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A 50/50 Decision
I crossed paths with a friend I hadn’t seen each in five months or so. We caught up on the happens and goings on in each other’s world. He recently left his job of five or so years with a big retail chain to start a business with his roommate.
He was so proud of his move. He had wanted to leave his job for a while and so when he stepped away onto the entrepreneurial path he was so proud, and a little anxious.
I think he’s learning is that working for the man in a big company seems a lot easier than the early days of building a business. Nonetheless, he is feeling invigorated, hopeful and a little scared.
I’m hopeful for him, too, and a little worried. I don’t yet…
Failure Inevitable at Chargers Park
Marty Schottenhemier was fired because of a relationship breakdown. A.J. Smith and Schottenheimer didn’t like each other and they stopped talking.
If it is true that Chargers president, A.J. Smith refused to talk with Schottenheimer about their relationship problems then significant blame belongs at Smith’s door. Of course, we cannot know what really happened. As in any relationship where communication breaks down, the cause is rarely only one person’s doing. Schottenheimer surely contributed to this problem.
Communication is a supporting pillar of all relationships, including managerial ones. Who among us doesn’t know this? Anyone married or in a long term relationship? What happens when you stop talking about the important and difficult stuff? Do those things magically get better? Does the relationship seem stronger or is there just a big lump…
Noisy Story Tellers - STOP IT!
**This is a rather frank, bold entry. Let me know your thoughts after reading it. I’m particularly interested in what ways you see yourself reflected in the experience I wrote about.**
We’re now one month into the new year. Almost 8.5% of the calendar year is behind us. How are you doing on that New Year Resolution?
Have you kept up the good and challenging work of creating the new, effective habits necessary to get better results this year than last? Or are you back to eating cake, talking smack, procrastinating, avoiding learning that critical new skill, playing your same old tunes being the same old partner, coworker or friend?
By this time most people have settled and slipped back into their comfy old-ways. Habits die hard. Last year’s goal-setters and resolution-makers are…
Information Overload = Decision Underload
Jeez! I’ve had it! I am positively and permanently done with feeling overwhelmed by “information.” I get too many emails and too much physical junk mail. I get too many industry publications. I subscribe to too many e-zines and e-newsletters. I surf too many websites.
Now, I can’t control people making requests for my time. I can’t control getting five pieces of direct mail from my insurance company this week alone. I can’t control San Diego Chamber of Commerce members putting me on their company direct mail lists.
I I could feel a bit out of control, given all I can’t control. But, not anymore. I can control the most important thing that governs whether I feel overwhelmed by information overload: Where I invest my attention.
So, to all you wonderful businesspeople…
Lack of Poise Costs Charges Superbowl Hopes
Successful execution of most plays in Sunday’s playoff game against the New England Patriots could not save the Chargers from the underminining effects of poor decisions at crucial moments. Immaturity and poor critical-moment decisions cost San Diego the game, and a big dream.
It is time for the Charger leadership to put an end to the silly and immature, self-centered and aggressive behavior after great plays are made. Those childish in-your-face who’s-yo-mamma antics contributed to the organization’s failure to meet its goals. Are the players on the gradeschool playground or are they professionals responsible for consistent high-level execution in a high-stakes professional sport? Those antics are selfish and individualistic when the welfare of the whole should be a player’s top concern.
A head butt after a great play, unsportsmanlike conduct, and…
Read Less and Do More
I received a monthly book offer for summaries of 32 business books. Each year they promise overviews of 24 of the latest titles plus eight classics. That’s 32 book summaries for the year. They encourage me to listen to them all before deciding what book to buy.
There is some wisdom in their offer. They want me to be an educated book buyer. But the thing is, I already have enough to read. I have unread management classics on my shelf right now. Why do I need the latest and greatest?
One answer might be that the lastest is fashionable and to be relevant in current conversations I have to know what it says. Maybe. To be relevant I need to contribute something that helps the company execute better. That doesn’t have…
Happy Thanksgiving Rituals
The Thanksgiving holiday is steeped in ritual and meaning. We gather family and friends in a single location to remember we are part of a nurturing community. We tell each other stories about what is happening in our lives. Stories are a uniquely human way to communicate. Long before to-do lists there were stories that instructed us where to find food, guided us about community norms and values and warned us of dangers to avoid.
The Thanksgiving dinner is highly ritualistic. Beyond the settlers and Indians story, sharing food is a way of spreading abundance among the people in our inner circles. Feeding each other at the start of the darkest season harkens back to needing nourishment to face certain struggle during the cold and fruitless winter.
We watch games…
God Bless Us Everyone?
Now is the time of year we “give thanks” for all our blessings, right? Even in the office we tell each other stories about how we celebrate Thanksgiving with friends and family. We talk of our favorite foods, favorite football teams, favorite ways to spend an afternoon, our favorite relatives. How pretty it all is.
We feel good about ourselves when we feel thankful for the abundance in our lives. We feel strong when we take time to share that abundance with others. We feel closer to God when we act God-like and warmly embrace the people in our lives we enjoy most and who enrich us. What do we do with the people we dislike and who dislike us?
What has me thinking is how we will express our thanks to…
Falling Behind the Listening Curve
Yesterday our defense secretary was fired because of the election results. Our president said he had heard what people had said by voting out a significant number of republicans and in a significant number of democrats for local, state and federal offices. And since the exit poll research said the primary issue for voters was their dissatisfaction with how the Iraq war was being handled, our president decided to fire the man (almost) at the helm of the program, Donald Rumsfeld.
Then President Bush went on to say he would work to establish good bipartisan relations with the people in the majority party who had supplanted the folks from the now minority party.
Now, this brief analysis is not about politics; it is about listening. It seems to me that what…
Rushing to Judgment
Limbaugh v. Fox
In the past week or so Rush Limbaugh caused a stir by scoffing at Michael J. Fox. Limbaugh said Fox exaggerated his Parkinson’s disease symptoms in the advertisement Fox shot urging support for stem cell research.
Fox went to the news programs to further explain his position. On the program I watched, Limbaugh was invited to be a guest, too. He refused the invitation.
Okay, so these two guys are public figures and we shouldn’t pay too much attention to what they do. And yet, there is something very interesting in how Limbaugh responded to Fox’s advertisement; Limbaugh judged before learning more.
Limbaugh stated his opinions and judged Fox’s behavior before he asked any questions. Do you know anyone in your department who does that, too? Makes statements about what…
