I was searching for some older documents recently and stumbled upon a picture I made of my leadership vision for my future. I designed this vision for when I turned 50 (I was 42 at the time, so 8 years into the future). I’d never set such a long-range goal for myself; most goals were shorter termed. I pushed it…
As I observe myself, clients, and friends right now, it’s intense. It seems business is challenging, people are facing life defining situations at work and home, teams are efforting to collaborate, and very little seems easy. We cycle together. It’s not permanent. How can we help each other and ask better questions? What can we do today to contribute to…
When things are challenging, many of us get stalled at starting and proceed to feel bad. Once we feel bad, we justify our inaction creating stories, rationalizations, excuses, and justifications thinking our feelings are reason enough to remain stuck. We do other things, deprioritize the “big” thing we need to do that might be new, different, larger in scope, or…
Today I’m thinking about great questions, so I’m including some random, unrelated questions in my recent reading. I hope one or more of them inspires some great thinking on your part!
On my quest for gratitude, simplicity, and order this year I’m learning more about minimalism. I’m happy to say I’m still on track with a box a week and while listening to a short book about minimalism, I took away a few great practices:
When you’re on opposite pages with another person, sit at the table and open the door to conversation. The simplest curiosities open the door. We are in the initial phases of a remodel. We’re on different pages in terms of scope. We sat at the table and were curious in our conversation. It was interesting, open, and honest. We left…
Sometimes, when life is overfull with challenges, real and imagined, you can’t sleep. That’s been the case for me these past few weeks. Today, I decided to get up instead of trying to return to fitful sleep. It may not be my most energetic day. It has been a more constructive use of my frenetic energy. Finding peace by doing…
I facilitated my worst rated session ever last week. What was interesting for me was that it was a great session from my seat having facilitated over 1,000 sessions. That’s where the insights begin. I have comparative data. They don’t, and it was only their second session. What’s interesting is how disconnected most teams are from the results. When we…
One of the many gems I’ve learned from Gino Wickman is how the economy occurs in 10-year cycles. His mentor, Sam Cupp, shared this simple, reliable, and accurate way to think about business: …in any 10-year cycle, you’ll have 2 amazing years, 6 steady, solid years and 2 years that could put you out of business. As we look at…
Part of my focus this year on gratitude, simplicity, and order is about changing my mindset and habits. Really everything flows from there. When I change my mindset, my new actions make sense. Peace and ease are the result. As my world has grown complicated and challenging this year, I’m finding joy in reducing the “stuff” of my life. When…