Are You Solving The Wrong Problem?
What is the most important question you need to answer about your business, life, success, etc.? More importantly: Are you sure you're asking it? Case in point--I recently asked this at a meeting with a prospective client. "Oh, I can answer that," he said. "It was a...
If You Want To Raise Your Prices, Tell A Better Story!
Much ado is written about the 'art of the story' as it relates to your Brand, Market Share and Price/Value. This week, Ty Montague profiled Rob Walker in his HBR blog and seemingly moments later the story line showed up on Inc. Our story matters. It's what gives a...
Letting Go and Moving Forward
Andre Gide said “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of familiar shores.” What I love about this quote is that it's got an inherent built-in conflict. Oh sure, it's easy to let go of familiar shores when they're undesirable,...
Nelson Mandela and The Language of Leaders
In honor of Nelson Mandela, I wanted to honor one of my favorite quotes of his. He said, "If you speak to a man in a language he understands, you speak to his head. If you speak to him in his language, you speak to his heart." We all use words--that's true enough. We...
Seeing Possibility
The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said "Ours is not to see what no one has yet seen, but to think what no one has yet thought about that which everyone sees." We are so often committed to this idea that great leadership is about pure originality. We have to see...
Thoughts, Emotions, Actions: A Trifecta of Resources
If you always do what you've always done You will always get what you always got If you always get what you always got You will always think what you've always thought If you always think what you've always thought You will always feel what you've always felt If...
Living in the Moment: The Holy Grail
Living in the moment. It really is a sort of holy grail, isn't it? Everyone says they want it, but so few seem to be able to achieve it. That seemingly illusive state of being, that ability to live just where you are, just when you are, without the constant attempts...
Are You An Evening Primrose?
"The Evening Primrose" John Clare When once the sun sinks in the west, And dewdrops pearl the evening's breast; Almost as pale as moonbeams are, Or its companionable star, The evening primrose opes anew Its delicate blossoms to the dew; And, hermit-like, shunning the...
Management, as a Position, is Obsolete
"Everyone has received the gift of leadership, unfortunately, not everyone has opened the package - yet." Management vs Leadership: Ask anyone the difference between the two and the answer nearly always puts management in a negative light and leadership in a positive...
The Calendar of Your Life
Today I want to encourage you to see where you stand in the calendar of your life. In the appendix of my book, Leadership Just Got Personal, I include a timeline exercise. In this exercise you make a list of all the significant events in your life, good, bad or...
