purpose Learn to Work Hard I was having a discussion the other day about a young man that's trying to figure out what to do after graduating high school; is it college? He may not be ready for
thoughts Recognizing Frustrations Recently I realized that frustration is rooted internally. We regularly blame externalities for this feeling but those are just the triggers for our inner challenges. Far too often though, we don’t recognize
thoughts Focus to Rise Leaders rise above context rather than just living in it. The don't contribute to the chaos. It’s not only our job to navigate ourselves and others while in the emotion but to
culture What is Culture? Culture is the intersection of people and values such that it produces behaviors. Sometimes those behaviors are positive and beneficial; other times they are negative and destructive. Ultimately, its these behaviors that shape
thoughts Connection vs Effective In interacting with those around you, look to be connected not just effective. Connection can bridge the rough spots that inevitably will show up. Focusing on being effective means you'll hit those bumps
life Gifted Kids are a Gift Gifted is typically defined as 2 standard deviations above the mean (statistically). That's nerd-speak for "way out there" and often times that shows up when you talk to the kids. I'm
life So busy! In reading this great post by Omid Safi, The Disease of Being Busy a lot resonated with me. Far too often I've answered the question, "How are you doing?" with "
thoughts Stop Trying to be Happy As I've continued my gratitude practice, I've come to realize that more and more of my challenges come from focusing on the wrong things. When we guess at what would make us happy,
culture Great Quote... "Maybe rounds down to a "No" when you're talking about culture. It's far to easy to make excuses than do the hard thing - say No. Especially when it comes
thoughts Why You're Not Wrong...Just Different "I'm a logical person and I arrived at my conclusion because it's right.” "You arrived at a different conclusion; it's because you're wrong.” People start from different places. We all have
culture Experiencing Culture "A persons ability to experience a culture is directly dependent on their up-line's internalization of it. You have to live a culture for it to be alive." If you haven't figure
thoughts Systems Thinking (and a little money thrown in) I just read this article Thinking in Systems and was impressed by both the way that Matt illustrated how systems are adapted, from a gaming perspective, so you KNOW that's dear to my
trust Missing a Deadline Missed deadlines is a failure of leadership and not solely of execution. Many don’t want the responsibility of that statement but then, why are you in leadership? It’s our job to
improving My Company is Weird It's Thursday - that means my kids are with me and I was picking them up from school but it wasn't just any Thursday, it's Thirsty Thursday. That's the one day a month
life Deliberate Acts of Kindness There always seem to be calls for people to exercise "random acts of kindness" and while I appreciate the heart that they're speaking to, I prefer more deliberate ones. Being kind
thoughts Programmed to See the Lack A math professor walks into class one morning and starts the day by writing a 2 column chart on the board. He numbers them 1 to 10 in the top row and then
Who are Leaders Alright, so you don't have the role. You don't have letters after your name. You don't even have "Senior" in front of your title. How can I possibly be a leader?
leadership Compassion In Leadership "[leaders] may entangle themselves in the complications of their own assumed competence and use their specialism as an excuse to avoid the much more difficult task of being compassionate." -- Henri
Letting Go Hi, my name is David and I'm a geek. Have been all my life really and it was something that I took identity from (especially once I got past the stage were it
leadership Drucker quote Only three things happen naturally in organizations: friction, confusion, and underperformance. Everything else requires leadership.
thoughts Screw Finding Your Passion Ran across this post and had to share especially given the alignment with "So Good They Can't Ignore You" (a book I'd rank in my top 5 of all time) Screw
thoughts Quotes Here's a couple of interesting quotes I've run across recently: "Trust is a peculiar resource; it is built rather than depleted by use." -- Unknown This makes me think of working
thoughts Life is a Mix Life is a story. It’s not a set of facts or a compilation of data but a complicated interplay of the small and the large. Sure, those the facts and stuff are
leadership Leadership Starts with Me Managers are limited by cognitive load. Because stuff can't think, they must and their capacity to do so for the multitude of things is the bottleneck to what can get done. When we
speaking Discussing The War for Talent at YES CEO Symposium I'm very excited to be participating in the upcoming panel on "The War for Talent" on Thursday, March 30th, 2017 and will be discussing how we, at Improving, compete in this