So, why don’t we choose stand out? (Part II of a series on being distinct) If you’ve built a business, you want to have a unique competitive advantage that others can’t copy easily. For any individual, you want to be clear what ideas you are fighting for…or perhaps discovered your superpower. Distinction being the thing [...]
Format Archives: Aside
No Pause, No Processing
Everything important happens in the pause. Understand that the pause is the between space where an idea is shared, and that idea is understood. I just finished doing 6 weeks of speaking – my first-ever “high season” of doing a bunch of paid keynote speeches back-to-back. At these many venues, I watched the other speakers: [...]
Are You Standing Out Today?
People buy two categories of things. The distinct. And the generic. The distinct items are the things that have a limited commodity, that are artisan in nature, that are worth paying a premium for. They stand out for some reason. The generic items are, well, the things you find on Amazon. If I start to [...]
No. Thank You.
Remember when I shared the reasons why I write, in a post entitled “why am I doing this?”. Through that exchange, you – the active participants – helped to crisp and name the direction of the blog. This gave it form, a tent pole of sorts to shape the work within. This was an incredible [...]
What Ideas Are You Fighting For?
Leadership always operates at two levels. There is the immediate and perhaps even pragmatic stuff of leadership – who is in charge, what responsibilities do they own, what defines the shape of their arena. We spend a lot of time paying attention to this stuff, in all domains – work, economies, and especially now during [...]
Courage Does Not Roar
Today, I was in a room full of remarkable people, making a list of what qualities make someone remarkable. The predictable elements were listed: Hard-working Resourceful Creative Intelligent/ Smart Organized… After 15 or so elements were listed on the post-it board… courageous was added to the list. When you are courageous (or fearless, bold – [...]
8 Dangers of Collaboration
Most of what is written about collaboration is positive. Even hip. Collaboration is championed enthusiastically by the Enterprise 2.0 experts, as well as leading thinkers like Don Tapscott as the crucial approach for the 21st century. Collaboration creates once-elusive “buy-in, or “empowerment”, improves problem solving, increases creativity, is key to innovation at companies like Legos, [...]
Feedback
Veins popping. Breathing shallow. Challenges ahead. Lots of opposition. No easy paths to score. You so want to win. But nothing is breaking your way. If this were a game, you would know there’s a time to regroup coming soon. At half-time, you’ll have some breathing room, get a little respite, your coach will possibly [...]
Gratefulness Amplifies Creativity
We’re ambitious. We strive. We grow. We achieve. We do. We hustle. We push forward. We fail. We learn. We don’t give up. We build. We create. We innovate. There is goodness in all of these things. No doubt. This is the path of progress. We live in a culture with far, far too much [...]
To Be Grateful
It seems that no matter where we get in life, we’re always chasing something else, something more. We’re constantly trying to answer the question “What will make me happier?” The person who has no job wishes to have one. The person who has a job wishes to have a better title, better status. The person [...]