“Intensity is the price of excellence” – Warren Buffett

What an interesting word – Intensity.  For some, the word implies a measure of obsession.  For others, it suggests hard work and effort.  But the truth lies somewhere in the middle, and the nuances are important to understand. 

I’ve been accused of being an intense person more than once in my life.  Maybe it’s how I’m wired, but I’ve always believed in doing things with energy, focus, and purpose.  Otherwise, why bother.  Yes, there are times in life when we must do things we really don’t like, but only going through the motions takes longer than doing it focus and effort.  And so I tend to bring intensity in most everything I do.

Now to be fair, that’s not always a good thing.  Take for example my golf game.  To be blunt, I stink!  After years and years of playing I’m still carrying an 18 handicap.  And I know exactly why.  I can’t seem to approach the game with anything less than full intensity.  Every swing is over analyzed – my stance, my swing plane, my hands, even my follow through. And instead of letting my muscle memory take over, I end up in the woods or the lake instead of the fairway.  What’s worse, I can’t seem to shake the frustration from the last swing which generally makes the next even worse. Continue reading →

“The great paradox of the 21st century is that, in this age of powerful technology, the biggest problems we face internationally are problems of the human soul.” – Ralph Peters

“Keeping in touch is as easy as the click of a Facebook like, a LinkedIn congrats, or an email forward. But the more ways we find to keep in touch, the greater the challenge to keep those interactions honest.” – Ximena Vengoechea

I’ve been thinking a lot these days about both the benefits and obstacles created by technology when it comes to building/maintaining relationships – both in our business and personal lives.  On the one hand, technology has brought tremendous benefits.  On the other, I wonder if our reliance on these tools has created a façade that prevents us from truly knowing each other.  And from a leadership perspective, that can be a huge challenge.

For example, the invention of Facebook (and similar apps like Instagram) has given us the ability to reconnect with long lost friends, keep up with new developments through pictures and posts, and create conversations through our “Likes” and “Comments”.  While I’m not a chronic Facebook user, I will take time on a Saturday or Sunday morning to surf through posts for hours catching up on the lives and events of my friends.  And yes I admit I’ll load a few pictures from vacation or post a few personal updates now and then.    Continue reading →

“Giant timber bamboo can grow 90 feet in 60 days – that’s a foot and a half a day!  Some claim that you can hear it grow…What’s even more amazing…is that once it’s planted, it takes a least three years to break through the ground.” – Greg Bell – excerpts from his book Water the Bamboo

Recently my leadership team and I met to update, challenge, refine, and if necessary, revise our long term strategic plan for 2016. A precursor to the annual budgeting process, the strategic plan is meant to set the long term objectives for the company, map a path backwards toward those objectives, and define the interim priorities that will be necessary to achieve that plan.  We call it our Three Year Strategic Plan, or TYSP, and it’s what feeds our Strategic Execution Framework (SEF), our Plan to Win, and our annual budget process. 

To be fair, we as a leadership team don’t wait for some annual “alarm” to indicate time for our strategic plan review.  In fact, we revisit and discuss our strategy on at least a quarterly basis (if not monthly), and we review our progress on a weekly basis.  Committing to a strategy and executing against it is hard work and it takes persistence and diligence to reach your objectives.  Continue reading →

“The victim mindset dilutes the human potential. By not accepting personal responsibility for our circumstances, we greatly reduce our power to change them.” – Steve Maraboli

This week’s message will feel a little more ‘biting’ than usual, but it’s not meant to be an indictment of any one person, team, or group.  For some reason lately the topic of ‘personal accountability’ has been top of mind for me lately.  It is a growing trend I feel taking place in our society in general.  Sometimes it seems as if we (the generic “we”) are much quicker to point the finger at others, while unwilling to point the mirror back on ourselves. 

“Governments are to blame!”  “No, it’s our political parties.”  “Wait, let’s blame those greedy corporations!”  “Or maybe we should just blame the rich?”  See what I mean?  And I haven’t even scratched the surface on this.  Continue reading →

“There are plenty of difficult obstacles in your path. Don’t allow yourself to become one of them.” – Ralph Marston

A few weeks ago I found myself in a deep conversation with one of my fellow colleagues on the topic of leadership.  Those of you who know me also know this is one of my favorite topics.  But this time the topic wasn’t about how to be a better leader, or balancing work-life, or even how to motivate a team.  Rather, this time we were talking about why people fail – and in particular, why leaders, teams, and even individuals seem to continue in behavior that ultimately results in the wrong outcome.

“Perhaps it’s because they weren’t properly trained”, they postulated.  “You can’t expect them to do the right things if they’ve never been taught what’s right”.  Then the theory of work ethic and motivation came up.  I’ve been harping on this very subject for months now, so there is no surprise it was top of mind.  And then finally it hit us – more than any of these other things, the single biggest reason people fail tends to be that they can’t get out of their own way! Continue reading →

“Sometimes we make the process more complicated than we need to. We will never make a journey of a thousand miles by fretting about how long it will take or how hard it will be. We make the journey by taking each day step-by-step and then repeating it again and again until we reach our destination.” – Joseph B. Wirthlin

“But you can build a future out of anything. A scrap, a flicker. The desire to go forward, slowly, one foot at a time. You can build an airy city out of ruins.”  – Lauren Oliver, Pandemonium

As I write this leadership message I am sitting in my backyard beside the crackling fire pit, watching the flames and smoke snake into the sky. There’s a wonderful feeling of comfort and warmth stoked by the sweet smell of pine, oak and cedar. It’s easy to see why one of the things I love most about winter is the opportunity to build a fire.  Continue reading →