A few years ago, I read Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. It’s an excellent book about end-of-life issues and I highly recommend it, but the idea that most stuck with me is summarized in this quote: “We want autonomy for ourselves and safety for those we love. That remains the main problem and paradox for…
The university’s President took the podium at my college graduation and said one sentence that has stuck in my brain ever since. But first, let me give you some context. I had a great time at college. Sure, I worked hard, but I also had fun! I was involved with a fraternity, a campus christian…
My chosen form of regular exercise is swimming, and most weeks you’ll find me in the pool 2 – 3 mornings. This last week I was doing my regular swim when I noticed the water in the pool was very cloudy. How cloudy? The line on the bottom of the pool that tells me that…
Our local AYSO soccer league designates one game each season as Silent Saturday, where they ask the parents and the coaches not to shout at the players during the game. No instructions about what play to run. No encouragement when they excel or coaching when we perceive that they fail. For that one Saturday, the…
I was at a holiday party last month, and it was full of agency owners. As I walked through the crowd, I must have heard this snippet of conversation a dozen times. “How are you?” “Oh, I’m so busy, just slammed. It’s really overwhelming…” Each time I heard it, I got more disturbed. Why do…
Would you be willing to take 30 seconds to do a little experiment with me? Think back to a time in the last few weeks when you were in top form. Everything was clicking, you were at your best, and you could feel it. Do you have an example in mind? What did that moment…
A few weeks ago, I talked about how “being with what is” is a leadership superpower, so when I heard this Byron Katie quote this week, it hit me hard! “When you argue with reality, you lose, but only 100% of the time.” ~ Byron Katie Right away, some examples came to mind: That was such…
When I ask my clients, “Why are you working on vacation?” They tell me that they feel guilty if they don’t. Their staff is hard at work, they don’t want to let clients down, and there’s just so much to do I have to keep going. I’ll let you in on a little secret…your team…
One of the keys to maintaining momentum when progress is slow is having people who are ready and willing to cheer for you. Celebrating small wins doesn’t come naturally for most founder-types, and we need folks who will cheer with us. When I first started my business I realized I needed someone who would cheer…
Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about how clarifying your role frees you up to be bored on Friday at 4 PM! The whole point of this exercise is that we want to do our job and only our job so that on Saturday, we don’t need to be doing the billing,…