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I’ve been doing a lot of planning recently – weeks, months, years – and I’ve noticed something curious.
Here’s the way I describe it: I’ve created a plan for this thing happening next month, and have done my best to think through all the ins and outs. It’s become so real in my mind that I’m imagining it actually happening.
The problem, of course, is that it hasn’t actually happened yet.
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 »There are days where we just get crazy busy. My weakness is having a million projects in progress, all partially completed, which create endless distractions.
I love the model that ducks look calm above the water but are paddling like crazy underneath.
So let’s focus on that calmness for a moment.
Read the rest of this entry »The real world never lines up the way you’d like it to. There are always imperfections.
Of course, this is incredibly frustrating – even if you don’t think of yourself as a perfectionist.
This comes to mind because I’m currently working on a yearly budget. And I don’t dream in spreadsheets.
Read the rest of this entry »It’s real easy for me to get immersed in the details of the day. It makes me feel good to be busy and “productive.”
But I need to spend time getting back to the basics, the big picture. Why? Because it gives perspective to focus on the most important things.
A recent example was an offer I had to do some work for a group who approached me. I love what they do, but it’s also more work for me and I’m cautious about taking on obligations right now.
Read the rest of this entry »When Damar Hamlin was injured in the Monday football game last week, it reset our thinking about who these players are and how much we demand of them.
It was hard for us to see everything suddenly stop – for minutes, then for an hour, and then the game was indefinitely postponed.
This brought to mind other challenging situations I’ve seen over the course of my career. Many years ago I observed that all it took was to tell my boss that “I have a family emergency” and all of a sudden all other priorities dropped.
Read the rest of this entry »This is the time of year when all your business newsletters are telling you to create a plan for the coming year. Which is perfect if you have a baseline to build from.
But what do you do when all your assumptions have been blown to shreds in the last two years? Regulations are constantly changing. Supply chains are massively broken. Employees are unreliable. Whole industries are restructuring.
Your foundation, my friends, is much deeper than that.
It’s a great idea to ask for feedback from your employees. It’s part of letting them know you care, and want to improve.
So you gather up your courage and ask people for feedback, both one-on-one and as a group.
But here’s the hard part: showing them that you’re taking action. Why is that crucial?
Because it tells them about your honesty and integrity.
Read the rest of this entry »I’m involved with several organizations for which this is the beginning of the new year. Not on the traditional calendar, but in the way we think and plan and organize.
January 1st is just an arbitrary date, right?
So now might be a good time – as good as any – to make some decisions.
Recently I had a chance to connect with the Fort Collins Chamber’s Talent Summit, which focused on the 2021 emphasis of workers returning to the office. There were a number of golden nuggets that I’ll explore in the coming weeks.
McKinsey has done a big study on Return To Work, and discovered that 29% of employees would consider switching employers if required to return to the office full time. That’s a stunning number, something we couldn’t have predicted a year ago.
If this transition is mismanaged, you could easily lose over a quarter of your workforce. And probably the most valuable workers, since they have the greatest mobility to other companies.
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The Values-Based Business 