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There are some horrendous fires going on in Nebraska right now, so it was the whole topic of discussion this weekend when I was talking with friends who are affected.
It reminded me of work that I did in disaster planning, and a conversation I had with my wife in 2013 when fires came within just a few miles of our house.
The question is: How do you possibly save what’s important? In fact, what is important?
Read the rest of this entry »I’ve found that people can put in amazingly hard work … for a while.
It’s not that people are lazy – they just get worn out. And our current society seems to love adding more and more stress, especially mental.
We need a break.
Read the rest of this entry »I’ve had lots of opportunities to create and facilitate strategic plans.
A lot of people complain that these kinds of plans get put on a shelf after the flurry of activity, then never looked at again. Which is totally true.
But I’d like to offer a different viewpoint, a bit less pessimistic.
Read the rest of this entry »At times it might feel like you’re married to your business, your organization, your job. If you are a leader at the top, you may have even started this whole venture.
But really, this is just a passing moment in history. Much happened before you were here, and much will happen after.
The same goes with each person on your team, with an even shorter timespan. Someone might be with you for a few weeks, a few months, a few years. But it’s not their entire life.
Read the rest of this entry »Your boss leads YOU and the rest of the team, right? So what does it mean for a subordinate to lead their boss?
I’ve had a surprising amount of experience at doing this successfully over the course of my career, so I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve learned.
There’s a popular phrase “managing upward” but sometimes that has overtones of I need to limit the amount of damage that my boss does to me. I have to admit that there can be times for this, but it’s not the kind of collaborative relationship you’d like to build.
Read the rest of this entry »It’s really nice to be needed, to be valued based on your knowledge and skills.
The real question is: Do you want your organization to outlive your personal contribution? It’s actually a tricky question to answer, because it means that you need to be able to put aside your ego.
And it’s hard to prepare others to take over your role. I get that.
Read the rest of this entry »On the seventh day, God rested. So we’ve known for an awful long time how important it is to have cycles of time where we step away from the work.
But with the way Americans (in particular) are addicted to always “being on”, you’d think we’ve found a magic solution to such a waste of time.
We haven’t.
Read the rest of this entry »Expect resistance. Resistance is not a sign you’re going wrong. It’s a sign you’re growing. Trees grow strongest where wind blows hardest. The parts of you that resist are the parts most in need of transformation. Love them anyway. Grow anyway.
— Steve Martin, Instructions for Becoming
Steve here is talking about the kind of interior resistance you experience when you’re trying to grow as a person.
It’s really hard to tackle these, because it’s easy to avoid growth by saying, “that’s just who I am.” Yes, you may find it difficult to grow a third arm. But that’s not what we’re talking about.
This is about growing into the kind of person that you want to be. That you know would bring fulfillment.
Read the rest of this entry »We never have enough time to get everything done.
So things get dropped, done incompletely, or come in late. The alternative is to burn yourself out with overwork, but the result of that is that work increases until you’re well beyond capacity.
Your health, family, and life pay the price.
Read the rest of this entry »It’s all so unfair! This shouldn’t happen!
You may be absolutely right. But if you’re stuck in this state of frustration, you’ll never move on to useful progress.
Life is unfair, my friend. Business is unfair.
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