Stuck between mediocrity and excellence

My wife brought up a good point last week. She said that the reason nobody reads my posts is that the posts really only pertain to me and my problems.  Shut the front door! She is absolutely right. So from this point forward, I am going attempt to write about topics that 3 or 4 others may be interested in. That will double my readership.  The other day, I referenced Level 5 Leadership in a survey and quickly realized that nobody else that reads as much of that material as I do, would understand what I mean. Jim Collins, in his book, Good to Great defines Level 5 Leaders as ones that  "blend extreme personal humility with intense professional will." John Maxwell describes Level 5 leadership as a leader "who people follow because of who they are and what they represent."  There are a plethora of books on leadership and a number of executive coaches that teach leadership and I figure that I would throw my 2 cents into the mix. Over the past week or two, I n...

One of these things is not like the others, One of these things just doesn't belong, Can you tell which thing is not like the others By the time I finish my song? I read that the definition of culture is an environment where there is a shared and common set of norms and beliefs. I also think that a culture shares a common set of values and a well-defined purpose. In a big firm environment, the culture is driven by competitive people that collaborate with each other to better themselves and their clients. As much as consultants are self-motivated and driven, ultimately, if they didn't think there was a payoff at the end, no one would drive themselves the way that they do. In other words, the carrot was big enough and the 'perception' of the stick was big enough to drive the motivation. The reason that I say perception is that as many times as I didn't do things as planned in a big firm environment, I was still able to survive with better than average performance ...

Every now and then I will get an email from my client that takes passive aggressiveness to a whole different level.  If there was a Master Black Belt in passive aggressiveness, my client would be a sensei.  In my younger years, I would have fired an email right back that would have probably gotten me in trouble. (Not that posting to a blog is any different- if not worse).  Today, now that I'm older, I feel a sense of inner rage, start an email, and then delete the draft. With technology today, it's so easy to blast a text message, a tweet, [a blog post], an email, a Facebook post, etc... and out it goes into the inter-web. I remember the good old days where I would take the time to hand write a letter and make the effort to get a stamp and mail it. That's when you know you are pissed because of the shear time it took to get your anger on paper and into the postal system. But I digress.  I'm lucky in the fact that my parents are Buddhists. The only issue...

I've read that Google has something called 20% time. What this means is that you get to spend 20% of your time doing whatever you want -- as long as it is in the interests of the company. Gmail was one of those things that originated as a part of 20% time. Think about it.  Imagine if you could spend 1 day out of your week working on whatever you want. For me, it would be leadership development. For some odd reason, I have this fascination with personal and professional development, leadership, management, mentoring, and productivity.  I can read book after book on it in the hopes of one day providing that kind of service to help others. In my spare time, I am a beta "mentor" for Modern Guild  and I attempt to pass on sound advice to undergraduate students that definitely have more going for them than I did when I graduated from college.  Unfortunately for me, I'm on what I call 99.9% time. 99.9% of the time I spend doing things that probably make sense for everyon...

If there is one thing that I've noticed since I've been off of the road, it's that I have much more time on my hands. In the past, I used to get up when it was dark outside with hardly any Atlanta traffic. I'd make my way to the airport, get through security, and time it so that I spent very little time at the gate. I'd save my Starbucks fix until I landed at my destination. But I would occasionally grab an Economist, HBR, or Inc. to read on the plane. Quite honestly, the reading wouldn't last very long because sleeping became more of a priority.  Today, I wake up later -- it's light outside. I wake up with my son and take him downstairs to watch PBS while I get him breakfast. We hang out a bit and instead of catching winks in the window seat of a plane, I do it on the couch while my son watches Curious George. I then get ready and head out the door to work along with a million other Atlanta residents on the highway. There is no expense account for Starbuck...

Marcus Buckingham says that you look at your career or job through 3 lenses: Why is this important to me?  Who am I going to be working with? What am I going to be doing?  Over time, the 'what' goes wrong and when the what goes wrong, everything gets tainted.  I absolutely think this is true in many cases. For me, I actually liked what I did working at a large consulting firm. But in my case, the 'why' changed. The chance to be home to watch my son grow up and really influence his life far outweighed both the 'who' and the what. In other words, it was an emotional decision. Now that I've had some time to settle in, I've assessed happiness with my current situation based on two criteria: Do I feel as though I am adding value to my clients and to the company? Do I feel as though I am valued by my company and my clients? Adding value- For many people, it can be very easy to get into the trap of working 8 to 5 and collecting that paycheck eve...

Adding on to my last post, I read an article on the 10 behaviors of the hyper-successful. This one is even better. Here is where I rank: The less stuff they carry:  I go to work with 2 laptops, a journal, and a bag to carry my power cords in. On top of that, I have a couple reference books on my topic of the day and project management. Just like last time, strike 1. The fewer calls answered or return: Winner! I don't answer or return calls. But that's mainly because I don't like talking on the phone or it's usually some marketing person trying to get me to buy something. I don't think this is what the author meant. The harder they are to reach by anyone or any means: Not so much. People can easily find me. This is easily a gigantic gap. The less time they spend at a computer: As much as I stare at my computer all day. This is definitely not one that I can check off. But if I look at #3 and add #4, this would mean that a hyper-successful person is either dea...