Category: Life Lessons
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Being a good manager (of yourself)
I’ve met some excellent business managers… who are extremely poor managers of their own life. They get results. They support others. They build capable, effective teams. Their business grows. …but they are not joyful. They are not waking up motivated each day. They are not finding themselves energised through the day by the activities, people…
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Reputation for getting up early = you can stay in bed all day
Reputation… “the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone”; “a widespread belief that someone or something has a particular characteristic.” Your reputation shapes how people see you. “A man with a reputation for getting up early can stay in bed all day” Irish proverb The reputation you have shapes how everything you do…
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Where opportunities come from
Jim Collins says that “Return on Luck” is one of the significant factors in extreme success. It is not that successful companies or people have more luck… it is how they follow through on their lucky breaks that makes the difference. One person might meet someone who could open a door of massive opportunity… but…
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3 Life and Leadership Lessons from my Father
My father is by all accounts a successful leader. There are 3 “superpowers” that he has that I think have helped him have such a positive effect in each of these environments. My father has had a long and successful career in business leading to a decade as the Chairman of the Board of Accenture,…
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The $5 Challenge – A Stanford Strategy Story…
Back in 2009, Stanford prof Tina Seelig split students in the school of engineering into teams and gave them an envelope containing $5. Teams had only two hours to generate as much money as possible. Each team would get three minutes to present their project to the entire class. Here is Tina’s own article explaining the experience: The $5…
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Build Strong Foundations
Build Strong Foundations before you grow higher. Are you investing in your own Foundations – or are you building the house of your life on sand? Leadership coach Luis Soares shared the story in the video below a few years ago on a leadership retreat for Vistage Spain. There are two metaphors in the video:…
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Be careful of Lazy thinking
We have a wonderful capacity to mess up our lives through lazy or fantasy thinking. We make blanket black and white statements… rather than seeking the shades of grey. “I hate my job” -> what parts exactly? Life is richer than black and white. You don’t hate every single part, activity, person in your job……
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Days vs Years
Our emotional experience of life can depend on the time horizon we choose to look at our lives. If you look at the progress of your life each day, there are many wild swings. If you look at the progress of your life over longer time horizons, the wild swings blur into the background and…
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Serendipity
Definition: finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for Last weekend, I asked my family a question: “what is your favourite word?” My wife had 3 favourites. One of those words is “serendipity”. Side note: My 6 year old had one favourite word. “Love”. She is a genius IMHO. This week several events occurred where…
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The Tyranny of Convenience
Convenience makes things easy… but what is easy is not always whats most important, valuable or effective. We choose between the options we see, not all the options… we’ve got to be increasingly careful that we don’t choose the path that is just easiest to see. Convenience food… is not health food. Tech companies work…