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It sounds counter-intuitive, but a business owner can feel very lonely.
That’s because he or she doesn’t feel like they can really open up and be vulnerable about their business decisions. For their employees, they’re supposed to have all the answers. To their peers, they feel like they have to “play the game” and speak about nothing but success and amazing performance.
And for their spouse, they don’t want to worry them that business issues might disrupt their family life.
Read the rest of this entry »The word “should” is a great alarm bell for drawing attention to the decision-making process.
I should get this done for my boss. I should take more time with my kids. I should drink 8 cups of water every day.
The problem is that each describes a situation where you’re giving up control over your decisions to an external force, usually a person. The question is: do you want to give up that control? Do you choose to?
Read the rest of this entry »“More businesses die from indigestion than starvation”
— David Packard
Our culture makes it tempting to want to always grow a business. More customers, more products, more services, more geographical area, more employees … it never ends. Until it does.
This can be true of non-profits as well, just with different words.
Read the rest of this entry »A leader’s primary reason for being is to instill hope.
Think about it: Why would an employee want to work for you? Because they hope for a stable life and valuable work, with people who make it interesting.
Why would a customer want to buy from you? Because they hope you’ll fix their problem or address a need they have.
Read the rest of this entry »Your relationships are built on single acts. Your organization’s culture is one conversation at a time.
It’s about the cumulative effect of many comments and actions. Each on its own may not feel that important by itself, but impressions are made by the totality.
That said, we all remember actions and discussions which had an immediate and lasting impact. I remember the time I told my boss that I would rather quit my job than do what he was requesting. That was nearly thirty years ago.
Read the rest of this entry »It seems like a lot of my thoughts this month are gravitating towards flexibility and resilience! This week I’d like to explore what it means for a whole organization to withstand the buffets of change.
Even thrive.
Last week I talked about core principles of perspective, readiness, energy, learning, and trust. Well, it turns out that groups of people exercise these characteristics as well.
Read the rest of this entry »Last week I talked about three views of resilience. But that opens up the very uncomfortable question of whether “normal” even exists.
It’s easy to get depressed about all the chaos and uncertainty which seems to surround us. I feel that way myself sometimes.
But then I realize that it’s just requiring me to develop a new set of skills. And even though I’ve never been a surfer, I like to think of it as “surfing through the changes.” I like the image because, to me, waves seem very unpredictable and abounding in chaos.
Read the rest of this entry »There are a couple of ways to think about resilience.
The one we usually want to fall into is “rebounding back to normal.” After all, “normal” is the comfort zone and usually is our happy place.
The other way is to define resilience as “adapting to a new normal.” In this case, we have to admit that the world moves on, and the old normal may never exist again. Or parts of it might need to change.
Read the rest of this entry »I hate to tell you this, but I don’t think 2024 is going to be perfect.
We’re supposed to be all optimistic for the new year, right? And here I am with that crushing news.
As always, the challenge for us is to stay positive and forward-looking, despite the fact that things won’t align according to plan. They rarely do.
Read the rest of this entry »No, I’m not working today. I wrote this earlier in December.
But I wanted to wish you all a very happy Christmas, or whatever holiday you might be celebrating this time of year. Isn’t it wonderful that we have this kind of variety?
I wish everyone peace and happiness as we move toward 2024.
The Values-Based Business 