Real Growth

December 16, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Real growth happens in the grey areas, the paradoxes, the places where easy answers fail.
— Mo Edjlali, Mindful Leader Founder & CEO

This quote is from an interesting article I read recently. It got me thinking about one of the leadership challenges – applicable in business and in one’s personal life.

We spend a whole lot of time trying to put things in order. A defined process, with steps and checkpoints and owners. Quantifying results with numbers and graphs and analyses.

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Enough

December 9, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

We’re always striving for more, for better. The important question is: When is enough?

I’m on this treadmill too, so I’m speaking to myself.

I enjoyed this picture of the cat because animals are good at living in the moment. When we’ve had cats, there’s great joy in … just being together.

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The more things change …

December 2, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

I spent most of my career in technology, so I became accustomed to having the industry change very quickly. Chasing waves of tech can get crazy, and I appreciate that the professional coaching industry doesn’t move at quite that pace.

When it comes to supporting my clients, I could argue that what we learn today is basically the same as it was three years ago. Or 30 years ago. Or 300, for that matter. Because it’s about listening, helping clients think through issues and chart a course forward.

I imagine that 300 years ago, the role of a coach was performed by the wise elder or good friend. And the relationship was probably described as “wisdom” or “helping.”

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A hand up

November 25, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

How often have you received help from a person you respect? I’ll bet it’s happened quite a bit.

So what is it that keeps us from asking for that help? Pride, mostly. A leader is the person who’s supposed to have all the answers.

This is a fallacy, of course. We just don’t want people to find out that we’re also just making it up as we go along. With experience and judgment, of course, but not with certainty.

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Best possible outcome

November 18, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

I talked last week about the downside of decisions, but this week I’d like to focus on the possible upside.

There are times when it is healthy to be optimistic about the possible future. I appreciate this because it generates energy and attracts people toward your ideas.

Let’s imagine that you’re planning to expand the business to a new location. I’m sure you’re hoping that you’ll serve more customers, generating income and profits on top of the necessary expense.

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Worst possible outcome

November 11, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | 1 comment

There are times when we have to explore the possible futures.

Like it or not, we have to ponder both the good and the bad. Today I’ll look at the downside, and next week at the upside.

Some folks are naturally pessimistic. I’ve tried to focus on optimism, but there are times I have to try to balance – especially when making big decisions.

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Incorporating personal values

November 4, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

I was part of a great discussion recently about the difficulty with incorporating personal values into the business.

This discussion was about incorporating Christian beliefs, but the same logic applies whenever we’re talking about something which doesn’t have a strong link to the purpose of the business itself. After all, we can agree about the need to treat customers and employees fairly – that’s just great business practice. But your personal beliefs often extend beyond that.

In addition, you might feel constrained in your authority to make decisions if you’re not the company owner. Fair enough. I have some thoughts about that at the end.

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Reconciled to move on

October 28, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

I recently experienced the loss of a significant contractor commitment, and I realize now that it’s partially my fault for relying more on my hope than doing good due diligence.

The hard part is coming to internal peace. On the outside I can raise my chin and look forward to fixing the problem, but inside it still hurts a bit.

I’ve experienced this even more in the past when I lost a great employee or had a work relationship go sour. There are ones that I still regret, over twenty years later. And I’m not a particularly emotional guy.

Perhaps it’s some kind of “long grieving”, like the aftereffects of “long COVID.”

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Messy

October 21, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

I don’t know about you, but my business doesn’t seem to be nearly as organized as I’d like.

I have stuff coming at me from all directions all the time, and things that I have a plan for … change anyway.

It feels like I’m just making it up as I go along. And, in fact, that’s a lot of what’s happening.

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Your next hire

October 14, 2024 in Success in business | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Are you looking forward to the next person you’ll need to bring on board?

I’d like you to think about what their key attributes will need to be, because it’s likely they’ll need to be different from your current people.

It’s easy to talk about job skills, but often those skills will be quite similar to others in the team. More challenging are the other attributes and characteristics, because you’ll want to fill in what’s missing.

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