Eclectic Change

The Personality Potion

Image via Wikipedia While I was sitting at breakfast this morning, I noticed the book title that my 7 yr old was reading, TreeTops Stage 13 "The Personality Potion" (If you know the scholastic series, you will know that I am boasting because Stage 13 is for 9 to 10 year old.) It was evident to me that here was a blog post if I ever saw one.  So after every one had left for school and work, I sat down to read this delightful book by Alan MacDonald. The story is about a young boy Dann...

Fancy Hands or Fancy Pants? Not sure.

Life is full of chores and too many little things to do .  There is a new service in town that I read about in Fact Company and I am on my second month of giving them a go.  In principle - this is a fantastic concept and service.  Fancy Hands call themselves personal assistants in the clouds and describe themselves as: Every day there are things you need to get done, but they're not necessarily things that you need to do. Just email us and we'll take care of it. Sounds even better than a vir...

What is the opposite of success?

I have only begun to analyze all my data but the answer that is showing up for "What is the opposite of success?" is amazingly consistent.  Apart from a few unique responses a common theme one would expect shows up: Failure.  30% used this word precisely and many others had a similar meaning. What does this tell us? Success is still in many of our minds a goal driven process even though many of the definitions were more about a person's journey than the end result.  I can't help but wonder ho...

What is Success? Success comes from the inside

OK, I admit it.  I have this love  hate relationship with Marshall Goldsmith.  I have written about it before on more professional level and while I would love to write Marshall off for some little insignificant thing he has done or written that irritates me,  he continues to get it right.  (I feel that I can use his first name as we have corresponded)  Clearly, he speaks to my shadow side and I  must have (and I say this begrudgingly) I have something to learn from him. By the way, you can get ...

How do you define success?

It may be the secret to your life if you can answer this question. I have begun some research for my contribution to a new book and I could really use your help.  Success is one of those interesting concepts.  Like beauty it is in the eye of the beholder. It is not so much an end result as a value judgment of who one wants to be.  Therefore it is different for every person. There are four overall objectives, two of which make it quite unique: How do people define success (for themselves ...

Why human motivation and spirit is critical to bottom line results

You may think economics is beyond you. I know I thought that I really understood it but Economics turns out to have been the only subject that I nearly failed in grad school. Why? I still don't have an answer to that question, but this video may help you understand economics in a new light. Robert Shiller is the Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics at Yale University. In this 7 minute video interview from the McKinsey Qurterly, he describes the role played in our economy by “animal spirits,...

Leadership doesn’t show up on a resume

What struck me most about the interview of CEO Richard Anderson was his answer to the first question. Q. What was the most important leadership lesson you learned? A. I’ve learned to be patient and not lose my temper. Patience I have learned over the past five years is my biggest developmental need.  (Such a nice way of putting that I too impatient and easily I loose my temper at my children.) A colleague, CJ got around to blogging about this this interview and it is always interesting t...

Rethinking Retirement: Finding Middle Ground

By Guest Peter Wendel I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what I call ‘Transition’ – a word I use because I don’t like the word (or even the concept of) ‘retirement.’ I realized that I had become locked into a binary mindset. Either a person retired in the traditional sense, leaving work completely, or continued working well past the traditional retirement age. I’ve come to the realization that there is a middle ground between total retirement and working fulltime. (I can hear some ...

Don’t let setbacks stop you and your dreams

I am sure most of us have read stories about all the "failures" that Abraham Lincoln endured before being elected as President of the United States.  A week ago I wrote about having both a strong ego and humility: courage and heart. Here is a short video on Famous Failures - it is a little American and male centric but always good to remind ourselves that failure is an important part of life and growth. Sure all these people are well known today but when they were given negative feedback, it ...

Alternate ways of Personal, Leadership & Executive Development

A lot is being written about Leadership Development these days.  It isn't much different than 20 years ago when I was in charge of putting together a Management Development Program for a Hi Tech company.  I wish I still had a copy of the model we developed because I don't believe the topics have changed much:  change, team building, conflict. . . .  What has changed is how we define those skills and how we might go about achieving the competencies. There will be a place for off site executive...