âI have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.â Albert Einstein Continuously learning is how you will stay relevant at any level of an organization. Consider stepping outside of your comfort zone, diversifying your areas of knowledge and establishing rituals and habits that support learning. Lifelong...
âThe greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.â William James, Philosopher, and Psychologist.Stress in the workplace can have damaging effects, such as stifling creativity and risk aversion. When we operate under pressure, we shift into survival mode and in this mode of perception, we can have a much harder time thinking creatively and seeing things with a broader, longer-term lens. Similarly, when your associates are stressed, they tend to avoid taking risks and have a hard time thinking creatively, which ultimately affects their potential.
âWould you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?â âThat depends a good deal on where you want to get to,â said the Cat. âI donât much care whereââ said Alice. âThen it doesnât matter which way you go,â said the Cat. ââso long as I get somewhere,ââAlice added as an explanation. âOh, youâre sure to do that,â said the Cat, âif you only walk long enough.â Lewis Carroll, Alice in WonderlandOrganizations that last know where theyâre going. They know how they want people to perceive their business and they know what they want to achieve.
In short, they have a strong vision.
Creating a strong vision is a key to long-term success: it gives you clarity on what you should and shouldnât do for the continuing health and prosperity of the company.
The vision, however, is only one of the keys to success, you must also have a purpose that drives the vision; and, you must have missions, strategies, and tactics to achieve your vision.
Growth was seen as an endless series of daily choices and decisions in each of which one can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.Abraham H. Maslow[1. Abraham H. Maslow, The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance, 1966.]
If youâre comfortable, youâre not growing. Itâs the uncomfortable things that make us grow.
The same is true of business: companies that embrace discomfort as a regular part of business life are more likely to achieve their goals and move closer and closer to fulfilling their company vision than those that donât.
Companies that stay comfortableâwhich feels great in the momentâend up losing in the long run, which doesnât feel so great.
Discomfort is a prerequisite for change.
âAccounting is a department. Marketing isnât. Marketing is something everyone in your company is doing 24/7/365.â Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, Rework A brand isnât a name or a logo: itâs the perception people have of your organization. Everything your company and employees do contribute to...
Iâm a big fan of the âFreakonomics Radioâ podcast. I highly recommend it, in particular an episode titled âWhat does a CEO actually do?â I love the question because itâs cheeky and because Iâm sure many people wonder the same thing but are afraid to...
How do you put archetypes to work? Start at the center. The center is unique for each organization. Your strengths hint at it. Your organizationâs passions point you in the right direction. The forces that drive your customers to do business with you provide invaluable clues. This center should be expressed...
When you uncover your businessâs archetypes you get to know the DNA of your organization. It is from these fundamental symbolic images that all of the desired behavior for employees and customers spring. When you know your archetypes, you can ensure consistency in your culture and your...
THE BIG IDEA: There are seven behavioral patterns that characterize distinct leadership styles. Becoming aware of all seven will help inspired leaders identify their strengths and provide additional options based on the context of the situation. __________________ You donât have to spend much time in executive meetings...
Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.George Lois, Damn Good AdviceWhen Leon Battista Alberti declared, âA man can do all things if he will,â he condensed the ideals of the Renaissance into the figure of the Renaissance Manâa person with knowledge of a wide range of subjects. Since then, knowledge has become very specialized and having the breadth of knowledge in the wide range of subjects embraced by Renaissance Men is impossible. The Renaissance man still walks among us, but we now call him groups. A group can have a collective knowledge that far exceeds the knowledge of any individual. Brainstorming, invented by advertising executive Alex Osborn, was designed to maximize effective and creative group problem-solving. Research on brainstorming initially failed to show an increase in the number and quality of ideas when compared to individuals working alone; but in the last two decades, research has revealed that brainstorming can be productive if the procedures guard against impediments that naturally occur like conversation being controlled by a limited number of individuals and shared data being disproportionately represented. When small groups of individuals attempt to collectively arrive at a solution through discussion, great solutions can be uncovered.