Stuck between mediocrity and excellence

Does the work that you do align to your personal values?  Does the work that your company purports to do align with it's "stated" organizational values?  When we interview or apply to jobs, we look at the job description, see if our resume matches it, and then if the compensation seems right - we go for it.  But how many of us have asked a company leader or interviewer what the organization's values are?  The reason that we don't ask is because it's a touchy-feely type of question.  You are bound to be seen as one sandwich short of a picnic if you start asking a lot of business book, "that's academic BS", "quit watching TED Talks," questions.  Here's the thing. A well-run company not only has documented values, it's culture exemplifies each and every one of those values.  In her book Daring Greatly , Brene Brown says that there are "aspirational values" that describe the elusive list of values that resi...

It's that time of year where everyone sees January 1st as the day for a new start.  We make resolutions. We create vision boards. We set goals.  My local LA Fitness becomes busier than usual. A lot of money is spent signing up for things to start.  I'm guilty of it just like the next person.  The pain of doing an intense training program to get ripped was greater than the money that I lost paying for 10 sessions. Some people call that lazy. I also call it lazy. I'll go ahead and own it.  For 2014, let try something different. Taking a page from Trevor G. Blake in Three Simple Steps : A Map to Success in Business and in Life-  instead of writing goals, write down your intentions.  An intention is a goal with all doubt about its attainment removed. Baby steps are not needed because there is no doubt about getting what we desire.  He goes on to say,  With goals we push energy toward the object. With intentions, we pull or attr...

In Boundaries for Leaders  by Dr. Henry Cloud, he says,    "In the end, as a leader, you are always going to get a combination of two things: what you create and what you allow." The premise is that when you are " ridiculously in charge," you have the capacity to set boundaries on what you allow.  In other words, there are things that you can control and things that you can't. Focus on the things that you can control.  It's natural as human beings to worry about things outside of our control. These include but are not limited to: Other people's decisions Bureaucracy enabled by processes and systems How people will react to certain messages Did I say other people's decisions?  When you worry about things outside of your control, you lose sight and spend less time on the things that you can control.  It's also human nature to want to live in a state of certainty - and that means having a sense of control.  Imagine wh...

1990's PowerPoint Clip Art Great ideas are a dime a dozen. Or, in this economy, at least a penny per dozen.  What's amazing to me is that you can tell friends, colleagues, and perfect strangers your great idea - and within seconds you'll get a reaction as to just how good your idea really is.  I'm sure a lot of it depends on the pitch, but if you can get the concept of your idea into a couple of intelligible sentences - it's pretty easy to observe the other person's immediate reaction to what you are pitching. But turning the pitch into profit is what separates the real entrepreneurs from the "want"trapreneurs.  Getting a good idea to become something tangible requires a number of things: A little bit of luck (or a lot) The right people to support it An audience that demands it  Determination of the person or people who thought of it Belief and faith the the idea really is that good Unfortunately for every 10 people that like you...

The day to day grind will consume your life. An organization will take just as much from you as much as you give to it -- and it still won't be enough. When I worked at a big Firm, I could literally work 20+ hours a day doing something for the Firm. It wasn't because I was asked to do it. It was the nature of working in an environment where you were trying to get ahead and move to Partner as quickly as possible.  When I got off the road, it was both a blessing and a curse. No more emails on weekends -- much less after 5 pm during a week day.  No more nagging open loops.  I got back a precious commodity - time.  It's amazing how self-aware you become when you have time. As a good friend of mine said, " You just have time to think. "  For me, reading one business book a week turned into three or four a week.  Podcasts started to eat up my data plan.  The volume of my posts has picked up considerably -- so much so that I think I have eno...

Every job has its highs and lows.  Some days are better than others and you do your job because it's what you are paid to do-- generally speaking. I would venture to say that the majority of people are doing jobs where they've given into acceptance rather than chosen it as a career.  That's evident in statistics that you hear about employees that are not just disengaged from work, but actively disengaged. 1 out of 10 of us are not engaged in what we do.  Unfortunately, many organizations feel like it's not their place to make work engaging or meaningful. The onus is on the employee. And there is advice out there where you need to see the glass as half full, make lemons out of lemonade, follow a lot of Peter Drucker / Dale Carnegie self-help advice in order to become a good corporate citizen and move up the corporate ladder.  The reality is that you may just be in the wrong job. Here are 7 signs that you are: It gets harder each day to wake up in th...

There are two books that are must reads if you are thinking about an approach or philosophy to starting, operating, conducting-- and just being in   business.  One book that you'll read 2 or 3 times is Conscious Business  by Fred Kofman. You'll want to read this many times and highlight most of it.  The other book that I am currently reading is Conscious Capitalism by John Mackey with Raj Sisodia. John Mackey is the Co-CEO of Whole Foods Market. He has a great interview  on his philosophy of conducting business if reading involves time that you cannot afford to spare. (The link contains ~21 min. audio) If you believe that business is about profit maximization, then these books aren't for you-- or maybe they really are. If you are steadfast in your point of view (as taught and learned through many B-schools), then it's going to be a tough sell for these books to change your opinion.  There will always be a school of thought and students of that sch...