“Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them.” — Winston Churchill Leadership isn’t just inspiration, it is also the ability to get things done. We’ve met many leaders, young and old, who have wonderful ideas (they can see the mountain tops), but they have no idea how to turn those ideas into reality (walking through the valley). When we work with leaders, we are always asking them to keep an eye on the mountaintops that will inspire their teams but to…
Leadership requires disturbing people— but at a rate they can absorb. — Ronald Heifetz and Martin Linsky Leadership on the Line Everywhere you look these days there is an article about “disruptive” leadership, “disruptive” governance, “disruptive” innovation, etc. In 2002, Ron Heifetz and Martin Linsky spoke about this in Leadership on the Line. This quote spoke to us deeply because it says a lot about the importance of challenging limiting beliefs and behaviors in order to foster growth and innovation.…
“Between stimulus and response, there is space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” — Viktor Frankl Many of you who know our work know of our passion for the Fundamental Pause. We call it the Fundamental Pause because it is indeed a business fundamental. In the world of work, the ability to interrupt our typical reactions so that we can respond is profoundly powerful. But as Frankl…
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” — Mark Twain Over the past several years, there has been a shift from people retiring from work at 62, to people stepping into their next careers in their 60s, 70s, and even their 80s. While many people are choosing a new career at this age in life, we know that some people must work to…
“If your actions inspire others to dream more,learn more, do more and become more,you are a leader.” — John Quincy Adams We recently had a conversation with some young adults who we know through our young adult children. They are amazing young people with great passion and integrity. In our conversation, several of them talked about their belief that leadership is a role and that the people who pursue that role are power-hungry and self-absorbed. Since we had just…
“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” — Will Rogers This quote by Will Rogers is both humorous and wise. It is important, in our lives and in our work, to have a vision for our futures. For many people, when they finally create a compelling vision for the future, they are excited about being on the right track. They have a sense of where they want to go and the…
CREATIVITY, like life, IS EMERGENT. — AHA! (aha-writers.com) A few weeks ago we encouraged you to shift from an attitude of certainty to an attitude of curiosity in order to increase your creativity and innovation. You responded with some wonderful insights about the ways that small shift in perspective had opened your eyes. And then, when we were at the offices of AHA!*, an amazing creative agency that we have worked with for the past couple of years, Betsy Henning,…
Everywhere you look there are articles and books about becoming more creative, expanding your organization’s culture to become more innovative, and leading change rather than reacting to it. We’re all for greater creativity and innovation. Unfortunately, the current approach of many individuals and organizations leaves them disappointed and in a state of constant reactivity. Often, leaders treat creativity and innovation like they are either a box to check on a to-do list or something to do once a year at…
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill This quote by Winston Churchill speaks to us as way of being in the world that we find distinguishes great leaders. As executive coaches, we have the privilege of working with many great leaders, leaders who have experienced huge successes and great failures. In fact, they often come to work with us on the heels of those successes and failures…
The past two weeks we have been talking about Jim Carrey’s commencement speech at Maharishi University of Management. During that speech, he made two statements that spoke to us and clearly to many of you (based on your notes to us): You can fail at what you don’t want to do so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love. AND The effect you have on others is the most valuable currency there…