The Paradox of COVID-19
It’s been said that what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. While that’s easy to say, it’s a perspective that only works well outside of the moment—the present tense. Given the world response to the COVID-19 outbreak, we face another paradox that we feel warrants discussion.
The High Impact and Low Cost of Recognition
Human beings are hard-wired to crave recognition. When we know that others are seeing us in a positive light, our brains release a few chemicals into our systems that makes us feel good both physically and emotionally. This feeling encourages us to engage or move towards the source that triggered it. In short, we move closer because we want more of that feeling.
Living Your Ideal Life
In business and life, we sometimes lose sight of why we do the things we do. In our hamster-wheel efforts to complete our endless to-do lists, it’s easy to become lost in the details of what occupies our time, our energy and financial resources. Most of us rarely stop and ask ourselves the simple question, “why?” In this environment, we lose sight of the reality that our businesses, though important and profoundly personal, are really just a means to an end, not the end itself. We forget to ask ourselves why doing what we do day-in and day-out is important.
8 Cash Flow Drivers, Modest Improvements and a Big Win
In a quarterly planning session 6 months ago, the team I was working with expressed great frustration with the inconsistency of their profit and cash flow. In some quarters, they did very well, while in others they barely broke even. In no recent period, however, did they generate as much profit and cash as they thought they should.
By the Time You Ask, “Did We Win?” It’s Too Late to Change the Score
Of the various definitions of “win” that you can find in a dictionary, the one I like best for business (and life) is:
Are You On a Path to Your Stanley Cup?
For many people, the first signs of warm weather represent the beginning of summer. Not for me. In my world, summer only begins in the middle of June, when some scruffy, bruised and battered hockey team in some fortunate city trots the Stanley Cup out to center ice and hands it to their scruffy, bruised and battered captain.