enough time. They show up for work, work hard all day long, and at … Read more
“What must be done eventually should be done immediately.” – Jeremy Foley I’ve had a few meetings lately with leaders where someone in the room said something like “Well, at some point we should probably ________”. Then the conversation moves on and the really important thing “we” should do gets pushed aside and forgotten. I’m … Read more
“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” – Flannery O’Connor Wishful thinking. Everyone criticizes it, everyone bad mouths it, and everyone does it. We want things to be a certain way so badly that we convince ourselves that it’s so. Then we act accordingly. Leaders aren’t immune. There is no … Read more
“Our greatest fear should not be of failure…but of succeeding at things…that don’t really matter.” – Francis Chan Last week in this space the topic was productivity from the standpoint of being productive doing the right stuff. I try not to write about the same topic week after week, but this keeps coming up. Leader … Read more
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