In the book – Leadership is Language by L. David Marquet, he references the difference between doing and thinking and the influence it has on results and outcomes. He separates the two into blue work and red work. Blue work being that of the thinking side of the equation and red work being that action or doing part of the effort. He separates these to bring a clear contrast to how leaders influence positively or negatively the outcomes of a situation. A good read for sure.
Not too long ago I had reached into the bottom drawer to grab a pair of work jeans as I was about to head out to the yard for a day of “To-do” list chores. We have all been there wanting to get a head start on the weekend by getting those chores out of the way allowing for the rest of the time to enjoy with family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. The challenge this morning was that upon putting the pants on, something was not right. No, it was not that they were too tight for me to button and zip closed. It was just the opposite. They were almost so large that they would have needed suspenders to hold them up even with a belt.
We are starting into the 10th month of 2021. The first three quarters of the calendar year are complete. 3 more months exist to realize the goals and objectives you set out to achieve at the beginning of the year. There is no question that 2021 has had its share of odd business dealings. The lag or should I say drag on the business marketplace still exists. Business leaders are continuing to figure out ways to take care of customers while trying to engage employees to be part of their team.
You may have heard of the book – The Richest Man in Babylon. The book was written in 1926 by George S. Clason and uses parables from 4000 years ago to provide insights into financial matters. The wisdom comes not from the book but from the application of the principles to our daily lives, both our individual lives as well as our business affairs.
When we interact with various business owners, there is inevitably a time in a conversation where the topic of what is keeping the owner up at night comes into play. We try to get this on the table early in a relationship because not dealing with it is always a distraction to progress moving forward. The answers are all over the place depending on what was just the most recent problem of the day or week.
What is holding your business back from reaching its next levelRead More »
Preferences are a pretty strong influence in our lives and in our businesses. Just think about all the events, decisions and outcomes which have taken place just since you woke up this morning and how many of them were influenced by your preferences? Shower before you shave. Putting the dog out before eating breakfast. Black coffee verses tea vs milk etc. These are just a few examples of the things which you have a preference in doing in a particular order. They morph into a routine so you may not even see them as preferences. At some point in the past, you made a choice. You were pleased with the results, so you stuck with it. You took your preference and blended it into a routine.
Running your business by principles vs preferencesRead More »
The college fall football season is upon us. The teams have been preparing for months. Not just the football players but also the marching bands, pep bands, cheer squads, the campus audio/visuals teams and more. It is a bunch of teams which make the fall football season so pumped up with energy.
This coming Monday is the traditional end of summer – Labor Day – and the return to business activity. Although summer does not officially end until Sep 21/22 our minds have a defined shift from vacation mode into last focus on business efforts on ending 2021 with the best possible results. As we transition from one mode of operations to the next, let us pause and reflect on the most recent efforts of the past 90 days.
Labor Day – The transition point to end of year resultsRead More »
Each of us has our own special way we tackle getting the various projects, tasks and general workload accomplished. This unique way we prioritize and balance what is top of the list shapes our resulting outcomes for the day, week, month and even longer-term goals and objectives.
In prior communications we have touched on the topics of Purpose, Vision, Core Values, and other foundational aspects as bedrock elements for the growth and stable success of your business and your leadership. As we guide leaders in the process of establishing these frameworks, we find that the exercise may have been done in the past, but the use and weaving them into the culture is weak if not absent.