I stopped by the grocery store and as I was parking my motorcycle in the parking lot, some slouchy rider pulls his bike onto the sidewalk near the entrance to park. What’s that about? Maybe he wants the attention. Maybe he’s lazy. Almost certainly he’s self-absorbed. Why does everybody need to walk around his vehicle while…
Improvement without change? It doesn’t happen. Not all change is an improvement, but all improvement requires change. I’ve been involved in an effort to improve some significant processes within an organization. Most everyone want to improve the processes; few are willing to actually change them. Recently someone threw up the old “change for the sake…
Our family just returned from a trip to Mexico where we’ve visited many times before. This time we stayed at the Princess Resort near Playa del Carmen. Our experience was extremely disappointing despite the beauty of this new hotel. As Darla and I reflected on our disappointments, we realized that probably 80% of the problems…
My friend John Maxwell has another excellent book just out called Leadership Gold. In it he contradicts a popular leadership myth: if it is lonely at the top, you’re not doing it right. Effective leaders should be surrounding themselves with good people and building strong relationships. While there are decisions that ultimately the leader must…
I was reminded of that recently. Sometimes despite your best preparation stuff happens. Life, as we are all too often reminded, isn’t completely within our control. When bad and unexpected stuff happens, the mark of a professional is his or her ability to recover; or to use an overused metaphor, make lemonade out of the…
With all the gloom and doom we’re surrounded with these days, this video clip from Harley Davidson should provide you a little encouragment: Screw it, let’s ride.
Sanborn Associates here posting an interesting mention on “Uncle” Mark made by Mike St. Pierre writing at LifeHack.org: Mike had some fun with the whole family tree paradigm and created a family tree consisting of the top productivity bloggers on the internet (according to his criteria). This is what he says about Mark: The Rich…
James Cagney never said “You dirty rat” in any of his films. Nor did Humphrey Bogart say “Play it again, Sam” in the movie Casablanca. The Caesar salad isn’t named after Julius Caesar. It was named for its creator, Caesar Gardini who first prepared it in his restaurant in Mexico. The cashew isn’t technically a…
If you are truly leading, you are truly learning. If you aren’t learning much, you aren’t leading very effectively. I am working on an article for a friend’s ebook. The focus will be on “what I wish I had known about leadership at the beginning.” Here’s an insight learned over many years of leading: “How…
That is the focus of The Journal Report in today’s WSJ. The section provides some interesting insights into the dollars and cents of ethical behavior. Such questions, however, miss the point: if ethical behavior didn’t pay, should it be abandoned? What’s the alternative? I know business professionals are interested in the implications of ethical behavior,…